The Motivational Music That Fights Mental Barrier To Exercise (M)
After listening to a self-selected motivational playlist, runners who were mentally tired displayed the same performance as those who were mentally fresh.
Category: Exercise
15 Minutes Running Helps Prevent Depression
The study showed that exercise caused lower depression risk, but depression was not linked to less exercise.
The study showed that exercise caused lower depression risk, but depression was not linked to less exercise.
Just 15 minutes of running per day is enough to significantly reduce depression risk, a genetic analysis concludes.
Alternatively, around one hour of moderate activity will do the same job.
However, any activity at all — including housework and gardening — is better than none for reducing depression risk.
The conclusions come from a genetic analysis of almost half a million people.
Dr Karmel Choi, the study’s first author, explained the key result:
“On average, doing more physical activity appears to protect against developing depression.
Any activity appears to be better than none; our rough calculations suggest that replacing sitting with 15 minutes of a heart-pumping activity like running, or with an hour of moderately vigorous activity, is enough to produce the average increase in accelerometer data that was linked to a lower depression risk.”
While more exercise has frequently been linked to lower depression risk, it is hard to determine cause and effect.
The difficulty is that people who are depressed may move around less.
So, does depression cause less exercise or is more exercise the cause of less depression?
To resolve this problem, the new study used a different method based on genetics.
Dr Karmel Choi, the study’s first author, said:
“Using genetic data, we found evidence that higher levels of physical activity may causally reduce risk for depression.
Knowing whether an associated factor actually causes an outcome is important, because we want to invest in preventive strategies that really work.”
The new conclusions are based on data from almost half-a-million people, 91,000 of whom wore wrist bands that measured their physical activity.
The study showed that exercise caused lower depression risk, but depression was not linked to less exercise.
Dr Choi and colleagues will now go on to look at who might benefit from exercise the most:
“We currently are looking at whether and how much physical activity can benefit different at-risk groups, such as people who are genetically vulnerable to depression or those going through stressful situations and hope to develop a better understanding of physical activity to promote resilience to depression.”
The study was published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry (Choi et al., 2018).
How To Overcome The Main Barrier To Exercise (M)
Stress and anxiety make it particularly hard for people to exercise, the study found.
The Healthiest Way To Walk
The purpose of your walk reveals the level of your health.
The purpose of your walk reveals the level of your health.
Those who walk for a reason rate their health as better, a study has found.
Compared to leisurely walks, a brisk paced walk is a healthier option as it improves brain, heart, and lung function.
Past studies have found that fast walking helps burn more calories but more importantly increases longevity and lowers the risk of early death from heart disease.
This study reveals that people tend to walk faster when they have a purpose, such as walking to work and consider themselves healthier than slow walkers.
If the purpose of the trip is essential — like walking to the grocery shop or work — it makes people walk quicker, leading to better health outcomes when compared with casual strolls.
Dr Gulsah Akar, one of the study’s author, said:
“We found that walking for utilitarian purposes significantly improves your health, and that those types of walking trips are easier to bring into your daily routine.
So, basically, both as city planners and as people, we should try to take the advantage of this as much as possible.”
The research team collected data from the National Household Travel Survey on 125,885 American adults who reported the amount of time spent on walking for various purposes.
More than 500,000 trips were analysed and reasons for the trips included walking from home to get to work, walking from home to buy goods, social and recreational walks.
The data showed that walking trips for any reason and for any duration generally made people feel healthier than those who drove or used public transport.
People who walked an extra 10 minutes from home for work — for example, walking from home to the train station — were more likely to have a 6 percent better health score than those who walked for other purposes.
People who walked from home to the shops or for recreational activities scored 3 percent better.
On average, people who walked for work had a 2.7 miles per hour faster rate compared to other walking trips.
Recreational walking, for example, walking after dinner, showed a 2.5 miles per hour higher speed.
Moreover, people tend to have longer walking trips if they start from home than those walks that start from elsewhere.
Dr Akar said:
“I was thinking the differences would not be that significant, that walking is walking, and all forms of walking are helpful.
