13/04/2014

An Introduction to Psychological Benefits of Exercise: The Immediate Effects of Regular Exercise on our Mental State

We are all aware of the physical benefits of partaking in regular exercise, which include losing weight, and reducing the risks of potential diseases as a result of continued sedentary behaviour, such as: diabetes and heart disease, or even simply maintaining a generally healthy lifestyle. Whilst we are aware of these benefits and are even able to physically see the improvements regular exercise has on our lives. We are, however, unable to physically see what effects exercise has on our mental state, but with the appropriate training we are able to become more self aware of the mental improvements associated with physical exercise. So, exactly what is exercise doing for our minds? Quite simply, the brain and body is a singular unit and are happiest together when they're both healthy. Therefore, regular exercise enhances physical health, which leads to an improvement in mental health. Regular exercise has been shown to have a particularly positive effect on our mood states (Leith, 1994), with research showing that moderate exercise in particular improves our mood and reduces tension and anxiety (Moses et al. 1989).

Mood states have the potential to last days or even weeks (Oatley & Jenkins, 1996) and with this in mind, we should then consider that regular exercise will help relieve our negative mood states and provide us with more positive moods that are consistent over a number of days or even weeks at a time. It is then important to remember that these mood states, as positives or negatives are then able to directly affect our own perceptions of ourselves. This essentially means that a negative mood state can lead us to have little to no confidence or motivation to exercise and therefore doubt our own ability to improve. The opposite being a positive mood state leading to an increase in consistently confident and positive behaviours, which provides further motivation for continued and sustainable exercise. With this in mind we shold then become more aware that with regular exercise we are able to develop more consistently positive mood states, which will then enhance our own self-esteem.

Self-esteem refers to the value that is placed on aspects of the self (E.g. physical, social, academic), which would immediately suggest that by definition exercise will lead to higher self-esteem within our physical selves also leading to potential improvements within other aspects of our lives, due to the increases of confidence and motivation provided by higher levels of self-esteem. The claims that exercise can increase self-esteem are supported throughout psychological literature (Fox, 2000; Spence et al. 2005) of which also provides us with evidence that physical fitness is also directly linked to aspects of improved self-esteem (MacMahon & Gross, 1987).

To maintain positive mood states and then increase our self-esteem, regular exercise is then directly associated with these psychological states. Therefore, the initial benefits of engaging in regular exercise provide us with more naturally positive behaviours and also aid the improvement of our levels of self-esteem. This ultimately leads to increased confidence and the motivation to increase and maintain exercise activity to a much more sustainable level. The added benefits of this, as earlier stated are the reduction of potential health risks such as diabetes, obesity, depression and heart disease, amongst others. These risks have been on the rise within the UK in recent years and it is now even more important to reduce the amount of sedentary behaviour and create sustainable healthy living across the UK population.

Thomas Buck MSc, BSc (Hons), MBPsS