Beyond Weight Loss: The Mental Benefits of Physical Activity

We’ve come a long way from praying for a healthy mind in a healthy body to bragging about it to realizing that we must earn it.

It’s common knowledge that physical activity benefits our body. However, exercising is often associated with losing weight or building up body mass. While these are of course some of the benefits of regular physical activity, there are many other reasons why you should consider incorporating it into your lifestyle.

Physical activity has a positive impact on our mental health and wellbeing. It can reduce stress, boost self-confidence and improve sleep quality. In other words, fitness is not just about looking good, but also about feeling good about yourself.

Fun historic fact

A sound mind in a sound body’, or in Latin?‘mens sana in corpore sano’, is a well-known motto. However, it has been used with rather different meanings throughout history…

The ancient Roman poet Juvenal used it in his Satire X as part of the things we should pray for to have a desirable life.

In 1861, John Hully extracted it from Juvenal’s phrase and used it for his Liverpool Athletic Club to reflect the 19th century ideal of a complete (elitist) education.

Today it is used by sports devotees all over the §world and stands for the ideal of versatility — the ability to maintain a well-rounded approach to overall health and wellness. Indeed, managing to incorporate even a couple of hours of decent exercise into a week helps in increasing not only our self-esteem and overall mood but also improves our mental alertness and ability to learn.

Improving our intellectual wellness

Exercise increases blood flow also to our brain. The brain requires good blood circulation due to its high metabolic demand, and exercise helps to fulfill this requirement. An adequate blood flow is not only highly beneficial but also necessary for the brain’s proper functioning. Endurance activity such as long-lasting aerobic activity and running, and resistance exercise, promotes good blood flow, which enables the delivery of essential nutrients to the brain for carrying out its various functions. Additionally, it stimulates the production of molecules that are crucial to brain function, including those related to memory.

We all cherish our memories, but in reality, we can only remember a small part of our lives. To help remember more, we can try to access our memories, write them down, and share them with others. However, exercising can also improve our memory. This is because exercise increases the level of a molecule called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in our brain, which helps create new connections between brain cells. These connections help us learn and remember things better, and the more BDNF we have, the better our memory becomes. Exercise also stimulates the production of certain proteins that promote growth in the hippocampus — the part of the brain responsible for memory formation and learning. So, if you want to preserve your memories and keep them strong, you should consider exercising, even if you don’t feel motivated to do so.

Exercise lowers stress

While exercise may not be a direct solution to stress, it does help to alleviate the experience. It’s worth noting that exercise doesn’t reduce the amount of stress hormones in our bodies, but it does decrease the number of stress receptors in the hippocampus. This reduction in stress receptors helps to minimize the impact of stress hormones on our brains, which in turn decreases the effects of stressful experiences.

Exercise makes us happier

Additionally, exercise can also lead to the release of endorphins, which is commonly referred to as “runner’s high.” Endorphins act on specific (opiate) receptors in the brain, creating a feeling of euphoria during or after a workout. This feeling is often accompanied by a reduction in anxiety and depression.

Exercise helps us sleep

People who exercise sleep longer and have a better quality of sleep. In addition, exercise has the ability to stabilize one’s mood and help to relax the mind, which is an important cognitive process that facilitates a natural transition to sleep.

Exercise to keep up your brain fitness

Exercise has also been shown to reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, which is a disorder that causes memory loss and cognitive decline.

Regular exercise, done several times a week for 30 to 60 minutes, can have several benefits, including:

• Keeping thinking, reasoning, and learning skills sharp for healthy individuals
• Improving memory, reasoning, judgment, and other cognitive functions for individuals with mild Alzheimer’s disease or mild cognitive impairment
• Delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s disease for people at risk of developing the disease, or slowing its progress
• Increasing the size of the hippocampus, which is the part of the brain associated with memory formation.

Exciting news for iOS users in the US!

You can download myAVOS?from the App Store. As a digital wellness coach,?myAVOS?offers personalized exercise recommendations to optimize brain health, with features that include exercise tracking, ongoing support, and motivation to help you achieve your fitness goals.

By incorporating brain-boosting exercises into your routine, myAVOS can help feed your brain and boost your versatility. You can enhance cognitive function, protect against age-related decline, and improve your overall health and well-being.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to improve your brain health and fitness —?download myAVOS today!