And that is true, but walking for some purposes has significantly greater effect on our health than others.”
It seems that replacing this activity with the sedentary part of our day, say commuting on foot instead of driving, would give a healthier feeling.
Dr Akar added:
“That means going to a gym or a recreation center aren’t the only ways to exercise.
It’s an opportunity to put active minutes into our daily schedules in an easy way.”
The study was published in the Journal of Transport & Health (Pae & Akar, 2020).
How Personality Affects The Motivation To Exercise
Those seeking variety are not always fans of regularly scheduled classes.
Those seeking variety are not always fans of regularly scheduled classes.
People are more likely to stick to an exercise routine if it fits their personality, research finds.
Extraverts have more success in the gym where they are surrounded by other people.
They prefer the excitement of having others around them.
Amy Hagan, the study’s author, said music is also important to extraverts:
“These excitement-craving people love lots of activity, and they want to go, go, go.
Music seems to add more excitement to their workout and gets them going even more vigorously.”
People who like new experiences may be better exercising outdoors.
Those seeking variety are not always fans of regularly scheduled classes.
People who are conscientious, however, do like scheduled workout sessions, but they would rather be in charge of it themselves.
Ms Hagan said:
“These are very self-disciplined people who strive to achieve something.
They want to take charge of their own exercise routine to make sure it will get done.”
The conclusions come from a study of 860 students who were given personality tests and asked about their exercise habits.
The results revealed that different personality types like to exercise in different ways.
Least likely to exercise were people high in neuroticism, said Ms Hagan:
“People who are neurotic are least likely to exercise, but these are the very people who would benefit the most from the activity because it would help reduce their anxiety and stress.”
Ms Hagan said:
“If people’s personalities can predict what conditions are most favorable for them to exercise, then an exercise program can be tailored to fit their personal needs, making it more likely they will stick with a routine.”
The study was presented at the North American Society for the Psychology of Sports and Physical Activity (Hagan, 2004).
What Happens To Your Brain When You Stop Exercising (M)
The study included 12 ‘master athletes’ who all had at least a 15-year history of endurance exercise.
The Best Physical Exercise For The Brain (M)
The sports that boost the brain the most.
The Best Daily Approach to Improving Your Mood
The key is to make small changes that are sustainable.
The key is to make small changes that are sustainable.
Replacing sedentary behaviours with light activity or even sleep improves mood, new research finds.
People who routinely switch to walking around or sleeping from sitting down experience less stress, better mood and even lose weight.
The key is to make small changes that are sustainable.
Light exercise can include walking from one room to another or even standing while cooking or talking on the phone.
Practically any light activity that does not involve sitting down is better than being on the couch.
Another example is going to bed a little earlier instead of staying up late watching television.
Being asleep also means there is less time to snack, worry or engage in other problematic behaviours.
Dr Jacob Meyer, the study’s first author, said:
“People may not even think about some of these activities as physical activity.
Light activity is much lower intensity than going to the gym or walking to work, but taking these steps to break up long periods of sitting may have an impact.”
The study tracked 423 people over 10 days by giving them an armband that measured their energy expenditure.
While sleep or light activity were preferable to sitting down, more vigorous activity was even better for weight loss.
Even light activity showed benefits to people’s mood for at least one year afterwards.
Dr Meyer said small changes are vital:
“It may be easier for people to change their behavior if they feel it’s doable and doesn’t require a major change.
Replacing sedentary time with housework or other light activities is something they may be able to do more consistently than going for an hour-long run.”
The study was conducted before the current pandemic, although the researchers have data showing that physical activity has reduced by 32 percent during lockdown.
Dr Meyer said:
“With everything happening right now, this is one thing we can control or manage and it has the potential to help our mental health.”
The study was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (Meyer et al., 2020).
The Music That Makes Exercising Easier (M)
People walking on a treadmill reported feeling thy were exerting themselves less while listening to this music.
How Exercise Affects The Brain (M)
Exercise has a range of wonderful effects on the brain.
