hey there everybody and welcome to this video on exercise and mental health or exercising to
increase dopamine serotonin norepinephrine and reduce inflammation exercise can do a lot of
good things so let's get into talking about it because i promised you i would try to be brief
what are the benefits of exercise well there's a lot of them it increases oxygenation you get
that blood pumping and it is going through your lungs more quickly and it is getting more oxygen
throughout your body that increases energy levels and is just overall good for cognition
if you're outside then the terpenes the things that you smell that are emanated
from plants now this is if you're outside in nature not if you're outside in the middle of
downtown wherever but if you're outside in nature they found that
the aromatic compounds that the plants and the soil emit actually do have beneficial
effects on your heart rate on your uh blood pressure on your oxygenation
and essentially on your mood when you're outside again sunlight is super helpful for assisting
in maintaining a stable circadian rhythm and vitamin d that your body most effectively absorbs
when it is gathered from sunlight is associated with reduced inflammation and that reduced
inflammation is associated with improved mood so it's a win-win-win i'm not saying go outside in
the middle of the day and bake we all know that that's not helpful uh or healthy at
this point but a little bit of sunlight morning sunlight or late evening sunlight can be helpful
exercise improves vagal tone it helps your heart train if you will so it learns
to increase in response to a stressor like elliptical or walking or weights or whatever
and then it recognizes when the stressor is over and it more rapidly goes back down to baseline
that's really awesome and the more you exercise the more improved you will find your heart rate
variability that means the greater difference there is between your resting heart rate and your
working heart rate and the quicker your heart rate heart rate returns to baseline after you exercise
so that's all good and heart rate variability is monitored in a lot of people's fitness watches now
and it is a really good indicator of stress levels when you're stressed
your heart rate variability is very minor because your resting heart rate you're not really resting
because you're under stress so you have less variability anyhow catharsis is another benefit
of exercise sometimes when you've had a really bad day it can be helpful to go and work out intensely
whether it's boxing or weight lifting or running or something that you can just get that energy out
now not everybody likes to work out intensely so cool that's fine too low intensity exercise
walking gentle movements yoga is associated with a reduction in cortisol your stress hormone
so it can also be very very beneficial and whether you're working out intensely or you're
working out mildly you're still increasing your heart rate you're still increasing oxygenation
and you're still increasing a lot of good neurotransmitters and hormones
and other stuff we'll talk about in just a second exercise when you do it gently
help reduce inflammation and oxidative stress i know you think well when i exercise you know
i break down muscle tissue and it hurts and it causes inflammation well that can be true
gentle exercise walking swimming gentle cycling will can be helpful at reducing inflammation and
getting the blood to circulate and kind of get some of those that oxidate um free radicals out
of your system they have shown in three different studies that exercise can reduce oxidative stress
it can be helpful for pain management when you exercise intensely it can produce a release of
endorphins which is are your natural painkillers when you exercise mildly or moderately it can also
help with pain management because it keeps your joints lubricated it keeps you from getting stiff
and it can help balance out muscle imbalances i've got scoliosis so one side of my back tends
to be tighter than the other side of my back and it's important for me when i go to the gym to do
various exercises in order to try to balance that out or i start having spasms and physical
therapy is a great way to find out what kinds of exercises can be helpful for pain management
exercise can increase energy in a lot of people because you're increasing that oxygenation you're
increasing that blood flow and it also reduces deconditioning when we're stressed when we're
depressed when we're injured when we're sick when we're on lockdown we may not be moving around as
much and when you start moving around again your body has deconditioned it's gotten out of shape
basically and so it takes a whole lot more effort and it's a whole lot more exhausting to do things
that you used to do before you deconditioned when i was pregnant with my daughter i was on bed rest
for a while and i can tell you that there was there's significant deconditioning people who've
gotten sick with illnesses and they've been sick for a period of time weeks or months can tell you
that getting back up and getting back into it they have to build up their stamina again and that's
what exercise does neurogenesis one of my favorite topics is rebuilding the neurons in the brain
and when you're under chronic stress when you have trauma when you abuse substances there are a lot
of different things that can cause your brain to actually kill off brain cells and exercise
improves oxygenation and improves the release of something called brain derived nootropic
factor which helps promote neurogenesis in the brain it helps the brain rebuild itself how cool
is that and exercise can increase in addition to bdnf dopamine norepinephrine and serotonin
dopamine is your motivation chemical it's released when you do something pleasurable therefore
do something that you like and that'll help increase dopamine if you're going to the gym
and you absolutely hate it well you may want to think about something else if you want to get that
dopamine norepinephrine is an energy and a focus chemical when you exercise that's just
naturally going to be released when that hpa axis is triggered to help you have energy to work out
and serotonin they found is also released when we exercise especially during the cool down portions
but i don't wanna exercise okay i've heard it before there are some days i
don't want to exercise i don't want to go to the gym and there are a lot of people
especially who have never exercised or who are significantly deconditioned that the thought
of exercising is totally overwhelming all right well start out by thinking what do i like to do
exercise means moving your body it doesn't necessarily mean going to the gym or doing
