In addition to the benefits for physical health, exercise also helps reduce stress (stress) and repel negative emotions effectively. Building a daily exercise routine will help protect your health against the pressures of life.
How can exercise reduce stress?
Today, stress has become an inevitable part of life. Stress can happen for a variety of reasons, but it often stems from academic pressure, job difficulties, relationship conflicts, and financial problems.
Nervous stress does not always cause negative consequences and effects. However, without knowing how to manage stress, both physical and mental health will face severe effects.
One of the effective ways to reduce stress that you can do is exercise. Regular exercise brings many benefits such as improving joint flexibility, strengthening muscles, controlling weight, improving heart health and improving sleep quality.
In addition to the physical benefits, exercise also helps relieve stress and soothe negative emotions. The reason is because when exercising, the brain will produce endorphins and serotonin, which in turn produce opiates that help reduce pain, dispel depression, bring a sense of satisfaction, excitement and joy.
Increased levels of serotonin and endorphins also help reduce levels of stress hormones such as cortisol, epinephrine (adrenaline). As a result, symptoms caused by stress will be significantly reduced after exercise. This is also the reason why doctors always encourage each person to practice a daily exercise routine.
In addition, regular exercise also brings many benefits to stress (nervous tension) such as:
- Maintain a positive, happy spirit, manage stress and negative emotions.
- Create excitement, creativity when studying and working. Thereby improving quality of life and helping to reduce stressors.
- Relieve physical symptoms caused by stress such as headache, dizziness, shoulder pain, insomnia, trouble sleeping, poor digestion, etc.
- Relaxing muscles, joints become more supple and strong.
- Exercise helps relax the brain and increase serotonin levels, which in turn stimulates the pineal gland to produce melatonin, which helps to sleep better and more deeply.
- Regular exercise helps increase oxygen to the brain, heart and organs in the body. Oxygen and red blood cells work to regenerate, repair damaged cells and enhance the function of all cells.
- Exercising in the center or exercising in the park will also give you the opportunity to meet and socialize with new friends. Increasing relationships helps you become more confident and can hone your communication skills.
- Many studies show that regular exercise helps to increase self-confidence, reduce fear and anxiety. In addition, daily exercise also helps you own a balanced body and comfortably wear the clothes that you love.
Exercise not only reduces stress by increasing the production of endorphins and serotonin, but also affects many other aspects. Therefore, each person needs to practice regular exercise habits to take care of mental health and prevent physical problems. Currently, exercise has been recognized as supportive therapy in the treatment of psychological and psychiatric disorders such as anxiety disorders, depression, etc.
Sports help reduce stress, effective stress
In fact, all sports are effective in reducing stress, stress and soothing negative emotions. So, you can choose the sport that suits your interests and fitness.
In particular, a number of subjects have been studied for their effectiveness in reducing stress and the benefits for mental health, including:
1. Walking, jogging
Walking and jogging are the most familiar and simple exercises. With this subject, you only need to prepare sports shoes and appropriate clothing. If possible, you should walk and jog in the park. Trees and fresh air will help the brain relax, creating a feeling of refreshment and comfort. In addition, the “green” space also helps you forget the troubles and stress in life.
Walking and jogging help regulate breathing, increase blood circulation and oxygen to the brain, lungs, heart and other organs. Regular practice of this subject will help manage stress effectively, while strengthening muscles and cardiovascular health.
If you don’t have much time, you should warm up for 2-3 minutes, then jog at a high speed for 10-15 minutes. Running is a calorie-consuming subject, so it is suitable for busy people who do not have much time to go to the gym. You should practice in the early morning or afternoon after work to relax the brain.
2. Yoga
If you are looking for an effective stress reliever, yoga will be a worthy choice. This discipline not only affects the body but also helps to regulate the breath and mind. Compared to other disciplines, yoga brings stress relief more quickly and effectively.
When practicing yoga, the practitioner must combine the movements with breathing and a relaxed mind. Therefore, the troubles and worries in life will be completely dispelled after only 20-30 minutes of practicing stress-reducing yoga exercises.
