People across all generations can enjoy the benefits of exercise. One benefit of exercising is that it is a great mood booster and improves wellbeing. Exercise relaxes your mind; thus, it’s crucial for your mental health. It can be hard to find a workout routine that you can stick to but it’s good to identify a physical activity that will help you achieve good wellbeing among many other benefits.

While exercise makes you feel exhausted, it is also responsible for releasing the endorphin hormone within the brain. As the endorphin levels increase, they also impact your mood positively. They also help with stress and pain relief, and they take care of your mental health.

Weightlifting

Strength training can improve your physical strength and boost your mood. During strength training, the brain is prompted to release endorphins which help to boost your overall mood regardless of whether they benefit from it physically or not.

The best thing about it is that you don’t always need to go to a gym to get it done, but you can do it indoors at times in the comfort of your home. When correctly done, you can do it up to 5 times a week. Don’t push yourself if you are a beginner, though. Instead, start with a low-weight, low-rep routine and increase as you continue. Also, to avoid fatigue or sore muscles, take a day off from exercise to rest.

Yoga

Yoga is another excellent low-impact exercise that focuses on breathing, posture, and meditation. Yoga has been known to improve your general wellbeing and boost your mood if done regularly. As you breathe in, more oxygen flows to your brain, and it prompts the release of the GABA chemicals, which help to calm your nerves down and boosts your overall mood.

If you do this for a continuous three-month period, your nervous system is automatically prompted to keep you relaxed most of the time.

In the first few months of this exercise, if you’re a beginner, try and get an instructor to help you learn how to breathe correctly. This will help you practice it later on from wherever you are and yield the maximum benefits. You can also follow along with online videos.

Tai Chi

Tai Chi is a famous martial art exercise invented initially from the Chinese tradition. It mainly focuses on breathing and movement and is best done in the morning hours. The slow organized movements are beneficial to the nervous system as they prompt the brain to release the endorphin hormone. If done correctly over a long time, it will also take care of your general mental health issues, improve your self-esteem, and avoid unnecessary stress.

Our Stafford Centre service in Edinburgh regularly does Tai Chi sessions for people receiving support with their mental health.

If you’re a beginner, learn the basic moves online or through a certified instructor before graduating to more complex movements.

Aerobics

It’s no doubt that aerobics are also responsible for raising serotonin levels in the body. Some of these tremendous aerobic exercises are dancing, gardening, walking, jogging, swimming, or using a treadmill. These cardio activities prompt the brain to send neurons to the nervous systems for the release of serotonin. More production of this hormone leads to mood-boosting amongst other benefits for your general wellbeing.

Don’t push yourself as a beginner. Instead, start with a 30-minute routine as you increase gradually. Also, take the required breaks to give your body rest.

Top tips:

• Get advice as this will make the movement easier to learn and prevent injury.
• If you don’t like something, remember there are lots of different types of exercise and if you keep going you will find one you enjoy.
• Creating a long term, consistent exercise regime is the best goal for our physical and mental health.