Exercise: Is It Worth It?
YES!!! In fact, just as I’m writing this my youngest daughter, Abbey, just got back from her Kickboxing Session (It’s a family thing:) and she said, “Wow I forgot how great exercise makes me feel and if I don’t do anything else today I will feel good about my day”! So besides the numerous health and physical benefits, exercise just plain makes us feel good!
I have always encouraged my clients to exercise (whether I was exercising at the time or not:) because I have heard and seen that it helps. For example, I had one young women come see me again after many years and tell me that she had taken my advice, started running and her anxiety had virtually disappeared! Recently, another young woman that came to me was struggling with some anxiety and depression, and I suggested that she start exercising regularly. She texted me a week later and cancelled because the cardio was making her feel so much better!
However, it wasn’t until I had been deeply depressed myself for a while that I seriously turned to exercise for help. One day when I was at a particularly low point I picked up Dr. Mike Marino’s book called Depression Boot Camp. I read his section on the value of exercise and I was sold. The thing that motivated me was all the research he mentioned and a story he shared of a man whose life was transformed through exercise.
I began regular cardio and weight training and after a few weeks, I noticed a significant decrease in my symptoms. Also I recently recalled a time in my 20s that I had a short but intense bout of depression and how exercise played a huge role in obliterating it.
The following is research summarized by Behavioral Neuroscientist Dr. Kelly Lambert in her book: Lifting Depression. Take a read and get moving!
*In one study Dr. McCann and Dr. Holmes of The University of Kansas assigned depressed undergraduate women to one of three groups: a group that did one hour of aerobic exercise two times a week, a group that did relaxation training for the same amount of time each week and a control group that did neither. After 10 weeks, the exercise group demonstrated considerably more improvements than the other two groups. (Wow! Think of the improvement if they had exercised 3 to 4 times a week!)
*At Duke University Dr. James Blumenthal split 156 patients in their 50s into three groups. One group was given SSRIs, one group participated in strenuous exercise and one group did both. At the end of the trial all three groups had basically the same improvements as far as depression. (Initially the medication groups improved faster, The two groups doing exercise however had additional health and fitness benefits.)
*The Bartholomew study at University of Texas suggests that exercise activates the pleasure center of the brain (which is a critical part of the effort-driven rewards circuit - when ignited the EDR circuit alleviates depression and anxiety. (More about that in my next post.)
*Animal research done at the University of Illinois shows that running increases sensitivity to the reward neurochemical Dopamine. Additionally, exercise produces robust improvements on executive-control processes which allow us to schedule, plan, monitor, and coordinate our tasks. Exercise also engages the striatum area of the brain which is the third area of the Effort-Driven Rewards circuit.
*One study conducted by Scott Small from Columbia University found that MRIs showed significant increase in new human brain cell growth and blood flow after a 3 month exercise program.
*Graduate students at the University of Georgia who underwent an intense six-week exercise program handled stressful mental tasks with much fewer signs of stress than the control non-exercising group.
*In a recent Newsweek article on the effects of exercising on the brain, John Ratey, M.D. an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School says that the three essential mood chemicals in the brain (serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine) are all elevated immediately after exercise. (So exercise has the natural effects of a bit of prosac and ritalin!)
One huge key to sustaining any kind of regular exercise routine is figuring out what you will actually do and stick with. The reason I started Kick-Boxing is because it is fun and challenging. Having a trainer helps as well because it’s harder to flake. (My girls and I often joke that we can’t ever move away from Tony our trainer:)
Let’s close with the encouraging words of Mike Marino Ph.D. author of Anxiety and Depression Boot Camp, “I cannot emphasize how much getting into an exercise routine will change your life when battling depression and anxiety. There are benefits from almost every perspective. Your brain will work better, your body will work better, you’ll sleep better and if you are taking meds, they will work better too.”