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A new study looks at how exercise can help alleviate anxiety and depression

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Re: A new study looks at how exercise can help alleviate anxiety and depression

#271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I think all the "meatbags" and "hardware running on software" analogies are actually really primitive and silly, even though I know some find them funny. If we reduce ourselves to a bunch of "computers" there's not much left for the stuff that actually matters, like the actual awesomeness that is having a body, which is highly sensitive and able to experience amazing things.

> If we reduce ourselves to a bunch of "computers" there's not much left for the stuff that actually matters, like the actual awesomeness that is having a body, which is highly sensitive and able to experience amazing things. This does not follow, except for stripping away the religious/spiritual part. Computers are amazing! So is hardware! And so is the dance of software and hardware that makes magic happen. I've se…

> every argument I've read so far triggered my "religious/spiritual mumbo jumbo" detector quite hard.

Agreed. Sounds like a number of people have found a spiritual way to look at this, which seems a bit like a kind of quasi-religion, similar to the mystical aspects of Zen or yoga.

Re: A new study looks at how exercise can help alleviate anxiety and depression

#272
post #2

I don’t know if this has changed for younger generations, but a lot of people, particularly those in intellectual pursuits, suffer to one degree or another from thinking of themselves as a brain being carried around as a meat sack. We are learning more about mind body connections and this is very not true (the ways the vagus nerve can totally fuck with your mental state is terrifying, and there are people with dysfun…

> the ways the vagus nerve can totally fuck with your mental state is terrifying, and there are people with dysfunctions that are five times worse

Can you expand on that and / or provide some links? Very curious. Thanks.

Re: A new study looks at how exercise can help alleviate anxiety and depression

#273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We are learning more about mind body connections and this is very not true... We are RE-learning. Look at all the "new science" on psychedelics. Or gut bacteria. Etc. I'm not sure what the bottleneck is...we did not evolve to sit all day, inside, at desk, gazing into screens. It really is *that* simple. p.s. While nothing revolutionary new per se "The Comfort Crisis" by Michael Easter goes a solid job making the ca…

> we did not evolve to sit all day, inside, at desk, gazing into screens What I love about Apple Vision Pro is that it has the potential to solve this!

Yes, carrying your PC around on your head sounds like the perfect solution!

Re: A new study looks at how exercise can help alleviate anxiety and depression

#274
post #28
post #2

I don’t know if this has changed for younger generations, but a lot of people, particularly those in intellectual pursuits, suffer to one degree or another from thinking of themselves as a brain being carried around as a meat sack. We are learning more about mind body connections and this is very not true (the ways the vagus nerve can totally fuck with your mental state is terrifying, and there are people with dysfun…

> suffer to one degree or another from thinking of themselves as a brain being carried around as a meat sack This was me for most of my life. Yoga has been life changing. Cultivating full body awareness and presence opened my eyes to states of being that I didn’t know I was capable of experiencing. I can feel the subtle changes in strength each day, or a touch of soreness, or the exact spot that anxiety has settled i…

I'm also a hardcore yoga practitioner -- I love the extra awareness of my body and mechanics that I have now after 10 years of practice.

Re: A new study looks at how exercise can help alleviate anxiety and depression

#275

Certainly can't speak for everyone, but the most effective form of exercise that I have found is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Couple of reasons. First: The deeper you get into it the more you learn its primarily an intellectual pursuit - its just hidden in a very physical endeavor. When I'm doing Jiu Jitsu, I have to actively think, engage my problem solving skills, I can't go on auto pilot as I do in other things - rowing m…

> Anyone can do it, at nearly any age with any body type

This is 100% false. I trained for about 3 years and the number of people that had to drop BJJ or stop training for periods of time due to injuries was high, including myself. It's a sport where you accumulate a lot of minor injuries, especially if you roll at a semi competitive pace. This doubled for people who would come in from non-athletic backgrounds (as in white collar professionals not on TRT)

That said it was the most fun i've had with sports in my life

Re: A new study looks at how exercise can help alleviate anxiety and depression

#276
post #251
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the ways the vagus nerve can totally fuck with your mental state is terrifying, and there are people with dysfunctions that are five times worse What are some examples of this?

