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Today Health And Fitness, Sydney (2026)

11/10/2025

How Can Exercise Improve Our Mental Health?

October 10th is World Mental Health Day! It’s pretty hard to imagine that there was a time not too long ago when talking openly about mental health could be considered a social faux pas. Thankfully, this is all in the past.

This change may have stemmed from a shift in society’s attitudes, with people now more accepting of mental health issues and more supportive of people with these issues. It’s a welcome change; after all, mental health is integral to overall health. As the World Health Organisation puts it, there is no health without mental health.

Let’s dive into how mental health can be improved with exercise and physical activity…

The topic of mental health is highly relevant as statistics estimate that 2 out of 5 Australians from the ages of 16 to 85 have experienced mental disorders that include social phobia, affective disorders such as depression, and substance abuse.

Current scientific evidence suggests that physical activity can help improve your mental well-being. In this regard, it’s alarming to note that 75% of Australian adults aged 18 to 64 are not sufficiently active and do not meet the physical activity guidelines.

Clearly, there is a need to get off the couch, sit less, and start moving more if we want to reap the mental benefits of exercise.
WHAT ARE THE MENTAL HEALTH BENEFITS OF EXERCISE?

Remember a time when you worked out during the day and slept soundly all night? Then you woke up full of energy, eager to face the day’s tasks. Those are just two of the many mental health benefits of exercise. Regular physical activity offers profound merits that include the following:

Improved stamina and endurance that can translate to better self-confidence.
Stress relief.
Decreased tiredness and increased mental alertness.
Improvement in mood, easing the symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Some studies show that people who exercise regularly have better mental health and lower levels of mental illness.
Some studies even suggest that exercise can significantly help prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
Research also reports that regular exercise can affect the brain’s neuroplasticity or the brain’s ability to reorganise synaptic connections due to learning, experience, or in the aftermath of an injury.

HOW DOES EXERCISE HELP MENTAL HEALTH?

At the very least, exercise can provide a healthy distraction from our worries. It can improve our moods through exercise-induced blood circulation to the brain.

Biologically, physical activity can also help release chemicals in the brain, including the neurotransmitters serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins.

Serotonin helps regulate our moods and sleep patterns and controls our sexual desires.
Dopamine lets us feel pleasure, satisfaction, and motivation.
Endorphins interact with receptors in the brain that can trigger positive feelings and reduce our perception of pain.

There are also studies suggesting that physical exercise may be able to influence the production of neurotrophic factors that provide improved brain functionality.

‘Neurotrophic factor’ is a term that points to the ability of a factor to support or nourish the growth of neurons. This is related to the ability of exercise to improve the brain’s neuroplasticity.

28/12/2024

Exercise for Parkinson’s Disease

An estimated 100,000 Australian’s are living with Parkinson’s Disease and suffer from rigidity, restricted walking ability and limitations with other motor functions.

While exercise is widely recognised for managing a variety of health conditions including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer and mental health, the benefits of exercise have only been extended to individuals with neurological conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease, in more recent years.

Why is it important to exercise?
Current research shows that exercise is important for individuals with neurological conditions as it not only improves cardiorespiratory fitness, but also muscle strength. This in turn has shown to have positive effects on managing symptoms associated with Parkinson’s disease.

Remember that better mobility may improve quality of life and prolong independent living. Exercise may also have positive effects on mood and improve brain function and make drug therapy more effective.

So, what type of exercise is best?
There are many different forms of exercise, but what type is right for us? Every individual is different! It’s important to remember that although a combination of aerobic, resistance and balance exercises have the best overall effect, we may need to modify each element to our suit our unique circumstance.

Aerobic exercise
Aerobic exercise is described as continual movement to assist in the improvement of cardiorespiratory function. This includes walking, cycling, swimming and even dancing! Exercising to music specifically has seen some fantastic results in managing Parkinson’s symptoms. Dance for Parkinson’s Australia run specialised dance classes across Australia, providing a social environment so share stimulating activity.

Resistance exercise
Maintaining strength is not only important to keep our muscles healthy, it also helps with daily activities like getting off the toilet and getting out of the car.
Resistance exercises can be performed using our body weight, light hand weights, resistance bands, various machines found in a gym setting or even using common household items like cans of food.

