Website reveals benefits of physical exercise on mental health

This text was written by a TecMundo columnist; Learn more at the end.

When we exercise for several months, we traditionally notice certain benefits, such as sleeping better, becoming stronger and more resilient. What about mental health?

The most immediate results of physical exercise can be seen on mental health, such as improved mood and well-being. These are the effects of an exercise session of just a few minutes, such as a workout at the gym or walking/running outside.. Learn more about relevant research and discover a tool to bring these benefits to life.

Brendon Stubbs, one of the most prominent researchers in the world studying this relationship, said this when asked what the minimum duration of exercise is to achieve an increase in mental health: 15 minutes and 9 seconds.

This was the minimum time required for practitioners to feel the benefits of exercise on mental health, in a survey of more than 1,000 people. He, together with Asics, a sporting goods brand, created a tool called “Mind Uplifter”, which allows the athlete himself to control the effects of exercise on the mind.

Mind Uplifter – website recognizing the mental health benefits of exercise

Exercisers or athletes answer questions on a website about how they feel before and after exercise. These are emotional and cognitive aspects, such as how confident, calm, and energetic we feel. Facial expressions can also be read using a mobile phone camera. After you choose your exercise or sport type and finish the workout timer, you evaluate your effort and answer the questions again.

The tool gives a score out of 100; a higher number means a better outcome, i.e. a better increase in mental health. It also calculates the overall percentage improvement in mental health by taking into account the person’s pre-training state. You can participate, just access this link and respond before and after your training. Try!

What I have noticed in practice is that we often fail to notice these effects because, as author Johann Hari puts it, the focus of our attention is stolen. The newest book to address this topic: Stolen Focus.

Pay attention to one thing in the gym: It’s surprising how much we don’t get bored of even 45 seconds, which is a reasonable minimum interval for rest in weight training, because between sets we already pick up our mobile phones to entertain other people’s lives on social media. media.

But it comes at a price Preventing the perception of the most immediate benefits of exercise, such as pleasure and well-being during and after exercise. It is benefits like these that concern our future education.

Exercise and mood

25 minutes of exercise on the treadmill was able to improve mood both continuously (at the same pace) and intermittently (with differences in intensity). Exercise seems like a good idea if you want to feel energetic. Another intriguing study showed that climbing stairs stimulated the perception of energy in sleep-deprived women more than a dose of caffeine.

Exercise is one of the most effective behavioral techniques for regulating your own mood; because exercise alleviates negative moods and improves positive moods; The effects appear immediately after training, but also after 24 hours.

The type of exercise that best suits our mood remains to be seen, but it turns out that we need to find the exercise experience enjoyable to improve how we feel.

Exercise can be used as an acute mood enhancer. An increase in your mood. This is what exercise can do for you: vitality, energy, competence, pleasure and well-being. Have you ever considered that you could be 20 or 30 minutes away from feeling much better? It’s an immediate effect that can motivate us to get off the couch and get moving. Exercise is the most transformative thing you can do for your brain!

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Fábio Dominski He holds a PhD in Human Movement Sciences and a degree in Physical Education from Santa Catarina State University (UDESC). He is a university professor and researcher at the Laboratory of Sport and Exercise Psychology (LAPE/UDESC). he is doing scientific dissemination on social media there podcast available on Spotify. Author of Physical Exercise and Science – Facts and Myths.