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Having Trouble Relaxing? Exercise!
Health | March 08, 2015
Nothing is worse than finally finding time to relax, but being unable to do so. I think this happens to a lot of people on the weekends. They work hard, fight traffic, and have little to no free time all week. Suddenly Saturday and Sunday show up and they tell themselves, ‘I must relax!’ That, of course, is easier said than done. No wonder people sometimes seem even more stressed on the weekends than on the weekdays. They are trying to cram relaxation alongside errands and their relationships over the course of two days! Stress rarely responds to wishful thinking. As with anything good in our lives effort and planning are necessary.
It turns out that one of the best ways to relax both mentally and physiologically speaking is to exercise. Some of you veteran warriorz already know this. I recently wrote about the stress hormone cortisol and how it can sometimes negatively affect us. According to the Harvard Medical School, consistent exercise lowers cortisol levels especially when caused by chronic stress. It also releases all those feel-good chemicals such as endorphins many of you are familiar with as well.
There is a reason why exercise is one of the most effective methods to treat stress and depression. There are plenty of clinical studies that have proven that regular exercise can effectively treat stress, anxiety and depression better than medication.
One of the reasons why I keep my workouts at the Zgym relatively short, but intense is because I know we all have busy lives. Not everyone can lace up a pair of running shoes and run five miles every day or drive far from home or work to spend two hours at the gym. I know that we all can find fifteen to twenty minutes even on our busiest days. If you’re just getting started with me I challenge you to find the time. It may seem difficult at first, even impossible at times, but you will begin to notice positive changes, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally as well.
Private Member |
Interesting fact is that endorphins except exercise can be released from learning a new information that could be helpful for us in our future. The same way as exercise we release endorphins learning something new and useful. Meditation is also a good way to reduce the stress.
For less stress its good to exercise, to learn new, cool and helpful stuff daily and do some quieting of the mind(meditation, tai chi or some of this type of stuff, because if there is too much information and we don’t give ourselves a good nice break and we just explode at some times, our nervous system gets too tense).
After that sort of activity we process at faster and better pace physically and mindfully. 🙂
Private Member |
switzerland/, france
it is also said that short intense workout is better, because long exercise can add-up as a stressful factor to our bodies. Well, I don’t know how much that would be ? running 2-3 hours/day ? 5 hours /day?
that would be quite a burden for the body to face on top of the rest. Unless you have nothing else to do than run ?! like sport’s pros.
It’s been a week I am doing mini-morning workouts, sometimes I squeeze 1-2 more mini-workouts in the day, or practicing my snatches and I feel good about it…physically and mentally (on those days when I am sooo tired, physically and/or mentally), I know I did something for my body. I wish I had a KB under my office-desk too, ha,ha.
Private Member |
Your workouts are the only workouts I ever want to do. They make me feel amazing. I have fallen off the wagon lately due to insanely busy schedule/flu/back pain but I can’t wait to get back on. I definitely sleep better when I’m working out on a daily basis.
Private Member |
40 minutes run is perfect for me. 30-60 minutes cardio training is the best not only for me but also for WHO- World Health Organization. It’s best for our cardiovascular system.(and i don’t mean for 5 hour running.. you will be exhausted what energy after that..) And i can tell you from personal experience there is nothing more energizing than running at high altitute at medium-high pace, the moment you go to low-attitude you will feel what i mean. And i try so many workouts, so i know what i have experienced. After this i can say the second best is HIIT training like the hiit you are doing looking at Zuzca. Wish you all the best.
Private Member |
I love this! A friend posted this on FB and its exactly what I need to hear as a single mom. I have a hard time trusting a lot of what I read online so thanks for such educated posts 😀