When training for a sport, mental health is as important as physical health. Mental skills training for sport helps in enduring the long training hours and staying motivated. Four factors contribute to overall health- mental, emotional, social, and physical. Each factor works in harmony and influences performance in sport, exercise, and physical health. Exercise is not just about having some physical activity. Exercise improves your physical health and even adds years to your life.
Most people who exercise regularly do so because it gives them happiness and makes them feel good. They feel more energetic, sleep well at night, have better memory, and feel relaxed and positive about themselves. It also acts as a powerful medicine in battling mental health challenges.
Here are some mental health benefits of exercise:
- Reduced stress: The ability of exercise to reduce mental and physical stress has been proven time and again. Exercising releases hormones that help reduce stress, which makes it one of the best ways to combat stress and stay energetic.
- Sleep better: The body needs to recover from exercise, so your brain will feel tired and help you sleep better throughout the night. The human body recovers when we sleep at night. Having good sleep is the most effective mode of recovery from strenuous training sessions.
- Boosts happiness: Mental and emotional benefits of exercise are well known. Exercise releases happy chemicals called endorphins in the brain, which work like pain medicine. These endorphins release naturally by exercise and have been proven to reduce depression and increase happiness after a workout. Exercising outdoors can also give you a boost of happiness.
- Better cognitive function: As we grow older our cognitive functions start taking a hit and start declining as we age. Regular exercise helps in keeping your mind healthy and improves overall cognitive functions, at any age. Exercise affects the part of the brain that acts on memory and improves its function. It also improves our ability to learn. With regular exercise you can improve your memory and help you retain more information in the long run.
- Relieves anxiety: Exercise can relieve anxiety in the same way that it boosts happiness, by the release of endorphins. Exercise has been proven to be more effective at reducing anxiety than any other relaxing activity, like taking a long shower or getting a massage. Exercise helps reduce anxiety as it not only releases endorphins, but also gives you something different to focus on, like maintaining your physical health or something as simple as keeping your breathing steady.