Posted on June 18, 2015 by Jenny Cromack
Exercise and Men’s Mental Health
In the world and society we live in we as people now lead very busy lifestyles. We have to juggle work, family, and other life factors. These constant responsibilities can place a lot of stress on us, and we can let it get a hold of us. Too much stress in our life can contribute to mental health factors such as our mood, low self-esteem, or depression.
Men as a population tend to be very poor at expressing their feelings or talking to people about our problems. This opens the door to a build-up of stress and causing it to eventually take a hold and having a significant effect on our well-being. So finding ways of managing these factors ourselves and offering a way of releasing any stressors would be hugely beneficial for a population that doesn’t like approaching people for help. Exercise and physical activity is one way of helping improve psychological well-being as it can have hugely beneficial effects on mood, self-esteem, and depression thus helping manage some of the results that stressful lives bring us.
Exercise and Positive Mood…
When reviewing studies in this area it is apparent that engaging in regular exercise is related to an increase in positive mood. It is often said that this lift in mood is linked to increases in endorphins and serotonin levels in the brain (happiness hormones). There are reports of feeling more content, calmer, and more awake immediately after exercise when compared with being inactive.
In relation to positive moods engaging in any forms of exercise increases peoples’ activation levels, this leaves them feeling more energised. The studies appear to show a dose-response, meaning that the more frequent, and regular the exercise the more it induced positive feelings, moods, and activation. If we can introduce more positive feelings and mood into our lives then this will help contribute to keeping overall stress at bay. Also, by making us feel more uplifted and energised means that we can increase our focus, positivity and ability to tackle any jobs, stresses, or activities within our day.
Exercise and Self-Esteem…
Self-esteem is basically our perceptions of our competencies in all areas of our lives. It is a key indicator of our psychological well-being. Those with high self-esteem appear to have higher levels of satisfaction in their lives and feel more comfortable, as a result they then tend to perform better within work, education and life in general. Exercise and physical activity has been seen as a way of improving the way we feel about ourselves and our abilities. Both physical and overall self-esteem are improved by exercise. Physical self-esteem is how competent we feel in our bodies, and our appearance whereas overall self-esteem encompasses all aspects of our lives, so how we feel about our social competencies, work competencies, etc.
All forms of physical activity have been shown to have a positive effect on self-esteem. It seems to have the greatest effect in those with already low self-esteem, and when the activity is moderately demanding, and is a regular occurrence. However, even in those without low self-esteem, by exercising we may start to see more physical changes or improvements in our competencies and thus increase our self-esteem. If we feel better about ourselves and our competence within our environment it may cause us to reduce the stressful perception of jobs, or lifestyle responsibilities. Coupled with a more positive mood this can only mean things will look better through our own eyes.
All forms of exercise and activity have a positive effect therefore it may be best to start by choosing something that you enjoy so you stick at it and it doesn’t become a chore. You can then work on your motivation to progress your types of physical activity (see motivation blog). In order to help further improve our self-esteem it is important to satisfy our psychological needs, and also set ourselves goals base upon goal-setting principles. For more information on goal setting see our goal setting article and top tips.
Exercise and Depression…
As mentioned if we become too stressed, develop a low self-esteem, and our moods are low it can lead to us becoming depressed. This may range from mild through to severe and clinical but all forms of depression can have significantly detrimental effects on people’s lives. With some of the current approaches to managing and treating the symptoms of depression there can often be a stigma attached to it making people reluctant to fully comply or involve themselves in their treatment.
Therefore physically activity may be a less stigmatised approach to help those individuals with, or prone, to depression. In both those with mild symptoms and those with severe clinical symptoms physical activity appears to provide a significant reduction when compared with no treatment or being inactive. Exercise has also been compared with the use of anti-depressant medication and some studies have shown no difference between the two interventions. It therefore appears that exercise and physical activity may be a valid and effective way of helping individuals with depressive symptoms without them feeling stigmatised or judged by others. If we can reduce these symptoms we may be less likely to implode on ourselves with perceived stress and allow these symptoms to take a hold on our lives.
Picture by Geralt Altmann taken from www.pixabay.com
Take Home Message…
The evidence does suggest that exercise and physical activity can help improve our mood and energy, increase our self-esteem, and help reduce depressive symptoms. So at times when you may feel like things are building up, or you feel stressors coming from all aspects of life, exercise or physical activity may be a route of escape for you. It seems that any form of physical activity as long as it becomes regular and not too sporadic will have some positive effect on the above factors. Therefore it may be something as simple as going for a walk on an evening or before work aiming to build this up to a more frequent form of exercise.
If exercise activity can then become regular it can be a positive way of helping keep stress and the other factors at bay. Some say that a healthy body fosters a healthy mind, therefore by using exercise as a way of keeping healthy physically it will also have these huge benefits for our psychological and emotional well-being. For men, exercise may be a more accepted way of releasing our stresses and controlling our emotions as we tend to be very bad at discussing these things. I should note that it is not exclusive to men but as we have this tendency not to talk about things it may be more appealing to the male population.
Try incorporate some for on physical activity into your life and see how much of a difference it makes on your stress levels, mood, and your self-perceptions in general.