Exercise and Reducing Stress
Posted August 10th, 2015
Exercise is essential to stay healthy, as everyone knows. It can protect the body against a whole host of illnesses. It can also help our mental and emotional health. But exercise is also an antidote to another modern malady – stress.
When we experience stress, our body releases certain hormones, adrenaline and cortisol among them, that prime us to respond to whatever is stressing us. Our body also releases stored up sugars for energy. In evolutionary terms, it has been described as the “fight or flight response.” These hormones help provide the body with a burst of energy to elude whatever may be threatening us.
But in today’s modern world, when we are stressed, and these stress hormones are released, we seldom have the opportunity to do something physical to burn them off, which is exactly what we should do to handle our stress. Without doing exercise as a release valve, we tend to become anxious and experience physical symptoms like high blood pressure. Eventually, without our exercise release, the stress can lead to illnesses like diabetes and heart disease.
But regular exercise will help you to use up those hormones, helping you to relax and feel more at ease. Exercise also helps people who are suffering from depression or anxiety, two conditions where those same hormones are also released in large doses. In fact, some research has shown that exercise may be as effective as drugs in fighting depression.
Exercise also helps you to maintain brain health. Those fight or flight hormones also are not good for your brain. In fact, they may actually cause certain parts of it – those dealing with emotion and memory – to shrink.
But exercise has been shown to not only stop the shrinkage, but to increase the number of brain cells. What’s more, exercise also helps to increase the number of brain cells that release calming neurotransmitters.
If you start an exercise regimen, be sure to start slowly. Doing too much too fast will result in injury. Research has shown that it is good to do both cardiovascular training as well as weight training because doing both has greater health benefits than doing either alone.
If you are in a technical field and looking for work in the San Francisco Bay area, Bayside Solutions can help you find a position that fits your education and experience. We are among the most respected technology recruiting firms in the bay area. Give Bayside Solutions a call today.