The evidence supports it: the practice of physical exercise has been established as the panacea for improving health in general and mental health in particular. An exhaustive meta-analysis published this year in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, which reviewed nearly a hundred studies with a total of 130,000 participants, concluded that physical activity is highly beneficial for improving symptoms of depression, anxiety, and malaise in adults. This occurred both in the general population and in people with mental health disorders and chronic illnesses.
Although there is a consensus on the benefits of practicing some type of sport, a finer surgery is necessary to get the most out of the therapeutic qualities of moving the body for emotional well-being.
For starters, not everyone likes exercise or likes the same type of activity. “When she was anxious, the psychologist told me that I could do with some exercise to ‘rest my head. I signed up with a group of people to train a bit in a park. It was basically running. But I don’t like running,” says Susana, a 45-year-old professional in the world of communication who doesn’t enjoy practicing sports, but has always imposed herself on doing something because “you know it’s good for your body.”
The main thing to obtain benefit from an activity is precisely to do it. The Lancet magazine published in 2018 a study with data from more than a million adult Americans collected over four years. It showed that carrying out any type of physical activity was better than not practicing any in terms of improving mental health. The greatest association observed between well-being and sports practice was found in team sports, followed by gym and aerobic activities, among which cycling stood out.
While the average number of “bad days” per month for all the participants was more than three days, that of those who exercised was reduced by one and a half days. The beneficial association found is also greater in comparison with other factors. Thus, in this sense, exercise is superior to having a higher family income compared to not having it, a body mass index within the standards considered healthy compared to obesity, and having graduated from university compared to only high school.
Enjoying what is done or making the effort bearable emerge as basic characteristics for adherence to exercise. “This generates an intrinsic motivation, which is to do an activity because you like it, without the need for anyone to tell you to do it,” says Pablo del Río, a specialist in Sports Psychology and pioneer of this application in Spain. Both aspects are very personal and, sometimes, it is convenient to get out of the more conventional path to find preferences: if the gym or walking bores you, guided classes may be an option or even other more exotic practices such as martial arts, calisthenics, tennis tabletop or aerial yoga.
The aforementioned effort can be both physical and mental. Del Río explains that, at the motivational level, elite athletes seek to schedule training with realistic goals and “adapted to frustration and uncertainty.” He also insists on having a professional guide and plan the activity based on the functional and physical characteristics of the person. If it is not feasible to have an expert person, the basic thing is to try to listen to the body and not force. Mens sana in corpore sano.
Practicing with other people is a key point in the psychological factor of sport, as The Lancet mentions: it is encouraging and beneficial, as it encourages socialization. But socializing with sport is not limited to practicing it, but rather extends to, for example, staying a while longer and chatting about whatever, according to del Río. So, at the level of mental health, it is better to have a drink with your paddle tennis or pilates companions after class than to go home.
Another factor that helps to exercise is how attractive or how easy it is to get into it. The American Journal of Preventive Medicine published a study in 2005 showing that having large open public spaces and facilities that encourage their use were associated with longer walks. The person concerned can control the stimuli in their environment to help develop this practice over others. A couple of examples are going to a sports center as close as possible or wearing a kit that you like, beyond being comfortable.
Practicing a sporting activity that is enjoyed allows disconnection from day-to-day problems, entertains, offers the possibility of feeling valid, reduces stress and improves mood, among other things. “With a programmed, planned exercise, the psychological benefits are innumerable and it becomes detrimental if we go too far,” says the psychologist.
Del Río explains that the alarms should go off “when the sport generates a dependency and the fact of not doing it makes you feel bad. You feel irascible, pissed off.” The limit is when it becomes such a necessity that, instead of benefiting or wanting to do sports because it’s fun, you even practice it to alleviate the discomfort of not practicing it. “The subject has to be the owner and lord of his actions,” says the expert.
Other publications reveal that more than the time dedicated to sports practice, the key lies in perseverance. A pilot study from Frontiers in Psychology, which came to light in 2020, showed psychological benefits after a six-week intervention with aerobic exercise tables of just 12 minutes on average performed two days a week. The exercise program included running on the spot, kicking and punching in the air, or jumping.
This is explained, in part, because the movement of the body has a physiological effect of releasing hormones and neurotransmitters that is related to the sensation of well-being. This is an important differential part with respect to other types of more static hobbies, such as reading or going to a painting class, although they share the part of promoting socialization, enjoyment or improving the state of mind.
A vast number of investigations also links the practice of physical exercise with better mental performance and academic achievement. According to the data, it is better if it is an intense series and the benefit comes mainly after the practice of physical activity, although better cognitive performance is also associated with people who exercise regularly. It improves, above all, in memory and in more complicated tasks that involve executive functioning, such as solving problems.
Among the proposed explanatory factors for this effect are the state of post-exercise activation, increased cerebral oxygenation or the secretion of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a type of protein directly involved in neuronal growth.
In addition, it is not only the athlete who experiences the improvement: the beneficial effects of exercise on the brain and cognition are inherited. A research team from the Cajal Institute, belonging to the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), has reached this conclusion.
Although sport promotes good mental health, its practice is not an exclusive treatment nor does it guarantee to be exempt from problems of this type, since there are many other variables that affect this. According to the “Sport and Anxiety” study, prepared by the Schwabe Farma Ibérica laboratory in 2021, seven out of ten Spaniards who practice sports between two and seven days a week have suffered an episode of anxiety at some point in their lives. The situations that produce the most anxiety are overwork, uncertainty and financial problems.
