Stress is a natural feeling of the inability to deal with specific emotional, physical and situational trauma and demands. It could be a physical or psychological reaction to common triggers like family or personal issues, jobs, exams, etc. Stress is different for each individual. However, our bodies’ reactions to stressors are consistent. For example, it causes hormonal imbalances and cardiovascular and respiratory problems. However, not all stress is bad. Stress at times can help you stay focused and give you the energy to do more work.
Stress that lasts for a short time does not affect our health, but chronic stress that lasts for a long time impacts our health negatively. It can cause severe headaches, insomnia, muscle pain, hypertension, anxiety, mood swings, irritability and even depression. Unfortunately, it is impossible to eliminate stress from one’s life completely. However, learning to manage stress will help mitigate its detrimental effects.
The advantages of physical activity are well known. Workouts or exercises of any kind relieve stress. It increases feel-good endorphins while distracting you from daily concerns. Various studies have widely discovered the connection between exercise and stress management. Regular exercise improves your mood, boosts your confidence, allows you to relax, and keeps stress and anxiety at bay.
Benefits of Physical Activity for Stress Relief
Regular physical exercise, like brisk walking, can enhance the quality of your life and help you deal with stress, anxiety, and depression. You may experience a good sensation immediately after your workout. In addition, individuals develop positive well-being when exercise becomes a routine habit.
Reduces Adverse Effects of Stress
Workout may provide stress reduction for your body by stimulating the impacts of stress. For example, it deals with the ‘fight or flight’ reaction and assists your body and its systems in practising working together to overcome those effects. It can also have a favourable impact on your health, including your cardiovascular, digestive, and immune systems, by helping in protecting your body from the detrimental consequences of stress.
Improves Mood
Physical activity may aid in producing endorphins, the brain’s ‘feel-good’ chemicals. Any aerobic exercise, such as a game of playing tennis or a nature trek, can provide the same sensation.
A regular workout can boost your self-esteem, enhance your mood, help you relax, and reduce the symptoms of moderate melancholy and anxiety. When stress, sadness and worry frequently affect you, exercises or workouts can help you sleep better. Exercising can also help you reduce stress and gain control over your body and life.
Works As Meditation
After a lengthy walk, run, or many laps in the pool, you may discover that you’ve forgotten about the day’s annoyances and are focused on the feelings that exercising creates inside you. As you gradually release your everyday anxieties via movement and physical exercise, you may discover that focusing on a single activity becomes more manageable. The subsequent enthusiasm and positivity can assist you in being calm, clear, and focused in all you accomplish.
The PHH Note
Stress is a normal human reaction. It occurs when we feel pressurised or threatened. Workouts or exercises of any kind relieve stress. Regular physical exercise, like brisk walking, breathing exercises, meditation, and yoga, can enhance the quality of your life and help you deal with stress and anxiety. Furthermore, aerobic exercise may be the quickest approach to relieve stress. Cycling, dancing, walking, playing, swimming, boxing, and other activities can help reduce stress.
Workouts for Stress Relief
Aerobic Exercises
Aerobic exercise may be the quickest approach to relieve stress. It improves cardiovascular health. Aerobic literally means “with oxygen,” indicating that breathing regulates the amount of oxygen that can reach the muscles to help them burn fuel and move. These activities raise heart rate, which causes endorphins to get released in the brain. These neurochemicals are the feel-good chemicals that help relieve pain and stress and improve your mood.
Listed below are a few types of aerobic exercises
- Brisk walking
- Jogging or running
- Swimming
- Boxing
- Cycling
- Dancing
- Simple Breathing Exercises
Brisk Walking
Brisk walking is the most straightforward approach to relieving stress. It is a moderate-intensity activity that improves your overall health and helps you stay fit. Studies have shown that brisk walking reduces perceived weariness, raises working motivation, improves concentration, and reduces overall exhaustion.
Running
Running as an exercise helps both your body and mind feel better. According to research, running causes our bodies to produce endocannabinoids, a biological molecule similar to cannabis. This naturally occurring substance in your body travels from your bloodstream to your brain. As a result, it produces short-term emotions of relaxation and serenity.
Running improves blood flow to the brain and influences the part of your brain that responds to stress and improves your mood. As a result, it temporarily improves your reaction to stressful situations.
A meta-analysis of 116 papers published in 2020 investigated the link between running and mental health. According to the analysis, running enhanced the mood of individuals engaged in runs of varying intensities and durations. Ensure a safe path, appropriate support, and cushioning for your feet. Here’s an extensive guide on proper running gear to help you choose the best one for yourself.
Swimming
Swimming is a full-body exercise that is wonderful for the cardiovascular system. It also provides some resistance training features. This is because water is denser than air. Therefore, water tends to oppose your motions more than moving on land. Being submerged in water may also be exceptionally comforting for certain people, resulting in a more significant stress reduction.
Swimming is particularly effective in influencing mood by increasing the number of neurotransmitters in your brain, specifically serotonin, noradrenaline, and dopamine. These “feel-good” brain chemicals are increased by strenuous physical exercise (like steroid reserves), making you more resistant to stress.
