Regular and timely exercise not only strengthens your inner core but also makes you more inclined to avoid negative emotions. In fact, evidence in scientific literature clearly indicates that exercising daily can promote healing effects of the brain from drug dependency and addiction. Moreover, aerobic exercises like jogging, swimming, cycling, long walks, and dancing can reduce anxiety and depression.

Regular exercise early morning, during the afternoon, or early evening can have the following mental health benefits:

(•) Improved sleep, (•) Cardiovascular Health, (•) Weight Loss, (•) Enhanced libido, (•) Better endurance, (•) Stress relief, (•)Improvement in mood, (•) Increased energy and stamina, (•) Reduced tiredness that can increase mental alertness

Controlled physical activities during exercise increase blood circulation in the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis (HPA-axis) and reduce reactivity to stress. The limbic system regulates motivation, and mood is positively affected as a result of such beneficial physical activities. Moreover, the amygdala that’s responsible for fear and negative emotions, and the hippocampus which is responsible for memory formation are also greatly benefitted as a result of regular exercise. Exercise increases the amount of serotonin and dopamine in the brain and hence, this will also have a good effect on your daily sleeping schedule and mood stabilization.

Evidence from several studies also suggests that patients who adhere to a regimen of proper diet, acupuncture sessions, meditation, and exercise greatly benefit from the therapy in comparison to the general population.

Medications and traditional approaches often involve severe and long-lasting side effects. Exercise, on the other hand, can repair and boost your mental health regularly without the need for any invasive drug use. Make an appointment with our mental health specialists today and learn more about how regular exercise can help you attain better mental health!

 

Personal Training

 

Again, it’s the mind-body connection but in a more amped up way. While yoga has a more calming effect on the nervous system, lifting weights and cardio energize, so if someone is depressed training can help them gain energy. Movement in general helps with energy as well, so yoga can also have this affect. Movement in general also has a calming effect, so training can also leave you feeling calmer and energized after a session. Again, lifting weights can help with pain management – the stronger our bodies are, the more our nervous system feels safe and may stop sending pain signals (as long as there’s not tissue damage). Increasing strength can also mitigate pain because it strengthens joints and creates stability.

Training can help with weight loss, so if there’s a concern over that this is a good option – especially paired with nutrition. It also can help cardiovascular health and just increase overall general health.

Weightlifting also can help mitigate osteoporosis, as adding load to bones has been shown to help them stay strong.

 

Mobility

This is a joint strength training and mobility system called Functional Range Conditioning. It’s frequently used by pro athlete teams and cirque du Soleil, but also physical therapy and general population.

It’s premise is that use it or lose it is real, so we want to move every joint in our body in every direction it’s supposed to move in in order to keep mobile as we age. Movement is a purely neurological understanding. Our brains want to make us the most efficient humans possible. When we stop moving in a particular way, our brains understand that as, “we don’t need to do this anymore, so let’s get rid of it so we can make room for what we do need.” This is why people often say things like “I used to be able to do cartwheels and backbends when I was younger but haven’t done it in years and can’t do it now.” We stopped moving in this way, so our brains made room for something we do need to do every day. This system also is focused on affecting the nervous system to pull more range of motion out of the body. If our bodies aren’t familiar with a movement, our nervous system tries to protect you by tightening and locking things down. Tightness is not a tissue response, but a neurological one. If your body doesn’t recognize a movement or feel like it can pull you out of a particular range of motion you’re trying for, it will tighten, and it will also sometimes cramp. FRC uses breath work and isometric joint strength training to tell the nervous system that movement is OK and safe and familiar. An isometric contraction just means that you’re engaging muscles without actually moving a joint – for example, holding a plank pose is an isometric, or if you were to push your hands into a wall, you’d feel your arms engage their muscles, but nothing would really be moving – whereas a bicep curl is not an isometric because your elbow has to bend in order to engage the bicep.

While FRC doesn’t prevent injuries, it can mitigate them because of the joint strength training and daily joint movement prescriptions. It often works in what’s called your end range of motion. Your end range of motion is exactly what it sounds like – the most amount of motion you can get from a joint without being in pain. It’s generally our weakest point of movement at a joint, and therefore where injury tends to occur. If you think of stepping off a curb wrong and rolling your ankle, your ankle has been put into its end range of motion, and then the load of your body on top of the ankle is what made it break or sprain. So FRC mitigates injuries because it creates strength and stability in the end range of motion of your joints, so that when you do step of the curb wrong, your body not only knows the movement because you’ve been moving your joints in every direction as much as possible, but you’ve also been building strength and stability there to help support that joint. It can also help with pain management because it increases range of motion and stability. Pain is a neurological response to something being off, and if there’s no tissue damage, it sometimes can be because we’ve stopped moving or stabilizing a particular area. FRC increases movement and stability in all joints, which tells the nervous system things are safe there which affects pain responses.

 

Providers at The Functional Medicine Center for Exercise Coaching:

Our provider is a highly trained 500+ hour vinyasa yoga instructor, Functional Range Conditioning (FRC) mobility specialist, and a Certified NASM Personal Trainer. She is also specially trained in human anatomy and biomechanics led by physical therapists that incorporates Physical Therapy science with yoga movement philosophy.

Our provider combines what she has learned in her various training disciplines to create a yoga and personal training style that will benefit you and your goals most effectively. You will not only get stronger but also more flexible. More importantly, you will be able to see a change in your daily life and enjoy your life to the fullest.

 

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