Why We Need to Keep Moving Right Now
At the end of March 2020, it feels like the world is upside down. You don’t need me to explain what’s going on, and given how quickly things are changing, I don’t think it’s even worth me trying to summarise it. There are plenty of much more credible news sources doing that.
The one thing I would really like to share right now though, is the importance of keeping on moving our bodies during this time at home. You might be thinking ‘keep moving? I never really moved much before, why start now?’, but even if you’re not a habitual exerciser, the chances are that at the very least you used to walk as part of your commute to and from work, or perhaps around the office, you might have danced on a night out, or at least run for a bus once in a while.. I’d wager you moved a lot more than you realised when you weren’t social-distancing at home. In any case, whether or not you exercised or walked in the time ‘before’, I want to talk about why it is so important that you get moving now.
Before I dive into the reasons why keeping moving is important, let me just explain what I mean by moving. Yoga (of course), walking, running, cycling, lifting weights, HIIT, aerobics, pilates, playing in your garden, turning up the music and dancing, or anything else that gets you out of breath, using your muscles and moving your body. Each of these activities has its own specific benefits, of course I have a preference for yoga, but it doesn’t matter which one you do, at all. The most effective exercise for you is the one you enjoy, because you’ll stick with it. The good news is that all of these activities share the same fundamental benefits, benefits which we need more than ever right now.
So here are seven reasons why we should all get moving or keep moving while we get through this challenging time:
Exercise is good for our health
Let’s start with the blindingly obvious one here, I feel like we all know that exercise is good for us, we know this both intuitively, we know it societally, I think we also know it a little guiltily. But I don’t think it’s widely known just how good for us it really is. Countless scientific studies have shown that regular exercise can improve so many facets of our physical and mental health. I won’t go into the long list, but the NHS has an excellent page on this here, with some pretty impressive statistics. Some of the highlights: exercise can reduce the risk of depression and dementia by 30%, type 2 diabetes by 50%, and coronary heart disease and stroke by 35%. Dr Nick Cavill says that “If exercise were a pill, it would be one of the most cost-effective drugs ever invented.” That’s got me sold.
Exercise lifts our mood
Runner’s high is no myth. When we talk about how exercise makes us feel good we often refer to the endorphin release. Endorphins are neurochemicals produced in the pituitary gland as a response to stress and pain, they act a bit like a natural painkiller. Your endorphins will kick in after around an hour’s worth of intense exercise, they are part of your body’s stress response, but they do not work alone. You have to exercise pretty intensely to stress the body enough for endorphins to be released. However we can still feel a mood-lift from just 30-45 minutes of exercise thanks to two neurotransmitters which are released, serotonin and norphenlyephrine. Low levels of these neurotransmitters have been linked to depression, going some way to help us explain why exercise is beneficial for our mental health.
Photo by Juliano Ferreira from Pexels
3. Exercise improves our ability to handle stress
There are two parts to this, which may seem counter-intuitive because exercise is a stressor, but it also can help us de-stress. To understand this we need to know more about our body’s response to stress. Our bodies are excellent at responding to short-term intense bursts of stress, we have a whole section of our nervous system dedicated to getting us quickly and safely away from danger (running away from a tiger, perhaps). The problem is that in our modern western lifestyles we are trying to deal with long-term, constant levels of stress, (such as working 24/7, dysfunctional relationships, traffic jams, 24hr news cycles) which our bodies are not well-equipped to deal with. As a result many of us are living in a state of chronic stress, where the physical responses in the body designed to cope through short-term stress (increased heart rate, tense muscles, temporary suppression of reproductive and digestive systems) develop into chronic health problems (hypertension, infertility, IBS).
So where does exercise come into all this? I like to think of exercise as a valve to let off our stress. The increased heart rate and tense muscles are helpful for the exercise itself, and after a bout of exercise, ideally with some deep breathing too, we can find deeper relaxation (and usually better quality sleep too). In this way exercise helps us to release stress and find calm.
The other side to this is that exercise is itself a stressor, but it is a “good” stressor on the body. When we exercise we put the body under stress and our nervous system triggers our short-term stress response (releasing endorphins as above is part of this). This is like a safe practice run, it allows our body to deploy the stress response in a short-term controlled environment, which makes us more resilient to the day-to-day stress we experience.
