How does exercise reduce stress?

Busy lives, early school runs, deadlines for work, urgent emails, online classes, work from home have become an integral part of modern life, which is hectic and stressful at the same time. Everyone experiences a certain amount of stress on a daily basis but to live life happily and feel contented, one should first recall the moments how they react to encountering stress.

This reaction may  be in the form of anger, crying, panic, under/overeating, pain, depression, smoking or drugs. When you first identify those reactions only then can you put yourself in a better position to manage stress. We all know the fact that exercise is such an activity that improves our overall health but we never correlate it to implementing it as a tool to get rid of all our stress. Now let’s make a healthy connection between both stress and exercise and understand their correlation in detail. 

What is stress?

Stress has been named the “Health Epidemic of the 21st Century” by the World Health Organization. According to the Mental Health Foundation, stress is the feeling of being overwhelmed or unable to cope with mental or emotional pressure. It is estimated that between 75 to 90% of primary care physician visits are due to stress-related illness. 

How does the body react to stress?

When your body encounters a stressor (a threatening/challenging situation), the hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine are produced by the sympathetic nervous system and endocrine glands. This prepares the body for fight or flight response to cope with the stressor. Cortisol production is increased if the stressor is perceived to be more of a threat than a challenge which causes energy production and suppression of immune function. The heart rate and blood pressure increases along with mental alertness and tension. Also, it can have deleterious effects contributing to diseases such as atherosclerosis, depression, and obesity.

What happens when we exercise regularly and how does it help in reducing stress? 

Diverse psychological and physiological explanation exists for stress reduction effects of exercise which include the following

1. When we perform intensive physical activity, the body considers it as a stressor and activates the same systems which are involved in responding to external threatful conditions/challenges. Hence these bouts of exercise increase heart rate, BP, and cortisol levels. Thus, when these stress systems are activated regularly by physical exercise, the body attains beneficial physiological adaptation leading the stress systems to handle stress more effectively (such as with reduced vigor and faster recovery).
2. Distractions from negative thoughts or diversion from unfavorable stimuli during or after exercise results in improved retrieval of positive thoughts, showing the positive influence of exercise on stress.
3. Participating in a new exciting, challenging, and interesting activity like exercise, the individual attains the motivation to grow and improve self with novel content by acquiring new identities, developing new perspectives, and enhancing their capabilities. All these contribute to a positive influence of exercise on mental health. 
4. During exercise, individuals form social interactions and relationships, finding mutual support among people engaging in common physical activities. This also plays an important role in stress reduction and improving mental health. 
5. Completion of effortful tasks like exercising and progression may elicit a sense of achievement improving mood and decreasing stress.

What can we do to eliminate stress?

Studies have shown that people feel relatively calmer after a 20 to 30 minutes bout of aerobic exercise, which can last for several hours.

To help combat stress, 150 minutes of moderate to high-intensity aerobic exercise per week or 75 minutes of vigorous high-intensity aerobic exercise per week is recommended. 

Also, 60 to 90 minutes of Tai Chi and yoga performed 2 to 3 days per week is found to be effective in reducing stress and improving the feeling of wellbeing.

What are the common barriers encountered?

In addition, to understand the role of exercise to manage stress, it is also important to understand common barriers that might affect exercise participation. Lack of time and motivation in addition to fatigue, poor sleep, and dietary habits may negatively impact exercise compliance and adherence.

How to combat these barriers?

The group exercises encouraging workout partners is an excellent idea to provide a support network.

People who report stress because of work or family obligations might enjoy the solitude of exercising alone.

Using a variety of exercises like dancing, yoga, tai-chi, zumba, cycling, or any favorite exergames that are enjoyable can be introduced in the exercise plan to maximize adherence.

If you feel you are too busy to exercise, whatever you do, moving more will help you to combat stress better. Ditch the car or bike and walk or cycle to your office. Even concentrating on moving your bodies for 10 to 20 minutes will help. 

So get moving and forget all the stress! The door to well-being is in front of you, just get exercising and open the door to a happy stress-free life. 

Author: Dr Manila Arya

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