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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

#91

Post by danaris »

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…

While the phenomenon you describe is certainly real, I think that you may also have been misperceiving part of it: Having a deep belief/understanding that your self is your whole body does not require having a highly-trained body or a strong kinesthetic sense. There could have been many people at that conference who shared your belief, but had not taken the years of physical training to make that externally apparent.

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

#92

Post by chaostheory »

cpursley wrote: post #79
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…

Do you not have access to the outdoors? Parks, paths, etc? The physical is only one aspect of it.

I do, but jogging the same streets and trails gets boring. It’s doesn’t have the variety and novelty that VR AR offers. It’s hard to understand this if you haven’t used it beyond 5 minutes.

In the Bay Area, we’re blessed with multiple nature preserves that are beautiful and stunning, but it takes me 20-40 minutes one way just to drive to one so those hikes tend to be limited to weekends. With AR VR, I can instantly just workout in my living room. It’s a big time saver

It’s also really easy to make excuses not to do it eg it’s raining, it’s too dark, the air isn’t good today etc…

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

#93

Post by zdragnar »

haswell wrote: post #39
jalino23 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t get it. what do you mean by “ brain being carried around as a meat sack”? >> Any exercise where you think about your body as “you” what does it mean to think of my body as me? and can you provide examples of these exercises? thank you!

A lot of people feel like “they” are somewhere inside their head. They look out at the world through eyes that are windows. The world is out there, “I” am in here. In this undefined black hole of “me”, mysterious, but definitely separate from the world and what’s “out there” past one’s eyes. They feel like their bodies are just the mechanical thing that carries them around. They don’t think of the systemic impact of…

Another +1 here for that argument being distinctly not Judeo-Christian. Orthodox Christians in particular are of the belief that you worship with your whole self- mind, body and soul.

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

#95

Post by paulpauper »

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…

not really a fan of overly strenuous cardio. I am not sure how it makes you better. i tried it and it never did much for me. it doesn't even help for weight loss due to metabolic adaptation and increased appetite.

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

#96

Post by austinjp »

jalino23 wrote: post #22
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…

I don’t get it. what do you mean by “ brain being carried around as a meat sack”? >> Any exercise where you think about your body as “you” what does it mean to think of my body as me? and can you provide examples of these exercises? thank you!

Perhaps there's a typo. I interpreted it as "brain being carried around _in_ a meat sack".

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

#97

Post by chaostheory »

ghotli wrote: post #60
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?

Thrill of the Fight - boxing sim

Beat Saber

Les Mills Body combat - trainer guided workout where you can compete against player recorded avatars

FitXR - trainer guided workout where you can compete against player recorded avatars. Subscription only but has HIIT, boxing, and dance workouts

Ninja Legends - you’re fighting ninjas

Knockout League - Punch Out in VR with lots of variety

synth riders - music rhythm game that has a lot of variety on its own

Holopoint - shooting targets with bow and arrow. Lots of moving and dodging involved

Mothergunship forge - bullet hell shooter. Lots of dodging

Pistol Whip - bullet hell music rhythm game. Lots of dodging like Neo

Path of the Warrior - double dragon in VR

Until You Fall - slashing sword game

GORN - gladiator game

Creed - another boxing game

Punch Fit - minimalist boxing training game

Racket NX - racket ball inside a dome

Rezzil Player - lots of mini workouts like heading soccer balls

Stride - mirrors edge in VR

I tend to rotate these games, but I always try out new games for novelty.

There’s also a lot of games where you can walk or jog in place like Fallout or Skyrim that I didn’t count here. Not to mention a fighting game and soccer game with full body tracking that’s PCVR only

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

#98

Post by Noumenon72 »

dnsco wrote: post #73
x86x87 wrote: post #45

Weight lifting. Barbell. Compound movements. That is all

I love heavy compound lifts, but find it does something different than cardio. I get maximum benefit when I do both.

They are complementary for me. The way my body recruited my lats when running hills taught me how to knit the top and bottom together when I squat. The mind-muscle that squats woke up in my hip flexors carried over to foot placement in ice skating.

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

#99

Post by Noumenon72 »

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…

My brain is still "me" more than the meat sack I use to to ice skate, lift weights, and ski. I just think of my body more like a mech I can learn to pilot via telepathic control interface that gains sensitivity over time.

I'll never be one of those athletes who lets go of conscious control and runs off muscle memory, but I've really enjoyed learning enough about my body that I can use it the way it was designed. It feels good when you go from "some part of me is always hurting" to "every step I take recruits muscles from foot and ankle to upper back because I learned how to use all of them against gravity".

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

#100

Post by otoburb »

uejfiweun wrote: post #35

A lot of people are saying Jiu Jitsu. I'd actually extend that to most contact martial arts. I wrestled in high school and it was fucking brutal. In fact, wrestling made me appreciate my life a lot more, because it's so much easier than wrestling. They call it "the most fun you never want to have again". The grueling, daily, multi-hour practices... the extreme physical conditioning required to succeed... the extremel…

Could the same be said for serious student-athletes (e.g. Division 1)? My understanding is that most Div1 collges have pretty stringent/strict minimum training schedules in order to maintain scholarships and team slots.
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