Effects of Physical Activity on Mental Health

The current way of life practiced today by most people is one of sedentism and overexposure to different stimuli (through social media) that very few individuals truly experience in actuality. In comparison to previous generations, our generation is facing the greatest recorded incidence of mental health issues ever experienced. According to a paper by Dinas and colleagues, depression affects 340 million people around the world and is expected to become the leading cause of disability and the second leading contributor to the global burden of disease by the year 2020 (2010).While many individuals are secluded to pharmacological aid only, there should be more emphasis placed on lifestyle factors that can drastically improve quality of life. Specifically, experiments have shown that the use of both aerobic and strength training to be effective in improving mental health and cognition, and it should be standard practice to include these routines in one’s lifestyle before resorting to any form of medications. This article investigates current research’s revelations about exercise’s effects on mental health and offers a possible alternative to reliance on biochemical alteration.

The Physiological Effects of Exercise on the Brain

In order to look at mental health as a whole we should give an operational definition of what it means to be more mentally well. For clarity, we can define being mentally healthier as being correlated with increased neuroplasticity, mood, cognitive function, social attachment and belonging. This operational definition of mental health is important in order to stay in the same page about what is considered to be beneficial to the mind. From a physical perspective, neuroplasticity has been shown to aid in cognitive function while the rest of the definition can be seen as symptoms of a healthy mental state. Furthermore, we are also looking at physical activity as a function of both weightlifting and cardio in order to grasp the full concept of activity throughout the body in both major categories.

Exercise has anecdotally been correlated with increases in positive mood and reduction of stress, which has a temporary effect in warding off negative thoughts. This is the result of what scientific literature refers to as the endorphins hypothesis. This hypothesis states that release of endorphins, endogenous opioid peptides naturally made in the body, is followed by euphoria and a reduction in pain (Dinas et. al, 2010). This effect is illustrated visually in the figure below.

Figure 1. Illustration of general hypothesis that beta-endorphins are important in managing anxiety and depressive symptoms found in those that struggle with mental health.

According to that same paper, exercise induced endorphins have been experimentally shown to have antidepressant effects comparable to that of medication. This is not only due to endorphin release but also increases in serotonin and adrenaline levels which help combat fear and promote relaxation. Thus, it is important to emphasize physical exercise before the use of medication. Altering an individual’s biochemistry should be a last resort behind healthy lifestyle habits.

In addition to making you feel good, exercise has also been shown to actually improve neurological function. Colcombe and Kramer’s 2003 paper titled “Fitness effects on the cognitive function of older adults” showed through a meta-analysis of the scientific literature that physical activity plays a role in improving cognitive function including speed, visual spatial, executive and cognitive control processing. Furthermore, these effects increased in relation to length of time spent exercising.

Neurological function can also be measured by looking at increases in neuroplasticity. In general, developments in neuroplasticity have been correlated with increased cognitive performance. Although there are many studies that show this relation with individual forms of imaging, there are few that combine multiple sources of imaging of the brain to better confirm these results (Ji et al. 2017). However, this same study used a combination of measures to study the physical development of the brain in a 6 week Wii fitness program that combined cardio, balance, weightlifting, and yoga. A summary of the results is stated below:

“The impact of exercise was evaluated on several imaging measurements including the brain GM volume, resting state low-frequency fluctuation activity, homogeneity, FC, as well as global connectivity efficiency of nodal networks in older adults. We hypothesized that motor and motor skill related regions such as striatum, motor cortex, and cerebellum, as well as attention and executive function related regions such as prefrontal cortex would reveal plasticity changes post exercise commonly in different imaging modalities. The plasticity changes in these regions may be associated with cognitive improvement after physical exercises" (Ji et al. 2017).

Ji et al. found statistically significant results (p<0.05) in every imaging test which concludes an improvement in cognitive function. These results are astonishing considering that these changes are only after 6 weeks of exercise. If we apply Colcombe and Kramer's suggestion that these effects increase over time with consistent activity, then we can say that exercise plays a very large role in development that many potentially miss out on.

Social Aspects of Exercise

Aerobic and weighted exercise does not only support physical health and cognition, as a matter of fact there is also a social aspect to exercise that must be evaluated. It is inevitable to have other people surround you and possibly even join you in your training routine (especially in team sports). These other individuals can have a major positive or negative impact on your mental health while you focus on bettering yourself physically. For example, Meseguer and colleagues in their 2015 study brought 18 drug dependent inmates and put them in an exercise program as a group to look at the benefits exercise has on their physical, mental, and social wellbeing. These measures were taken through physical testing and patient reported measures via a survey. They found that alongside increased physical health there was also an increase in self-esteem, mood, belonging within their group. According to participants, there was an increased social atmosphere that helped them strive to become better individuals and work harder. In addition, these participants also felt less of a need to rely on addictive drugs such as cocaine, heroine, alcohol, etc. By reducing the urge to medicate themselves these individuals have begun to eliminate the impulses to run away from others and create lasting relationships with each other. Applying this to the average person, exercise can definitely help create new friendships when surrounded by others. If these friendships can help these inmates reduce their anxiety and promote wellbeing then it shall definitely work for you.

However, there is a dark side to the social ability of fitness. The vast majority of people begin exercising for the physical recomposition effect that it has in order to “look better.” After a certain point many will begin to experience the phenomenon of body dysmorphia. Body dysmorphia is a situation in which there is an obsessive focus on a perceived flaw in appearance which massively reduces self esteem and satisfaction. The beginning of a fitness journey is the easiest time to make drastic changes in appearance due to exercising being a new stimulus to the body. After a certain amount of time has passed progression will be slower and that causes people to feel worse about themselves. This problem is also exacerbated by social media in which there are numerous influencers that have incredible physiques that most people are not genetically able to achieve. Moreover, many influencers are also taking performance enhancing drugs (PED’s) in order to achieve their look but will never admit to it. This gives a false idea that someone can obtain a world-class physique naturally (without PED’s) and the impossibility of that for the average person drives people down the rabbit hole of depression and even steroid use. Furthermore, this false presentation can lead to the development of eating disorders in order to achieve a certain look. A fitness routine is meant to increase physical, mental, and social health so this effect is not the intended consequence and needs to be dealt with.

In order to fix this problem there must be a positive community with influencers that do not use their physique in vain for views but rather enlighten others to the proper way exercise and diet should be done. There must be a highlight in the media of a health based focus on fitness and realistic expectations. Furthermore, there should be an openness about PED use in order to not create a feeling of dissatisfaction among peers because someone else is progressing much faster than they should be. While exercise has an overall positive impact on social health, there are always further steps to take in order to eliminate toxic communities within the fitness industry and create harmony.

Works Cited

Colcombe, S., & Kramer, A. F. (2003). Fitness effects on the cognitive function of

older adults: a meta-analytic study. Psychological science, 14(2), 125–130. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.t01-1-01430

Dinas, P. C., Koutedakis, Y., & Flouris, A. D. (2010, November 14). Effects of exercise and

physical activity on depression. Irish Journal of Medical Science https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11845-010-0633-9#Fig1.

Giménez-Meseguer, J., de los Remedios Fernández-Valenciano, M., & Tortosa-

Martínez, J. (2015, November 23). Benefits of exercise for the quality of life of drug-dependent patients. Taylor & Francis. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02791072.2015.1102991?scroll=top&needAccess=true.

Ji, L., Zhang, H., Potter, G. G., Zang, Y.-F., Steffens, D. C., Guo, H., & Wang, L. (2017,

January 1). Multiple neuroimaging measures for examining exercise-induced neuroplasticity in older adults: A quasi-experimental study. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2017.00102/full#B10.