It’s been established since… forever that exercise is a necessary component for promoting health and wellbeing. By exercising on a regular basis you can improve the bodies physiological functions whether it is a more efficient cardiovascular system or general improvement in once strength. Often we consider exercise as a form duty or an unpleasant task that must be accepted to reach that weight loss, slimed belly or a better self-esteem. What we often forget or not even necessary notice is the matter of the mind. The everyday struggles and insecurities drown us with information so that neglection of the mind start to appear. I’ve dedicated this short blog post to move the spotlight away from the raw physical appearance of the body, to the more subtle body-exercise and mind connection so that we can appreciate exercise holistic effect on our inner being.
I. Exercise improves the ability to learn
There are some core concepts that need explaining and for now, I will explain it in broad terms without the technicalities. When we talk about brain neurons being ”connected ” it’s a matter of speech they aren’t actually physically connected, the axon and the dendrite never actually touches. Instead, neurotransmitters are the ”messenger”. Approx 80 % of the signaling in the brain is done by two neurotransmitters; glutamate and gamma aminobutyric acid(GABA). In essence, learning is about strengthening the affinity between neurons, for example, to learn words, neurons will be recruited and add a new circuit this is done by fire up neurotransmitters. To repeat that process where you keep reusing the new word will cause the synapses to swell and make a stronger connection. Same is true about not using the the word anymore, that will lead to weak connection, diminishing the signal and alas you forget the word. The body-mind connection is that there is this molecule called BDNF which work as a ”fertilizer”, improving the function on the neurons like improving the signal strength, structural growth, protect neurons against the process of cell death and other diseases. In short – exercise increases the BDNF levels. The idéa is by regularly doing aerobic exercise it boosts BDNF levels which are a big mediator in helping us to learn. There are programs in different schools in the US that are using early PE classes as a way to increase and improve their student's ability to learn, the results of early PE shows in an overall improvement in grades.
II. Exercise improves mood
To build muscle you need to break them down and let them recover, the same applies to nerve cells, which also has a built-in repair and recovery system which is activated by mild stress. Exercises do both, it help us get more resilient not just in body but in the mind. To apply regular exercise can calm the body down so that it can manage more serious stress response. It’s also shown that exercise helps with anxiety sensitive, studies have shown that an exercise is a great tool for people who are having an anxiety disorder. Why is so helpful? It provides certain benefits like a distraction, it puts your mind in another place so if you are a person with an anxious personality, training will distract you from your feelings. Excierses works as well as beta-blocker, which helps with anxiety by interrupting the negative feedback loop from the body to the brain, this feedback loop causes tension and a heightened sense of anxiety. One common symptom that people with anxiety can suffer from is a panic attack, by doing exercise it will teach and help the person not associate higher heart rate and heavy breathing as a trigger for a panic attack, instead it is a normal reaction associated with heavy training. This is a wonderful thing because it shows that exercise activates the sympathetic nervous system which can help you to relearn new patterns and break we from the old dangerous one by improving connection, learning alternative routers and changing your reality.
Even depression has shown to be treatable to some degree with exercises by increasing dopamine levels in your reward system and it will give you a better outlook on your life and steer you away from the pessimistic viewpoint. The terrible thing with depression is that it can render a person totally helpless and unavailable to take action. The physical lack of making a change or motivate once self to do anything to improve once situation can lead the person into a big downward spiral and a constant bad feedback mechanism, you are depressed and in need of a change but you are too incapable to do anything due to physiological and physiological factors, this becomes a hard loop to break which puts a huge strain on a person the neurological makeup and can lead to neural degradation.
III. Limitations
Exercise is not the remedy for every disease and I'm not encouraging anyone who is taking medication for different illness to stop taking their medication so consult with your doctor. But I wanted to illuminate the issue that exercise is not only a tool to "look good" but a valuable, necessary and most important "self-help book" you can own. Take care of your body and your body will take care of you.
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