Before the pandemic broke out, I was very active during the week, be it tennis, soccer, jogging, core training sessions. Once the lock-down began, my choices of exercising significantly reduced. Coupled with the whole WFH environment, I became moody, moody and moody. I just got out there, hiked everyday, which helped with the negative feelings that just about everyone was experiencing.
Accordingly to a recent study published earlier in Health Psychology "researchers at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City and other institutions decided to mount one of the first experiments to test the effects of an exercise regimen on the mental health of generally healthy, although inactive, people. They hoped to see, in effect, whether people in generally good mental health — without a history of depression, anxiety or other mood disorders — could become even better adjusted and happier if they started to exercise.......
The study also finds that the mood benefits of exercise can linger for weeks after people stop working out, offering another compelling reason for us to try to move, whenever and wherever we still can, during this coronavirus crisis.......
The study did not examine how exercise might elevate our moods. But Ms. McIntyre speculates that the effects are likely to involve both physiology and psychology, with exercise altering various biological pathways related to affect and emotions, while also making exercisers feel more capable and empowered.
The study also looked only at moderate aerobic exercise and involved only adults without any known disabilities or illnesses.
But the findings still have obvious relevance now, when so many of us are feeling overwhelmed by the pandemic and its potential effects on our money, mortality, family, friends and futures.
“This study reminds us that we have this coping tool available to us,” Ms. McIntyre says. “If you can get outside and walk or hike or run safely, it should help with the negative feelings that just about everyone is experiencing right now.”
And if outdoor activities seem unwise where you are, substitute online exercise classes, she says, or bounce around the living room with your children. “Whatever physical activity you can manage is great,” she says, and could help to lift your spirits, and those of everyone around you."
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