10/13/2023
Growing evidence shows that regular physical activity decreases feelings of stress, improves mood, and reduces overall risk and symptoms of depression and anxiety. In some instances, the benefits of exercise for anxiety and depression are similar to those seen with antidepressant medications. While exercise alone can't always replace the need for appropriate medication management, I believe that regular physical activity is a necessary part of any mental health treatment plan.
Some data suggests that you need to exercise several hours a week to get the maximum benefits of exercise. I'm not going to argue that exercising 4+ hours a week isn't good for you; it's great for you, but not everyone has that. It's unfair and cruel to tell people if they're not exercising 6 times a week they're failing. We often get so caught up in how many calories we're supposed to burn or how many minutes we're supposed to exercise, that we get paralyzed with anxiety and overwhelm and end up not doing anything at all. Instead of tracking your burned calories, steps, or hours worked, why not treat exercise as a binary metric? You either moved your body or you didn't1
Sure, we all want to be able to exercise 7 days a week, but working out one day a week or for 10 minutes is better than not working out at all. Changing your perspective on exercise and taking pride in the little victories will make exercise seem more manageable and more importantly, will help you build momentum that makes longer or more frequent work outs seem more doable and enjoyable.
I challenge you to change your perspective starting today! Take off your apple watch, stop counting your steps, stop staring at your miles ran, and start finding joy and pride in the fact that you made a decision to move your body and that you'll feel good afterwards regardless how what kind of work out you do!
To learn more about how I talk with patients about using exercise as mental health treatment, check out my website, PeterKassMD.com