calisthenics or p90x or whatever it is that you automatically think of do you like to walk do you
like to hike play tennis do yoga clean house dance even if it's by yourself like nobody's watching
kayaking playing with your kids or even your dogs playing frisbee or kickball getting balloons out
and trying to play hot potato keep the balloons from touching the ground or get a trampoline
you can get the little itty bitty trampolines that you can just bounce on because it's fun or
you can get the big trampoline if you've got space for it you know be creative it doesn't have to be
drudgery cycling can be used what i call sofa cycling and they have little elliptical
machines or cycles that you can put either under your desk or in front of your sofa
that you can use to pedal and you may think to yourself well that doesn't sound like much
if you are deconditioned that may be a lot they also have ones that you can put on your table
that you use your arms if for some reason you can't use your legs like you've got
a broken leg or something but that still is increasing oxygenation it's increasing
circulation it is promoting some of these good things what is it that you're willing to do at
least with what i sofa cycling you can do it while you're watching your favorite show and we'll talk
about the gym and some other things in a minute and gardening is my last one that's out in nature
most of the time you can get raised garden beds if you've got arthritis and it hurts to bend down
or you can get a little scooty chair that you can sit in while you are working in the
garden that can be helpful or just work with pots hanging pots if you like strawberries or
tomatoes or just flowers sometimes just being out in nature can be relaxing and while you're moving
around yes it's not like you're running five miles but you are moving your body you're breathing
good air and promoting the release of a lot of good things
tips to increase and maintain motivation do something you like i already covered that
if you are working at a gym or own a gym consider bulletin boards for hiking and walking groups
on the really pretty days people don't necessarily want to be inside the gym so
what about those members if members are connected with one another if they have friendships at that
gym they're a lot less likely to drop their gym membership or go to another gym so if you can
facilitate even they're out of walls out of brick and mortar experiences that can be beneficial you
can start a dodge ball for adults if you've got room in the parking lot or behind the building
for people who are trying to exercise make it part of your routine i try to do it about
the same time every day and i've been trying to find a new same time recently to go to the gym
but i find it helps a lot for me if i do it at the same time every day not only
is it part of my routine then it's not something that i'm trying to stick in somewhere
but i get to know the people that are working out at the same time and i see the same desk staff etc
gyms can make a point of welcoming members and recognizing their absences when the planet fitness
here in lebanon first opened up the desk staff that was there knew us by name they recognized
us they would say hi if we were gone for a couple of days they'd noticed and they'd be like hey
dude where you been and it was nice to feel like we were something more than a number we
were acknowledged definitely acknowledged and most of the time acknowledged by name
and that can be really important to promoting connectedness of members to gyms
get a buddy and i have a research article on this they have shown that having a workout buddy
promotes working out it makes it a little less miserable if you have somebody you
know misery loves company they say or maybe you both enjoy it go figure
gyms can facilitate the buddy system um and that again promotes gym loyalty
and take an interest in your patrons if even if it's not a buddy that somebody's working out with
if they go to a gym and the people that work there are interested they know what a little
bit about them and it's not really all that hard to take a minor interest in your members
but that can really help people feel more connected and more comfortable more at home
at the gym if they don't feel like they're just you know passing in and passing out
nope not really passing out start slowly start for example with 20 minutes of something easy
like elliptical on level one or walking at level three um at three miles an hour with no incline
start slow my mother always used to make that mistake when she would start working out she
would go in and she would be determined and to go gangbusters and in a week or so she would
be so sore and so miserable and so hating it that she'd quit start slow do it 20 minutes
level one if the next day you wake up and you're like hey i'm not feeling anything pretty good
then you can increase the level a little bit or increase how long you're doing it
until you get to where you want to be but go slowly don't add more than 5
maybe 10 minutes to cardio or 5 maybe 10 pounds to weights when you are first working out
with weights don't start with the heaviest weight you can move yes bodybuilders want to do one rep
max and all that stuff if you're just starting to work out and you're trying to decide if you
like weightlifting doing something that is going to leave you in excruciating pain for the next
three days probably ain't gonna work for you so get your joints used to it start developing
muscle memory then increase the weights and the reps so start doing the squats or the leg press or
the leg extension or pull downs or whatever it is get used to putting your body through the motions
and then start adding again incrementally usually it's five pounds for upper body and 10 pounds
for lower body at the most and then gradually build up and finally watch your form i am very
fanatical about people maintaining their form because bad form is leads to injuries whether
it is gardening and i can tell you i've injured myself gardening because i lean and i pull with
one side and the next day i wake up and this whole side of my body is like what did you do
and this side is just kind of hanging out so it is important to watch your form and pay attention
to your bot what your body is telling you so you don't overdo it and make yourself miserable
exercise has repeatedly been shown to improve mental and physical health
gentle exercise and intense exercise each have their own benefits one can be cathartic
one can help you reduce cortisol both of them increase oxygenation and all of those good
hormones and neurotransmitters so it's what you like to do enhance the benefits of exercise by
doing it in nature so you're also exposed to that little bit of sunlight and some of those terpenes