Moving our muscle under a greater resistance promotes an increase in muscle mass. We may like to participate in group setting, a home program, or a combination of both.

28/12/2024

The Role of Exercise for Gestational Diabetes

Pregnancy is a very exciting time and women want to do all they can to ensure they give birth to a healthy baby. Due to the many changes that happen during pregnancy, sometimes women are diagnosed with gestational diabetes.
Accredited Exercise Physiologist, Emma Young, explains how exercise can help prevent and manage gestational diabetes.

What is Gestational Diabetes?
WE may have previously heard of diabetes but what is gestational diabetes? Gestational diabetes is a form of diabetes that is diagnosed whilst a woman is pregnant.

To be diagnosed with gestational diabetes, elevated blood glucose levels will first appear during this time and will then return to normal levels post pregnancy. To determine if we have elevated blood glucose levels we will undergo what is called an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test at 24-28 weeks gestation.

How can exercise help with Gestational Diabetes?

Exercise is important for every expectant mother. However it is especially important for those at risk of developing gestational diabetes and those who have been diagnosed with gestational diabetes.
If we are thinking about becoming pregnant, exercising beforehand has been shown to have a greater beneficial effect on preventing gestational diabetes than starting once we become pregnant.

However, do not let this stop us from beginning exercise if we are already pregnant. Completing structured physical activity once pregnant still has a great impact on reducing gestational diabetes risk. Both aerobic and strength training have been shown to have positive benefits in risk reduction for gestational diabetes.

29/11/2024

Tired of being tired from poor sleep? Exercise can help!

We’ve all felt sluggish, lethargic and tired after a bad night’s sleep and we’ve all experienced the benefits of good sleep. Good sleep can improve our pain, our metabolism, our mental health and our immunity. But what happens if we’re stuck in a cycle of poor sleep?

What if we seem to do all the right things but still wake up feeling like we’ve been hit by a truck? Exercise can be a great tool to help us improve our sleep.
Are we suffering from poor sleep?

Poor sleep can be because of a whole range of reasons such as Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA), shift work, parenting young children, mental health and sleep disorders such as insomnia.

The effects of poor sleep include weight gain, increased risk of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, depression and anxiety. On top of this, when we’re tired, we don’t make the best decisions regarding our health and diet. Plus, our coordination and reaction times can be impaired leading to increased risk of injury.

So how does exercise help sleep?

Exercise and sleep complement each other super well. If we get good refreshing sleep then we are more likely to feel like exercising. And if we exercise, we’re more likely to sleep well!

Neat hey! Exercise works to help us drop off to sleep, sleep for longer and sleep more soundly. It also helps to manage other factors that can lead to poor sleep such as mental health and weight gain which is associated with Obstructive Sleep Apnoea and some other sleep disorders.

Exercising outdoors can help our body’s sleep rhythms through exposure to natural light, which our brains use to decide whether to secrete ‘sleepy’ or ‘wakey’ chemicals. Exercise also leads to an increase in body temperature and a subsequent drop which can induce drowsiness and help us nod off if timed properly.

How much and when should I exercise?
Getting 150 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous exercise has been shown to improve our sleep quality whilst helping us to meet the exercise guidelines for the other fantastic benefits of exercise. 150 minutes can be broken down into 5 x 30-minute workouts over the week or any other combination you can think of. Even 10-minute bouts can have massive benefits to our overall health and sleep.

18/10/2024

4 Ways to Reduce Stress

With our ever-stressed, fast-paced lifestyles, our bodies are pumping out cortisol almost constantly. This can wreak havoc on our health. So, what exactly is cortisol, how does it affect your body and how can you keep it under control? Let’s investigate how to reduce stress…

How to reduce stress and manage cortisol levels

Stressed-out people can be destined for failed health despite their best intentions. Fortunately, there’s much that can be done to reverse the path of destruction. Here are my tips for keeping your cortisol levels at bay:

Find Out Your Level

Getting a blood test will reveal what your cortisol levels are. Normal ranges for adults are between 5-23 mcg/dL in the morning and between 3-16 mcg/dL in the afternoon. To get your levels checked, see your GP for a referral.

