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

greatergood.berkeley.edu

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

#41

Post by uejfiweun »

teekert wrote: post #15

I like mountain biking on very technical tracks, I can't really think of anything other than the track, it requires full attention. I like that. Put me on a speed cycle (not sure what the English word is), it gets boring, my mind starts to wander, I don't even remember what route I took.

This sport didn't really click for me. I think I'm just not coordinated enough for it. No sport has left me bruised and bloody and just mentally broken like mountain biking has. I also didn't really enjoy the experience of having to sit on an extremely bumpy bike for hours on end. To each their own, though - I am jealous that folks get to enjoy a sport that takes them deep into the beauty of nature.

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

#42

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

1MachineElf wrote: post #32

To what extent? Being too tired and exhausted to have negative thoughts doesn't necessarily mean that exercise itself is a fundamental solution.

They don't say you needed to do a lot (in fact they say that you get best results by NOT doing too much). There's a bevy of feel good effects that fall outside of just being "too tired".

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

#43

Post by throwaway22032 »

hisnameisjimmy wrote: post #3

A key unlock for me was doing exercise where at some point I was trying so hard and breathing so aggressively that I couldn't really think anymore, I could only focus on the task at hand. For me, that's been biking up steep hills. I like biking because I get to see a bunch of cool stuff and if I go up hills I get a dope view. I joke that doing these rides feels like I'm re-boring my arteries because my heart pumps so…

Yep.

Another example - it's pretty damn hard to think about doing the laundry when you have 100+ kg on your back.

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

#44

Post by hinkley »

mudita wrote: post #37
hinkley wrote: 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 thing that made me transition from a mindset of “I have a body” to “I am a body”, was actually Zen meditation. This was surprising to me. Before I tried it, I thought of meditation as a purely mental thing, I didn’t expect that the first really noticeable effect of regular meditation would be a changed relationship to my body, Much later I discovered contemporary dance, quit my phd in machine learning and became…

It was tai chi for me, but I started that after Buddhism and zen. I could never get comfortable. Not as in 3 out of 10 pain scale, but 7.5-8.5 out of 10. Having people tell you to ignore the pain is unhelpful when they imaging paper cut and you’re feeling knife wound.

Tai chi has a warmup that’s an easy shift into standing meditation.

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

#46

Post by oldstrangers »

It's not exercise (outside the hiking) but ... camping is amazing and a great start if you're not inclined to do much. Limited responsibilities, and the responsibilities you do have (cooking, staying warm, not dying) help sort of reset some biological imperative that gets lost when you're entirely too comfortable at home on the couch.

Any form of cycling really clears my head. The sensory stimulation, the forced focus, the sense of freedom, it's wonderful.

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

#47

Post by oscribinn »

ryanSrich wrote: post #23

It’s a bit cliche at this point thanks to people like Joe Rogan, but Jiu Jitsu is, imo, the best possible form of exercise. It’s not only physically exhausting, it’s also mentally very difficult. And not just because it requires deep levels of knowledge to be good, but it also resets any preconceived notions of strength. It’s not uncommon for a new white belt male that weighs 200lbs to get absolutely waxed by a 100lb…

Judo is even better, as you also learn how to throw people from your feet rather than starting on the ground all the time, and you pretty much have to lift weights off the mat to stay competitive.

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

#50

Post by GavinMcG »

pasquinelli wrote: post #40
comfypotato wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It promotes higher intensity exercising. If you’re breathing hard, that’s a good sign. (For mental health.)

that's not how i understand the term "high intensity." jogging makes me pant, but i wouldn't call it high intensity, because i can do it for twenty minutes. high intensity would be work you can do for only maybe a minute, not twenty, and as a result it won't keep your heart rate elevated very long. so if they're basically saying 30 minutes 5 days a week, that's low intensity exercise.

> high intensity would be work you can do for only maybe a minute, not twenty

Actually according to the article, high intensity can be done for twenty minutes. So what you’re calling “low intensity” is actually “high intensity.”

(Funny how this works both directions, isn’t it?)

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