The positive effects of exercise on your physical body are pretty well known by most people.

But are you aware of the many mental health benefits of consistent exercise?

If not, then this article will clue you in on the many advantages that come along with adding exercise to your weekly routine.

5 Benefits of Regular Exercise to Your Mental Health:

1. Expanding Your Social Circle.

Before even diving into the effects that exercise has on your actual brain chemistry, let’s discuss how it improves your social life.

This was the main benefit that one of our team members got out of joining a gym and implementing exercise as a daily habit. It helped them to not feel lonely and establish a social circle when they were living in Dubai alone.

By joining an organization of people like GymNation Dubai, you will inevitably expand your social circle. And you can find such organization almost anywhere in the world.

People who are a part of a community and have friends are known to live longer are less likely to commit suicide or have suicidal thoughts, and suffer less from depression.

If you decide to join a gym, you will join a close knit community that you’ll begin to build relationships with who will assist tremendously with your mental health.

2. Improved Sleep Quality.

Exercising will help tire you out so that you can get some decent shuteye. Not only that, but it has a calming effect that allows you to leave insomnia behind and catch some good quality z’s.

It also enforces what’s termed the circadian effect, which is your body’s biological clock that signals to your brain when you should go to sleep and when you should be alert and awake.

3. Enhanced Mood.

Studies have been done by Harvard Medical about the link between exercise and mood enhancement.

Is it really the exercise that helps with improved mood or is it that sitting all day causes people to feel sadder?

Solid question, right? The study found that even the most basic movements, like walking, stretching, taking the stairs, and even doing the dishes made huge improvements in people’s moods.

So, for you to make positive changes to your mental health, you don’t even have to exercise that hard. Just a little bit of extra movement every day will enhance your mood.

4. Boost in Confidence.

There are many physical benefits to exercising, such as more muscle tone, less flab, and clothes that fit better. All of these things contribute to a person’s confidence.

Self esteem is often a key determinant in a person’s overall well being. So, if you’re boosting your confidence, you’re also adding to the quality of your life, hence greater mental wellness.

5. Helps with PTSD and Trauma Healing.

Exercise is a lot like meditating.

It makes the person very focused and present in the body.

By providing your brain and body something healthy to focus on, it can help the nervous system uncripple itself from the state of immobilization that occurs when a person is affected by trauma.

Just moving your body helps you move the energy that’s stuck within your nervous system and better release it.

When you let the energy flow and move, the wall of resistance keeping that trauma within you gets weaker and it’s easier to release it.

Physical health is only half of the benefits of exercising.

Mental health affects the way we function in all aspects of our lives and determines our overall well being.

By taking care of our body, you are then able to make yourself more capable of taking on life’s challenges and showing up consistently for the people you care about.

What enhances the body enhances the mind, what enhances the mind enhances the body.