Stress Management

How you deal with stress is one of the key factors to keep your cortisol levels at optimum. Some strategies to reduce stress include:

Getting more and better quality sleep
Breathwork
Acupuncture
Relaxation exercises
Addressing psychological and emotional issues
Exercising regularly

Eat Foods That Minimise Inflammation

The foods you eat can have an impact, so try to:

i. Implement a low glycaemic load diet
ii. Reduce intake of trans fats and saturated fats
iii. Eliminate or reduce caffeine consumption
iv. Drink alcohol in moderation (or not at all)
v. Boost consumption of whole plant foods
vi. Meet recommended intake of fats

Get Regular Exercise
Exercise improves the way we deal with everyday stress. The mechanisms behind this are complex, but the results are clear… we feel the effects of stress less if we move more.

For those living with anxiety and stress disorders, exercise is an effective treatment. Exercise has also been shown to have a positive impact on those living in more complex conditions, such as PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

So how much exercise should you be doing? A minimum of 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity exercise every week. In other words, aim to exercise at least 30 minutes, 5 times per week.

04/10/2024

Chronic Pain and ‘Exercise Snacks’: What are the benefits?

This article was contributed and written by Accredited Exercise Physiologist, Aksh*ta Goel.
HACK YOUR PAIN WITH TINY MOVEMENT DOSES

Feeling trapped by chronic pain? You’re not alone. But what if relief came from bite-sized bursts of movement, not hours at the gym?

WHAT ARE ‘MICRO-WORKOUTS’ OR ‘EXERCISE SNACKS’?

Exercise snacks, a concept born from research, are redefining how we integrate physical activity into our daily routines. These brief, vigorous bursts of exercise, last no more than a minute and are strategically scattered throughout the day to break up sedentary periods.

Studies highlight their effectiveness in boosting cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and metabolic health, making them a powerful tool against the harmful effects of prolonged sitting.

THE SCIENCE: WHY IT WORKS

We all know that having a sedentary lifestyle for long periods is bad for your health, linked to a higher risk of chronic diseases like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even some cancers. But even short bursts of activity can counteract these negative effects.

Physiologically speaking, one key area positively impacted by short bursts of exercise is energy metabolism. Research has shown that our bodies are designed for movement, and prolonged inactivity disrupts how we process energy.

HOW TO STAY CONSISTENT WITH EXERCISE SNACKS

Start small, build strong: Set achievable goals and gradually increase intensity/duration as you become consistent.

Find your fun: Choose activities you enjoy, like dancing, yoga, or brisk walks. Track your progress to stay motivated.

09/09/2024

Want to be happier & healthier in 2024? Dive in (literally)!

Modern life is tough. We experience chronic stress and are “always on”. A little stress can be healthy, but like everything, it should be experienced in moderation.
Too much stress can eventually result in burn out, memory problems, poor judgement, anxiety, and depression. Physically, chronic stress damages the cardiovascular, immune, digestive, nervous and musculoskeletal systems.
It does this by lowering levels of serotonin and dopamine. These neurotransmitters are responsible for making us happy and low levels leaves us feeling exhausted and down.

The solution? Exercise, especially in water, can provide much-needed balance for your mental health!

Why water?
Historically, our brains are wired to constantly scan for danger, which makes sense. Except now we’re faced with busy streets and email alerts, not lions.
Our brains like being around water because there is a high degree of predictability. This allows the amygdala (the emotion centre of the brain) to relax.

Additionally, small disturbances such as waves breaking or birds flying past give a sense of surprise. That in turn causes a pleasurable hit of dopamine. Because of this simultaneous sameness and change, we get a soothing familiarity and stimulating novelty when we look over the water.

It’s the perfect recipe for triggering a state of involuntary attention in which the brain’s default network, essential to creativity and problem solving, is activated. Studies have even shown that being at the beach, lowers blood lactate levels and elevates mood.

08/09/2024

3 Reasons You Shouldn’t Ignore Flexibility

Everyone talks about strength and cardio, but what about flexibility training?

The word ‘exercise’ often triggers intimidating thoughts of sweaty people, in a cramped gym environment, complete with mirrors on all four walls. The good news? It doesn’t need to be this way!

