6 Ways to Stick to a Fitness Routine to Improve Mental Health

Exercise Improves Mental Health – Here’s How

Exercising regularly is one of the most effective ways to manage your mental health naturally. In mild cases of depression, anxiety, or other mental health conditions, regular exercise alone may be enough to manage your symptoms, eliminating the need for psychiatric medications.  

How does exercise help the depressed brain? When people are depressed, their brains atrophy (shrink) and become less adaptable. Exercise stimulates the production of a hormone in your brain called brain-derived (from the brain) neurotrophic (nerve growth) factor (BDNF). BDNF stimulates brain growth and promotes neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to adapt and change as it manages the complexities of life. This allows the brain to grow new cells, make more dynamic cells, make new connections, and repair itself, helping us heal parts of the brain that have atrophied. Exercise is the most effective way to trigger BDNF release. 

But can exercise help if you have several mental health issues at once or severe mental health conditions? Yes, exercising can improve your mental health even when you have multiple psychiatric conditions. As experts in treatment-resistant psychiatric conditions, our mental health providers have found that patients who exercise regularly in conjunction with other treatments are more likely to manage seemingly untreatable psychiatric conditions successfully.  

Exercising can be part of the solution to many mental health problems. Depending on the severity of your mental health conditions, you may need a comprehensive psychiatric care plan that includes exercise in addition to TMS, ketamine therapy, or antidepressant medications. 

At Manlove Brain and Body Health, exercising is an integral part of our psychiatric care plans because it helps improve the effects of all other psychiatric treatments. 

Pacing Yourself at the Gym

We know that regular exercise is good for our brain and body, so often, people set the intention to exercise more at the start of the new year but quickly lose motivation. How do you stick with it all year long?

1 Shift your mindset.

Exercise can improve your mental and emotional health, so make sure to prioritize it accordingly. When you shift your mindset to consider each workout as a commitment to caring for your physical and mental well-being, it becomes much easier to see its importance and make time for it. 

Before you get out of bed in the morning, determine when you will exercise that day and what exercise you will do. The question should not be will I, but rather when and how will I? 

2 Keep your fitness goal simple and realistic. 

It’s easier to commit to moving your body for a specific amount of time each day rather than trying to do a specific number of workouts each week. And, if you are too rigid in what your exercise looks like, it’s easy to burn out quickly. Keeping your goal simple allows you to add variety, which is one of the keys to staying consistent. 

Surprising fact: For most people, it’s easier to exercise every day for 10 minutes than it is to exercise two days a week for 35 minutes. Why? Committing to exercising daily removes the internal debate of deciding which days to work out.   

Commit to exercising one minute per day. If you exercise for a minute and don’t want to do more, give yourself permission to stop. Most people want to continue once they have started. If life happens and you can’t exercise one or two days per week, forgive yourself and pick it up the next day. 

Many people think that flexibility in your fitness routine hurts consistency when in reality, flexibility enables consistency. You do not need to go to the gym or pool every day. Adding movement in other ways, such as walking at your desk treadmill, stretching, or shoveling snow, may be a great way to infuse movement into your day. 

Any amount of physical activity will give you health benefits, but the more active you are, the more health benefits you will get. To get cardiovascular benefits out of your exercise, you need to exercise for a minimum of 10 continuous minutes. 

3 Use the start of the year to try out different classes. 

The people who stick with exercising consistently are the ones who figure out what types of exercise they enjoy. Use the first few weeks of the year to try out new classes. Try a few new classes to figure out which ones you like, and then rotate between the ones you enjoy for the rest of the year.

Fitness instructors know that most people will open a gym membership at the beginning of a new year, so they typically adjust their classes with this in mind. In January and February, they will provide breakdowns of the movements and slowly add progressions throughout the year. This makes the beginning of the year the best time to try a new class as they will likely be tailored to beginners. 

4 Take time to build strength.

Adding strength or resistance training exercises to your routine is not only a great way to vary your workouts, but it helps you see better results than if you focus on cardio alone; it improves balance, builds confidence, and helps you burn calories more efficiently throughout the day. 

While many people think of strength training as a young person’s game, it actually becomes more important the older we get. Strength or resistance training can help build and maintain healthy bones and joints, improve posture, and reduce the risk of falling. Older adults who participate in resistance training exercises reduce their risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders such as osteoarthritis, reduce joint and back pain, and are often independent for longer because they are able to maintain functional movements. 

Start by practicing the movements without any weight or resistance bands. Once you have the form down, gradually add weight. Only increase your weight when you feel you could have done more repetitions at the end of your circuit. 

5 Commit to a gym or club

For many people, going to a gym or community center is a commitment that keeps them going. Perhaps it gets them out of their home or office. It may be for social connection. Or they keep going so they don’t waste their investment. 

Visit a few gyms or community programs to see which one has the vibe you want. And remember, there may be more casual groups you can join for biking, walking, or volunteering to fight invasive plant species on your local trails. 

6 If a gym isn’t a positive experience, don’t go.

If you have no desire to go to a gym, don’t go. For individuals with anxiety or depression, an intense setting may not help their self-esteem and could even trigger their condition. 

Working out in the privacy of your own home is easier than ever with free or subscription-based online workouts. Simply search YouTube for a workout you enjoy – barre, strength training, kickboxing, yoga, pilates, step – and give it a try. 

Most online workouts don’t require any equipment. If you choose to invest in a few free weights and resistance bands, that’s typically all you need for almost any home workout. Just remember commitment and consistency are what’s important, so block out the time on your calendar and silence your phone!

Talk to your doctor before getting started.

Always talk to your doctor before starting a new fitness routine. Some underlying health conditions may make exercising more dangerous. However, most health conditions improve with exercise, so don’t let any existing conditions stop you from discussing an exercise plan with your doctor. 

Consistent exercise provides so many benefits for your physical and mental health. You won’t regret getting started. 

Dr. Stephen Manlove

Stephen Manlove, MD is one of the most entrepreneurial psychiatrists in the upper Midwest. Dr. Manlove graduated from the University of Minnesota Medical School and completed residencies in Psychiatry and Internal Medicine through the University of Virginia Medical School. He holds multiple board certifications in psychiatry/neurology, internal medicine and forensic psychiatry. This deep understanding of medicine gives him a unique ability to practice truly holistic psychiatry—fusing lifestyle changes and brain health best practices with genetic testing and a detailed laboratory workup to develop a personalized plan for each patient. As an early adopter of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and ketamine/Spravato, he and the Manlove Brain + Body team have helped thousands of patients suffering from treatment resistant depression, anxiety and PTSD.

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