Swimming requires extended muscular movements and deep breathing, which stimulates the brain to encourage nerve cell development and the production of endorphins and other stress-reducing substances. Furthermore, swimming burns calories and keeps your entire body moving, which helps you sleep better at night, giving you more energy throughout the day.
Read more about the mental and physical benefits of swimming.
Boxing
Boxing may be an excellent method to eliminate tension, rage, and other unpleasant emotions while also delivering a great heart-pumping workout.
It may sound paradoxical, but repeatedly hitting a goal might make you feel better and calmer. A high-intensity cardio training session, such as boxing, boosts the production of chemicals including serotonin, dopamine, endocannabinoids, and endorphins. Moreover, it decreases your body’s stress hormones, such as cortisol and adrenaline. Studies have also shown boxing helps reduce anxiety and despair by releasing these chemicals. As a result, your mood will improve, you’ll feel more relaxed and sleep better.
Cycling
Cycling helps lessen your body’s stress hormone, cortisol. Getting on your bicycle might also help to release tension in your body. According to research, individuals who cycle regularly have a much lower probability of feeling stressed. If this is not enough to get you to paddle, we’ve listed a 11 reasons to start cycling.
Dancing
Dancing provides a creative and emotional avenue for people to express themselves without harming themselves or others. You may express your feelings artistically and constructively using the correct music and dance.
Dancing can be an excellent method to relieve tension while also getting a good workout. It may also be a very good social activity, which can develop a sense of connection and support, making you feel less stressed.
Simple Breathing Exercises
Deep, slow, deliberate breathing can help our bodies function better. For example, deep belly breaths are a must for diaphragmatic breathing, also known as belly breathing. Deep, diaphragmatic breathing improves both physical and emotional health. For example, the stress response reduces by adopting simple breathing exercises. It also encourages the body and mind to relax with several other health benefits.
Yoga
Yoga is a great stress-relieving activity that consists of a sequence of moving and static poses mixed with deep breathing. In addition, yoga is a mind-body practice, can help you achieve a healthy balance by strengthening your body’s natural calming reaction. Regular yoga can help in relieving stress.
There are various types of yoga asanas that you can start practising to relieve stress:
- Sukhasana (Easy Pose)
- Marjaryasana-Bitilasana (Cat-Cow Pose)
- Balasana (Child Pose)
- Savasana (Corpse Pose)
- Viparita Karani (Legs-Up-The-Wall Pose)
- Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend Pose)
Yoga promotes mental and physical relaxation, which aids in the reduction of stress and anxiety. Physical postures increase flexibility, relieve stress, and reduce discomfort. Yoga positions may assist you in releasing physical obstructions such as muscular knots, emotions, and tension. A 2020 research on adult males found that yoga lowers cortisol levels and increases parasympathetic nerve activity, which promotes calmness.
Concentrating on the present moment, i.e., mindfulness increases your awareness throughout the yoga practice. You may find it far easier to see beyond attachments. You can become more aware of the transient nature of your body sensations, thoughts, and feelings. Furthermore, you can also learn to develop emotions like love, pleasure, and tranquillity.
Tai Chi
Tai chi, like yoga, is a self-paced series of flowing body motions and breathing practices. It is a form of exercise that began as a Chinese tradition. Although the motions have martial arts roots, they intend to relax the mind and train the body, making tai chi an ideal stress reliever.
This mind-body activity offers several health advantages. For example, Tai chi can improve bone density, decrease blood pressure, stimulate the immune system, and even alleviate the symptoms of illnesses such as arthritis and heart conditions. An additional benefit is that once you learn the techniques, you may perform them anywhere at any time. Therefore, it is an easy exercise to adopt into regular life for individuals of all ages.
Researchers examined the benefits of tai chi and conventional exercises on stress-related anxiety. The research involved 50 people. The researchers discovered that tai chi gave the same advantages for stress-related anxiety management as exercise. In addition, Tai chi may be preferable to other types of exercise for lowering stress and anxiety since it incorporates meditation and focused breathing.
Although Tai chi is mostly safe, incorrect tai chi practice may increase the risk of joint damage. Consider taking a class or working with an instructor to reduce your risk of injury, especially if you are new to the sport.
The PHH Note
Recent research indicates that tai chi and yoga sessions of 60 to 90 minutes, practised two to three days per week, are beneficial in lowering stress and boosting emotions of well-being. Studies also show that fifteen minutes of chair-based yoga poses help reduce acute stress.
Summary
Stress is harmful to your health if it becomes severe or continuous. Stress relievers that can calm both your mind and body are essential. Almost any sort of exercise helps to reduce stress. Workouts have many stress-busting benefits, from pumping up the endorphins to reducing the adverse effects of stress and anxiety. If you are starting with exercises, don’t think of them as merely another task to complete. Make a regular habit of doing something you like, including dancing, swimming, playing tennis or badminton.
Apart from these mentioned workouts, many other exercises are there for stress relief, like pilates, martial arts, and team sports. For example, suppose you are already taking martial arts training or like to play indoor or outdoor sports with friends or colleagues. In that case, those activities can help you in your stress-relieving journey.