Flexibility is one of the primary fitness components however, it’s so often belittled by its ‘heavy lifting’ counterparts, such as muscular strength and aerobic fitness developments. What’s the point in sitting on a mat and stretching, right? Well, turns out, there’s plenty of reasons to include flexibility in your routine:

1. It decreases risk of injury & improves recovery
After the release of a static stretch, local blood flow is increased beyond pre-stretching levels. The great thing is that, more oxygenated blood = faster recovery.

The use of stretching helps manage muscle soreness as gentle contractions (ie: holding 60% voluntary contraction) helps move metabolites and nutrients around the working muscles assisting cell recovery!

2. It improves mental health & quality of life
The benefits of flexibility are not limited to the body. Studies have shown that the inclusion of low intensity Tai-Yoga can improve the quality of life and functional assessments over a twelve-week period.
Improvements in quality of life are often linked to a more positive self-esteem and therefore generate improvements in mental health. Fantastic outcome not just for you, but also those around you!

3. It improves performance & posture
Being flexible means our joints can safely and smoothly move through their entire range of motion (ROM). Activities such as yoga, Tai Chi and Pilates focus heavily on gently moving through these ranges. This means our joints become more stable and facilitate better performances, albeit sporting abilities or improved posture.

08/09/2024

How I Overcame Exercise Addiction

We all know regular exercise is good for us, but can you really workout too much? Yes, yes you can. In this blog Accredited Exercise Physiologist, Sarah King, shares her journey with exercise addiction and explains how she changed her relationship with exercise for the better.

exercise addiction
23 Jan How I Overcame Exercise Addiction
Posted at 07:30h in Well-being by Exercise Right
We all know regular exercise is good for us, but can you really workout too much? Yes, yes you can. In this blog Accredited Exercise Physiologist, Sarah King, shares her journey with exercise addiction and explains how she changed her relationship with exercise for the better.

It’s 6am. I’m on the treadmill at the gym. It’s dark, cold and dreary. Winter is so depressing, but I’m determined. If I can just get more toned, have thinner thighs, finally get abs like the girls in those fitness magazines, then I’ll be happy. My boyfriend will love me more. I’ll be good enough. Just. Keep. Pushing. My body is screaming at me to stop. I feel dizzy and my lungs are burning, but my mind shouts even louder. I push through and torture myself with 5 sets of heavy squats instead of the prescribed 3. Go hard or go home right?

Back in the day when I hit the gym I only had one speed: all out. If I didn’t feel dead when I finished a class, jumped off the treadmill or finished a weights routine I used to think to myself ‘well that was a waste of time’ or ‘why are you being so lazy?’

Needless to say, this pattern didn’t end well. Every few months I would experience extreme fatigue that would force me to slow down. I’d listen to my body and do more gentle exercise, but the second I felt more energetic I was straight back into my crazy routine. However, I knew this pattern was unsustainable and NOT good for my overall health!

I had exercise addiction.
I chased the post-workout high and anything less than that I didn’t warrant as a ‘workout’. At this time in my life I was also suffering from an eating disorder and hadn’t had a period in YEARS.

From the outside I looked like the ‘perfect picture of health’ but inside my body and mind told a different story. I knew I needed to create a healthier relationship with exercise so that I could restore my weight, heal my mind, and regain my period. The first thing that needed to change was my workout intensity. Here’s exactly how I regained a balance exercise routine and the intensity I stick to on a weekly basis.

08/09/2024

3 Ways to Create Motivation to Exercise

Odds are, you started the New Year promising yourself you’d workout more – then everything changed. COVID, kids, work, life…

Slowly those great plans you had have scattered and you’ve started to go back to your bad habits. Sound familiar? We all know we’re supposed to work out, but finding the motivation to exercise can be tough.

If you can relate, fear not.

Let’s start with hard facts.
Physical inactivity is the fourth leading cause of death due to non-communicable disease (heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancers) worldwide – contributing to over three million preventable deaths annually. Nearly one in three (29.7%) adults are insufficiently active (less than 150 minutes of physical activity per week), while 14.8% are inactive (no exercise in the last week).

