Going for a run and working out in general offers benefits that you have learned about by now. Not only that, over time, it helps you stay in shape or return to your ideal weight if work and various commitments have led you to a sedentary life. If you train continuously and more structured by devoting time and energy, you can also work on performance. This will enable you to lengthen your distances in both training and competition and to get faster and faster in each competition. You also know how much each workout brings with it a feeling of well-being that then accompanies you for many hours and becomes almost indispensable over time. If you can’t exercise for a few days that pleasant feeling starts to fail you making you more nervous and irritable.
It’s all about endorphins
It’s not just a fixation as you might think or as people around you sometimes think when they don’t understand your continued desire to train. It is a real chemical-physical phenomenon that binds you so strongly to sports. The feeling you experience comes from the production of hormones called Endorphins. These hormones produce excitatory, pain-relieving, and antidepressant effects in the body. Chemically they act in your body exactly like opiates.
On a practical level, when you produce these substances, you feel a sense of gratification that helps you endure not only the temporary fatigue of training but also, and more importantly, the daily stress.
What you may not know instead is that endorphins themselves can make an even greater contribution than you think. In fact, it is scientifically proven that they can help you control states of anxiety and even help overcome mild and moderate states of depression. The big advantage is that the physical activity behind endorphin production has no health side effects like most drugs used for this purpose.
What are the recommended sports?
Sports that help you produce endorphins are many, and running is definitely among them along with swimming and cycling. In addition to endurance sports, yoga, dance and group sports also work, where one can also benefit from social interaction with fellow exercisers.
But while we all agree by now in supporting this extraordinary property of sports activity on our mental and physical well-being, it is yet to be understood what the correct dose is. In other words, how and how much do you have to exercise to get these benefits? In some studies it seems that as activity increases, the benefits increase. But physical activity cannot increase indefinitely. It must be within the reach of your physical characteristics and, above all, compatible with your personal life. You must have the ability to balance sports with all your commitments. So the first step you need to address is choosing the ideal volume. To train well you need three or four sessions a week. I would go no further to avoid Put a strain on the rest of your personal life.
The second choice to be made, however, concerns intensity. And on this topic that was the subject of a recent study comes a surprise. Previously it was thought that there was no correct intensity or at least minimum or maximum intensity. You only needed to go out for a run at any intensity within your comfort zone to produce a positive effect on your well-being. After all, you don’t have to run to win a race but just to feel better and get in shape. Why then place the focus on intensity? Instead, it is not so! Apparently whatever your level of preparation, choosing and knowing how to dose volume and intensity is important.
The study
To better understand this, a group of women with depression were put through an exercise protocol that included different types of intensities for each session. These were simple exercises to be done on a cycle ergometer lasting 30′. At the end of the project, a comparison was made of the benefits obtained by each participant at the end of each session. There were four sessions proposed: one easy, one intermediate and one challenging where it was required to keep the intensity as constant as possible. The last session was free with the intensity at the total discretion of the subject.
The results were surprising. Perhaps. I say maybe because every coach knows that training alone effectively is really difficult. One must always understand well what intensity is correct to produce the necessary stimulus. The choice of those who train alone is not objective but influenced by personal perception of effort. In contrast, a coach is able to suggest the correct intensities for each different type of session and, most importantly, is able to include even the unwelcome but necessary stimuli for the athlete. In other words, if you train alone, you will never be able to surprise yourself with an abrupt change in load or training outside your regular sessions.
In the treatment of depression, a similar phenomenon occurs. The best responses measured on subjects were not unique and directly proportional to intensity. So, not necessarily, more activity produces better results. But the benefits on subjects were always higher at externally prescribed intensity and not after sessions in which The intensity was chosen by the subject. So to get more benefits from sports activity to improve your mental and physical well-being, it is helpful to understand the correct volumes and intensities to develop the best results. Exactly the same as when you use the training the following year to finish your first marathon or beat a Personal Best from a few years earlier.
The advice I can give you is that if you are lucky enough to be able to run and exercise, you should not stop. Don’t be influenced by negative events or daily stresses that tend to limit the time you can allocate to training. Defend with determination and competitive “nastiness” the spaces you were able to win. These moments you dedicate to yourself are more important than you think!!!
(Main image credits: Wavebreakmedia on DepositoPhotos.com)