What Are the Benefits of Exercise on Mental Health?

Endorphins are feel-good hormones. They work in combination with other neurotransmitters and molecules such as dopamine, serotonin and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). In actuality, endorphins are just one piece of the puzzle.

When you start exercising, changes happen in your body and brain. Your heart rate increases, blood flow circulates more rapidly, oxygen is transported to your muscles and vital organs and your brain shifts in response to the training stimuli.

Those feel-good chemicals are produced and released in the brain to help you. For example, endorphins are released that act as analgesics. This means that they help to reduce the perception of pain. Exercising can be hard or painful—pushing for that final rep can be a challenge. Endorphins help your body push through, triggering a feeling of satisfaction and positivity.

BDNF is linked to neuroplasticity. That is, the brain's ability to modify itself to perform better. In fact, BDNF plays a role in neurogenesis, or the process of growing new brain cells. As stated by researchers in a 2018 study published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, "Neurogenesis significantly improves cognitive performance and protects against neurodegenerative phenomena".

How does BDNF, neuroplasticity and neurogenesis improve mental health? Neuroplasticity means your brain can change. So, while you may be genetically susceptible to a mental health disorder, your brain has the power to adjust and modify by forming new neural pathways.

The stressors of life—a stressful job, a breakup, financial hardship—all affect neural plasticity and may lead to depression and anxiety. But things can also go the other way. By adjusting your daily habits, behaviour and thought patterns, you can create new neural pathways and lasting brain changes that improve your mental health and decrease your stress levels.

The increased blood and oxygen flow alone is enough to bring about a boosted mental state. Blood transports oxygen and nutrients that are essential for a high functioning brain. An oxygenated brain can simply work better—specifically, the hippocampus. This is the region of your brain associated with memory and learning and the area responsible for regulating motivation, mood, pleasure, pain and more.

Studies have found that reduced cerebral oxygen levels are a predictor of depression and depressive symptoms. It's a double-edged sword, with depression also causing reduced oxygen levels. When the brain has less oxygen, brain cells malfunction and can even die. Some research has supported this, finding that mental health disorders are associated with a loss in brain matter.

You build self-confidence in your abilities by following through with action. If you set yourself the goal of waking up at 6am to do a morning workout five days a week, but by day two you're pressing snooze, you're not going to feel great about yourself. Exercise can be used as a tool to practise self-care, while building self-confidence and self-assurance in your abilities.

A clinical trial published in Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment in 2016 found that physical activity is directly associated with self-esteem, perceived physical fitness and body image. Interestingly, there weren't any clear links with body mass index (BMI).

What this tells us is that you don't need to be a certain weight to get the benefits from exercise and physical activity. Anyone at any experience level can build self-esteem and confidence by sticking to regular exercise. It will make you feel happier in your body, which alters the way you inhabit the world.

You don't have to run a marathon or lift a new personal record (PR) to feel pride and power after your workout. Simply, you just have to commit to an exercise programme. Try your hardest, be consistent. That's all it takes.