4. If you keep moving outside (e.g. with a walk or a run), you can get a good dose of vitamin d.
Vitamin D is a hormone which the body produces from direct contact of sunlight on the skin. It helps regulate the amount of calcium and phosphate in the body, helping to keep bones, teeth and muscles healthy. In the UK from late March to September we are able to get the vitamin D we need from sunlight alone. However this year with most of us staying indoors as much as possible, we need to make sure we still get the vitamin D that we need. If you can get out for a walk, a run, or a cycle ride (remember please go alone or with those you live with as per government advice), it will really help you to keep up your vitamin D levels.
Photo by Clem Onojeghuo from Pexels
5. If you keep moving inside with a group, being part of a community or maintaining connection with an existing community can do wonders for your mental health
It is well documented that both the quantity and quality of our relationships have a direct impact on our mental health. Right now however it is really important that we socially distance ourselves from anyone we do not live with in order to prevent the further spread of the virus. This is the right thing to do, but one of the most dangerous side-effects is loneliness. We must do what we can to stay connected with others during this difficult time. Staying connected can feel really hard when the only topic of conversation seems to be the progression of the virus and its knock-on effects. This is where a live online yoga class or other exercise class, can work wonders. Taking part in a live class allows you to connect with other students and teachers all over the world with whom you can escape the news for a moment and change the subject. If you were part of a gym or studio or running group beforehand this is a brilliant way to stay connected. I’ve been teaching live yoga classes recently and I’m loving being able to teach people across the world who wouldn’t normally be able to join my in-person classes. All of this can have a profoundly positive impact on our mental health right now.
6. If you keep moving inside or outside, it will give you a reason to shower, and a break between the day pyjamas and the night pyjamas.
Ok, this one has less science behind it! However while we’re spending all our time inside, it can be really tempting to let the personal hygiene go and spend all our time in our pyjamas. If we get a bit of a sweat on, we’ve got a reason to shower and will feel so refreshed afterwards.
7. Exercise helps us create a healthy routine and bring structure to our days
We often say that children really like routine and find it reassuring, but I think we’re pretending to ourselves that we’ve somehow grown out of that preference. As adults we talk about routines as becoming ‘stale’ or getting stuck in a ‘rut’. It can be refreshing and relaxing to step out of our routines for a week or two for a holiday, but a long term period without any routine can become stressful. We’ve all just seen our daily lives change significantly for the foreseeable future. For the first few days it might be nice to enjoy the break from the regular routine, but before long we’ll likely find ourselves falling into a routine, whether it’s a healthy one or not. Exercise is a great way to punctuate the day, whether you get moving first thing in the morning, on your lunch break or in the evening to transition from working to relaxing.
Hopefully those are seven great reasons to get moving or keep moving right now. If you’re inspired to do so here are some recommendations for where to start.
How to Keep Moving While Social-Distancing:
Join me for a live online yoga class, you can book here.
Go for a walk
Go for a run - you do not need a lot of fancy gear to do this, just a pair of trainers. I find the Nike Run Club app really great for tracking runs and keeping me motivated. There are also lots of guided runs there. The NHS also has a great ‘Couch to 5k’ programme which is available as a podcast.
Turn the music up loud and dance it out
Try joining a fitness app like Fiit, they have tonnes of different styles of at-home workouts and you can link it up to your TV. They have a free 14 day trial.
If you’re still not convinced, here’s some further reading and listening recommendations to help you understand the science behind the benefits of exercise:
Podcasts:
Two lifestyle medicine podcasts which I absolutely love are Dr Chatterjee’s Feel Better Live More and Dr Rupy’s 'The Doctor’s Kitchen’. They both make the science of lifestyle interventions (diet, exercise, relationships, routines), really easy to understand. Here are some of my favourite episodes around yoga and exercise:
https://drchatterjee.com/how-exercise-changes-your-brain-and-reduces-your-risk-of-depression/
https://thedoctorskitchen.com/podcasts/episode-16-exercise-activity
https://thedoctorskitchen.com/podcasts/episode-45-the-science-of-yoga-with-eddie-stern
Articles:
Health benefits of exercise:
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/exercise-health-benefits/
Exercise and endorphins:
https://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/13/health/endorphins-exercise-cause-happiness/index.html
https://www.wellandgood.com/endorphins-and-exercise/
Exercise and Stress:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/exercise-and-stress/art-20044469
Community and mental health:
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/statistics/mental-health-statistics-relationships-and-community
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3150158/