We know exercise is good for us!

So why aren’t more of us exercising?! I think it’s safe to say our motivation to exercise is a pretty universal barrier for most of us, so let’s talk about three factors that impact motivation!

The Link Between Our Goals & Motivation to Exercise
Setting appropriate goals can have a huge impact on our levels of motivation. Sometimes, our goals don’t foster a positive, successful experience that builds self-efficacy and growth.

For instance, imagine I measure my success at the gym by thinking “do I look like Jennifer Aniston yet?”. I’ll be self-critical, unmotivated and ultimately, I’ll fail. Why? Because it’s not something I have control over! We have different genetics, different body types, enjoy different types of exercise, have different time constraints (the list goes on). There’s simply no way that I’ll maintain motivation when my goal is unachievable.

But what if I change my goal to “maintaining a regular and consistent exercise routine”? Suddenly, it’s achievable. I can do this! Each week, I make progress, and progress is a HUGE motivator.

So how do you choose a suitable goal? It’s important that our goals are driven by our values. Choose something that is important and relevant to you. Learn more about goal setting here.

Motivation to Exercise and the ‘F’ Word
The fear of failing (yeah, that ‘F’ word) holds of a lot of us back. But failure isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Let’s think about toddlers (stick with me here). Toddlers learning to walk continually fail. They stand up, take half a step, wobble, fall over, and repeat that cycle a few thousand times before they can actually walk. Never do they think “my god, I suck at this, I don’t think walking is for me!”.

Improvement is always based on thousands of tiny failures. And the magnitude of your success is based on how many times you’ve failed at something. If someone is better than you at something, then it’s likely because they have failed at it more than you have. (Or done it many more times, and therefore have refined the skill and have the capacity to do it better!)

Rather than letting a small failure set you back, use it as a motivator. Be determined to get stronger, faster, fitter – no matter how many times you fail. Ultimately, the more times you try, the less you’ll fail.

Important note: Pain is part of the process (mentally and physically). You can’t make a muscle without tearing a few fibers!

11/06/2024

Everything we need to know about foam rolling

If we’ve visited a gym recently, we’ve probably seen someone rolling around on a large piece of foam. Foam rollers are often cylindrical-shaped and sometimes have bumps and unusual shapes on them. But the question is… why are people foam rolling?

WHAT IS FOAM ROLLING?
Firstly, foam rolling is different to stretching. Stretching involves moving a limb (like our leg) to the end of its range of motion, holding this position for 15-60 seconds, and then repeating 2-4 times.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?
The research is starting to grow on the benefits of foam rolling on the body. Whilst current research is limited, foam rolling can be more effective at increasing flexibility when compared to static and dynamic stretching. It’s often recommended as part of a warm-up to improve muscular performance.

Foam rolling after a workout can also be effective for reducing delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS), which is the soreness we can get after a tough workout.

11/06/2024

A practical perspective on exercise for weight loss

More than 2 in 3 Australian adults are overweight or obese. There’s a lot of information out there about how to lose weight and it’s easy to lose track of the basics. We asked an Accredited Exercise Physiologist for some practical tips on exercise and weight loss.

4 PRACTICAL TIPS FROM AN ACCREDITED EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGIST
1. FIND OUR WHY
Emotion drives behaviour. If we are familiar with this concept, we may be well versed in the philosophies of Mr. Simon Sinek, an unshakable optimist.

2. FOCUS ON PROCESS, NOT JUST OUTCOME
Focusing on the process rather than outcome may be the most effective way to evoke behaviour change. What does that mean? Instead of focusing on losing 5kg (the outcome), focus on the small changes we’re making every day (the process) such as increasing our daily steps or adding in some brisk bursts when walking to work.

3. TRACK OUR PROGRESS
More traditionally, we have used body weight and waist circumference to evaluate the effectiveness of weight loss efforts, and whilst these measures are both valid and reliable, they’re also end goal (or “outcome”) focused.

4. GET THE RIGHT ADVICE
There may be several health care professionals involved in our weight loss journey and this can be great if they’re all on the same page, however, it can be confusing and overwhelming if messages are inconsistent.

Today Health And Fitness

11/10/2025

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