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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

#51

Post by com2kid »

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…

I keep trying to tell people this. Jiu Jitsu is like playing chess and your limbs are the pieces, it is a serious mental and physical workout.

Though don't discount other forms of martial arts, the amount of mental effort in kickboxing is still high, the coordination needed to be planning your foot work and balance out 2 or 3 moves in advance is non-trivial and that alone can take years to master!

(Also IMHO kickboxing is a more intense workout than rolling, my opinion consisting of a polar heart rate monitor strapped to my chest ;) )

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

#52

Post by gmiller123456 »

The best exercise is the one you'll stick with.

For me that's cycling and kayaking, alternating every day. I had tried running just because it's convenient and requires very little gear, but found it incredibly boring. But many of my friends absolutley love running. So asking others might help with some ideas, but ods are, you'll prefer something else.

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

#53

Post by nomilk »

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…

For a fundamental appreciation of how the body affects mental state, see Robert Sapolsky lecture biology lecture. It doesn't talk of exercise specifically, but it leaves no doubt of the strong influence of the body on the mind (and vice versa).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNnIGh9g6fA

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

#54

Post by hinkley »

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…

When I was trying to integrate a definition of “flow” that covered my many experiences, it wasn’t biking up hills per se, it was those moments where bad shit almost happened and I saw a way through and just did it. Riding through gravel, loose dogs, when the “fast guy” tried to drop the pack and found me on his wheel.

I think I agree with you that these experiences are pivotal, because they are moments when you just are without thinking. That constant monologue some of us carrying our heads is gone, and the universe didn’t end.

Taking that information and finding the spot halfway between the two is the real lesson, IME.

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

#55

Post by whakim »

comfypotato wrote: post #4

I’d never seen “an overview of systematic reviews” before — I would have thought this was already common sense, but it should be now more than ever. I was a little confused about the “less is better” part of the article. I think it just meant diminishing returns with more exercise, but it says that less is actually better.

Once you're exercising (training) a lot then it starts to feel like you need to do it, and you need to do enough of it and do it in the right way. I'm a cyclist, and I know that I'm grumpy/irritable/depressed if I haven't ridden. If I have a particularly tough session to do that day it can sometimes feel like a weight around my neck.

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

#56

Post by karmakaze »

I've read sudoku bing good exercise to avoid early deterioration as you age--use it or lose it. I find Go (board game) to be more interesting and develops a lot of cross-transferable skills outside of only games or memory. Playing StarCraft 2 is also a fun(?) way of maintaining speed.

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

#57

Post by teekert »

uejfiweun wrote: post #41
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.

I live in the Netherlands, we still call it mountain biking because of the bike but yeah... [0]. Mostly it gets technical on single tracks. Not nearly as dangerous as in real mountains I presume. This is typical: [1]

[0] https://dutchreview.com/culture/history/netherlands-flat/

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0_MNbdrHEA

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

#58

Post by oscribinn »

2.5 hours a week is insanely low for any young person in good health. I'm positive that at least 8-12 hours of determined, physically intensive training compared to a measly 2.5 hours of "exercise" per week will do a hell of a lot better for anyone's mental health than treating the usage of one's body as somehow secondary to the "knowledge based" work we're all forced to do to make a decent living in modern society.

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

#59

Post by uejfiweun »

teekert wrote: post #57
uejfiweun wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I live in the Netherlands, we still call it mountain biking because of the bike but yeah... [0]. Mostly it gets technical on single tracks. Not nearly as dangerous as in real mountains I presume. This is typical: [1] [0] https://dutchreview.com/culture/history/netherlands-flat/ [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0_MNbdrHEA

I imagine that would be a little better. Last time I went mountain biking was in Sedona, AZ - extremely stressful. You're biking up narrow mountain passes, and if you fall, decent chance you fall directly onto a cactus. I'm a clumsy guy, and I prefer for the consequences for my clumsiness to be like spillage, not impalement.

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

#60

Post by ghotli »

chaostheory wrote: post #12

> The benefits of exercise might not be immediate, says Singh, but they should show up within weeks or months. Beyond that, the longer people engaged in exercise, the less beneficial it became for their mental health. This may be because they were sticking to the program less, due to waning motivation or, perhaps, injury. It could also be because the exercise itself began to feel less novel and more repetitive. This…

Mind sharing which games on the quest you find yourself returning to?
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