ADHD people who eat stuff they really shouldn't, their vagus nerve "starts acting up" (i'm too lazy to get my notebooks) and their ADHD-symptoms are amplified. same goes for a lot of food-induced conditions. different exercises targeting the vagus nerve help to alleviate (the) stress.

Do you have any links with further information on vagus nerve association, these problematic foods, and the exercises?

Re: A new study looks at how exercise can help alleviate anxiety and depression

#277

For anyone looking to start exercising, try a rowing machine. It’s practically a shortcut to getting in shape and building muscle (when done with proper form and pushing yourself). Even 5 minutes of HARD rowing a day and you’ll see amazing results.

Exactly! The best purchase of 2020 was the Concept2 after I was certain I'm will not go back to the gym for another winter due to covid. It's very convenient, weather independent, joint-stress free, measurable with an app and multitasking-friendly! I just attach an iPad there, get the noise-cancelling headphones and row for an hour with my YouTube playlist that I fill regularly. For Concept2, be sure to add additiona…

I do kind of the opposite and focus on 2-3 sets of 500m as hard as possible (with perfect form of course). My average is around 2:04, and the difference between that and even 2:14 is incredible. I could go for 1,000+m easily at a 2:14 pace but feel like I'm about to collapse after a single 2:04 set... It's helped me stay in incredible cardio shape and has built a lot of my leg muscle.

Re: A new study looks at how exercise can help alleviate anxiety and depression

#278
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> suffer to one degree or another from thinking of themselves as a brain being carried around as a meat sack This was me for most of my life. Yoga has been life changing. Cultivating full body awareness and presence opened my eyes to states of being that I didn’t know I was capable of experiencing. I can feel the subtle changes in strength each day, or a touch of soreness, or the exact spot that anxiety has settled i…

I'm also a hardcore yoga practitioner -- I love the extra awareness of my body and mechanics that I have now after 10 years of practice.

I should also mention that I’m only 6 months in, and I can only imagine what a decade of practice brings. I know there is still much to learn, but I wanted to drop this here for anyone wondering if it’s worth the time investment. I knew I’d stick with it within a few weeks. 2-3 weeks was when I started noticing some definite changes in strength. It just gets better from there.

Re: A new study looks at how exercise can help alleviate anxiety and depression

#279

The benefits of exercise are abundant and I don't know many that would argue against that. If exercise is so beneficial to the whole being, why is it such a difficult thing for us to implement regularly on a long-term basis? Even during periods of life where I've been in a good routine with working out, there still seems to be some sort of internal resistance to going to "do the thing."

Sure that happens to everyone at times. Even champion ultra marathon runner David Goggins talked about sitting and staring at his running shoes for 30 minutes before he could force himself to get out the door. I find it helpful to set up fixed schedules and create some sort of accountability to a coach or teammates. That way there's no decision making involved in the moment, you just go out and execute the plan.

Re: A new study looks at how exercise can help alleviate anxiety and depression

#280
post #251
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the ways the vagus nerve can totally fuck with your mental state is terrifying, and there are people with dysfunctions that are five times worse What are some examples of this?

ADHD people who eat stuff they really shouldn't, their vagus nerve "starts acting up" (i'm too lazy to get my notebooks) and their ADHD-symptoms are amplified. same goes for a lot of food-induced conditions. different exercises targeting the vagus nerve help to alleviate (the) stress.

Please get your notebooks if you can. You have piqued my interest, and I have not read more information correlating the waxing/waning of symptoms of ADHD with food. The idea seems completely rational, but I am curious what foods make a difference, which should be avoided, etc..
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