People frequently refer to stress as a silent killer. Without your knowledge, it can gradually deteriorate your physical and mental well-being, making you less and less motivated each day. Leaving stress alone can eventually lead to a more serious chronic health condition affecting your mental health.
According to the American Psychological Association’s 2021 work and well-being survey, over 79% of American adult workers are experiencing stress. The stress experienced by these adult workers caused a negative impact on their daily productivity resulting in lack of motivation and energy at work, as well as emotional exhaustion and fatigue.
Spending time doing physical activities, like exercise, is one of the most common and well-known ways to relieve stress. This is something that everyone can enjoy alone or with someone to accompany them. Furthermore, it not only keeps you fit, strong, and healthy, but it also provides you with a personal space to relax and unwind.
How can exercise reduce stress?
Exercise is very effective at relieving stress. Activeness enhances the feeling of satisfaction and helps with reducing stress and anxiety.
Developing a habit of exercising can be a challenge, but taking the time to make it a part of your daily routine will help in making your life more fulfilling and productive.
Stay Active: Spend time doing stress relieving exercises
The benefits of exercising go beyond physical fitness and contribute to stress reduction as well. Almost all types of exercise, from aerobic exercise to yoga, can help to relieve stress. Even if you are not an athlete, it is recommended to exercise to relieve stress and stay healthy.
According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, regular exercise, along with other physical activities, stimulates the production of endorphins and boosts self-confidence, mood, and sleep, which is essential for stress reduction. This helps to improve your cognitive health to efficiently function, keeping you sharp and alert throughout the day.
Now that you understand the significance of regular exercise in relieving stress, you must first investigate what causes it. Knowing the causes of stress gives you advantages on various ways to prevent it and maintain the overall health of your well-being.
Causes of stress
We have all experienced stress and sought effective medications or professional tips to ease it. Although it is normal to happen, allowing your stress levels to become worse can have serious and harmful effects to our overall health. This includes cardiovascular disease, headaches, high blood pressure, weak immune system, anxiety, panic attacks and depression.
Stress is unavoidable but can be relieved with proper measures. But how do you exactly know what brings you stress? We listed some factors that causes stress such as:
- Being under constant and intense pressure at home, school, or work
- Unexpected and unexpected turn of events
- Overwhelming duties and responsibilities with uncontrollable repercussions
- Work has kept me too busy and preoccupied.
- Inadequate personal rest time
- Being pessimistic or negative about life situations
Engage in different exercises to reduce stress
Exercise has many health benefits. It helps to keep the body strong and healthy, it makes us fit and trim, it increases resistance and endurance, and it promotes good mood and a sense of well-being.
Aside from these benefits, another very important benefit of exercise is its ability to reduce stress. Stress refers to your body’s physical or psychological response to situations or conditions, whether those conditions are perceived or real. It is an energy sapper, yet it accumulates a lot of negative energy inside your body.
Benefits of doing regular exercise
Exercise is an antidote for stress because it helps to make your body feel relaxed. It has the ability to fill your body and brain with oxygenated blood, it improves circulation, and it stimulates the brain to release endorphins, the pain relief and feel good hormones that can give you a feeling of relief and pleasure.
As a result, it is important to keep in mind that whenever we feel tired or burdened by our daily tasks, we should always make it a point to engage in any physical activity that will help us relieve stress.
When we say “relieve stress,” we should not just look for something to distract us. It means that you need to find an enjoyable activity that will have a significant impact on your overall physical and mental health.
Here are some of the most common stress relieving exercises to effectively combat stress:
1. Cycling
Cycling is a good exercise and stress reliever as well. Riding a bike on a silent road that offers a lot of relaxing scenes can surely help to keep you feel relaxed.
A study shows that regular cycling has a significant impact in reducing stress. It is also helps to exercise your heart and lungs for optimum circulation and oxygenation of the body. It is an effective stress buster for many people.
2. Swimming
Swimming is a low impact exercise that reduces stress of the mind and body. It is also beneficial for exercisers who are suffering from joint pains and those who cannot indulge in rigorous exercises.
According to Anxiety.uk.org, swimming for at least 30 minutes can help to reduce the development of mild depression and anxiety. It also has stress busting benefits that can aid in weight loss and improve strength.
3. Jogging
Can’t go out or do not have any workout equipment at home? We got you covered.
Jogging is one of the best ways to lift your spirits especially if you are feeling low and under stress. It is because this exercise can easily stimulate the brain to release endorphins that can make you feel high naturally.
4. Brisk Walking
Walking can be boring at times and maybe not as effective as other workouts. So why don’t you try brisk walking to add a little twist.
Unlike regular walking, brisk walking requires you to walk at a much faster pace but not to the point that you are running or jogging. Ideally, a person doing brisk walking should have a 3 miles per hour speed.
This exercise is a good alternative for people who cannot indulge in heavy exercises like running or cycling. It is ideal for people who have high blood pressure or heart problems. For best results, you should do brisk walking along scenic roads to keep your mind and body relaxed and relieved from stress.
5. Weight Training
Looking for intense workout and bulk up while easing stress from a long day at work? Then, this exercise may be for you!
This exercise helps in losing weight to improve self image, stronger core and improve your fitness level. Hitting the gym for a 30-minute weight training workout can help you release stress and feel refreshed.
6. Cardio Workouts
A good workout must be flexible enough to fit your everyday routine.
If you are on a tight schedule and you cannot perform early morning jogs or cycling, hitting a treadmill or a static cycle is your best alternative to exercise beat stress. Think of it as your strength training at home to fight stress.
One of the many advantages of doing cardio workouts for our health is that it not only relieves stress but also helps improve heart health as well as lower blood pressure.
7. Yoga
Yoga is a combination of breathing exercises and exercise moves or poses, and it is proven to an effective stress reliever. The breathing exercise in yoga effectively supplies oxygen to the brain and allow it to relax.
The poses involved in this practice also help to exercise your muscles and make them stronger and flexible. What’s best about yoga as it gives a person an improved mood and better sense of your everyday life.
8. Tai Chi
The gentle movements of Tai Chi can help you focus on the present moment. Yes, you read that right Tai Chi is more than just a Chinese martial arts used for defense. It also offers benefits reduce stress hormones.
It is among the famous martial arts that can help to improve your concentration, improve your mind-body coordination, and relieve stress. Essentially, Tai Chi is a physical activity for people that people that are recovering from an injury.
9. Outdoor Sports
Tennis, badminton, racquetball and basketball are examples of sports that can help to relieve you of stress. The exercise that you get from it combined with the enhanced circulation, oxygen supply, and your interaction with fellow players are solid reasons why they can effective relieve stress.
10. Laughter
Laughter is a natural response to particular situations, but is is also an activity that exercises the heart and stimulates the brain to release feel good hormones.
Many people try to laugh on purpose to get the benefits of natural laughter.
These are the 10 most common exercises that help to reduce or beat stress. Engage in any of them and enjoy a happy, healthy, energetic and stress-free life.
Exercise is the best medication for stress
Medication should offer stress relief and that is what exercise can do for your health. Although there are other measures to take into consideration to reduce stress, its benefits cannot be compared to regular physical activity.
If you are just starting to get used to exercise, you do not have to immediately do intense workout. An easy to follow workouts while gradually increasing its difficulty is already a huge leap to a better lifestyle.
Keep in mind that exercise is not just about keeping yourself fit, but also ensuring that your health are at its best. With the fears of Covid-19 still around, regular exercise is your all-in-one medication to boost your immunity from unwanted diseases.
You should enjoy every single day of your life without worrying or stressing. Check out our mind booster blog posts to find out more about stress reduction tips and staying energized.