Regular yoga practice also helps increase flexibility, improve memory, reduce heart palpitations and shallow breathing caused by stress. In addition, this subject has a fairly gentle intensity, so it is suitable to practice early in the morning and at night before going to bed. Yoga has more than 8 million postures, so readers can choose for themselves the movements that are suitable for their training purposes and health status.
3. Swimming
Swimming is also a sport that reduces stress and depression. During swimming, the brain will produce endorphins to help stabilize mood, relax and reduce pain. The advantage of swimming is that it effectively improves respiratory function. Therefore, people who often have difficulty breathing, shallow breathing due to stress should consider practicing this subject.
In addition, swimming is also a subject that puts less pressure on the knee and lumbar joints. In case of knee arthritis or osteoarthritis, you should swim to avoid damage to the musculoskeletal system.
4. Other subjects
In addition to the above sports, you can also reduce stress with any of your favorite sports such as:
- Tai Chi exercise
- Practice martial arts
- Deep breathing exercises
- Badminton, tennis
- Football
- Volleyball
- Basketball
Teamwork exercises such as football, basketball, etc. will help you expand your relationships and learn how to make friends and maintain long-term relationships. Therefore, people with poor communication and lack of confidence should practice these subjects in addition to practicing at home.
Note when exercising to reduce stress
Exercise is a safe and effective stress reliever. However, before practicing, you need to keep the following points in mind:
1. Choose the right subject
Sports will have different intensities. For exercise to bring its full benefits, you should choose a subject that suits your fitness, interests and schedule. If you have poor health, you should choose subjects with gentle intensity such as walking, yoga, badminton. Avoid intense exercise such as tennis, weight training, brisk jogging, etc.
In addition, it is advisable to choose the right subject in case of bone and joint problems to avoid pain and joint damage. If you are too busy and do not have much time, you should choose subjects that can be practiced in a short time such as walking, jogging, yoga, etc.
Moreover, these subjects do not have to prepare tools and can be done at home. Because you don’t have to go to a club or fitness center, you can save time on travel and have more flexibility in training.
2. Maintain a regular exercise frequency
Exercise does not bring results after just a few days, but needs to be maintained for a long time. According to experts, you should exercise every day for 20-60 minutes. If you don’t have much time, you can practice for 10-15 minutes. Although the exercise time is not much, maintaining the habit for a long time will help improve health and reduce stress effectively.
Or you can also exercise for 30 minutes 3-4 times a week. After just a few weeks of exercise, you will notice an improved mood and a significant reduction in physical symptoms caused by stress. Besides, maintaining a daily exercise routine also helps to improve health and improve sleep quality.
3. Some other notes
In addition, you also need to note some other issues when exercising for the purpose of reducing stress:
- If you have special health problems such as pregnancy, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, spondylolisthesis, etc., you should talk to your doctor for advice on appropriate exercises. Exercising on your own in these circumstances may introduce a number of risks and unintended situations.
- Do not exercise when you are full or when you are mentally unstable (due to alcohol use, stimulants, excessive emotions, …).
- Need to warm up before practicing any sport. Warm-up helps to warm up the body, relax muscles and increase flexibility, thereby limiting injury, reducing pain and helping the training process bring the best results.
- Choose the right clothes and shoes to be comfortable while exercising.
- During practice, make sure you are not disturbed – especially when doing yoga and meditating. Therefore, you need to arrange your work to be able to practice comfortably and conveniently.
- Exercise helps reduce stress and soothe negative emotions. However, you should combine it with a reasonable diet and sleep on time, enough sleep to improve mental health comprehensively.
- In cases where stress cannot be managed, consider taking a stress reliever or seeing a doctor as needed.
Exercise has been shown to be effective in reducing stress and anxiety. However, you need to practice properly and regularly to get the best results. In addition, it should be combined with a healthy diet and scientific activities to improve health comprehensively.
