Living Skillfully: Your Mind and Health

When I was at school, I was a skinny nerd. (I’m still a skinny nerd, actually, though I’m working on the “skinny” bit, and at my age “nerd” mostly means “gets paid more”.)

I did play a sport – field hockey – mainly for the sake of not disappointing my dad, who loved sport and made a nice extra income as a part-time sportswriter. But I was one of the worst players in what was one of the less talented teams in the “C” grade competition. I hated the compulsory “fun” runs the school made us do – I never did get an answer to my question on why they had to be compulsory if they were fun. In short, exercise didn’t grab me.

So, for everyone who had a similar background, and who looks on the sweat-soaked and testosterone-pumped exercise industry with a jaundiced eye, I present seven benefits of exercise I can believe in.

1. Memory and concentration. This is a huge one. What scientists are discovering – and you can read more about this in John Medina’s fascinating book Brain Rules, which I’m reading currently – is that exercise actually brings about the creation of new neurons in your brain, and causes blood vessels to penetrate further and more effectively into the brain, carrying glucose and oxygen in and toxins out.

As Medina. points out, our not-really-all-that-distant ancestors used to move round a lot – 10 or 20km a day, probably – in the interests of eating and not being eaten. This was before all this new-fangled agriculture caused us to settle down in one place, and long before industrialization caused us to stand or sit in front of a machine all day making minimal, repetitive movements. We got to move around, we saw new things all the time, and our bodies were continually exercised. These are the conditions our brain is adapted for, and it works better when we give them to it.

There’s a correlation between exercise and reduced risk of Alzheimer’s in later life, and cognitive function, concentration, memory, creativity and intelligence are all measurably improved by exercise.

2. Stress management. Our stress response sets us up to fight or run away and floods our bodies with the chemicals we need to do that. The problem is, the mechanism is designed to be used to escape from physically dangerous situations in a short timescale, but in our modern lives it’s also triggered by situations which don’t lend themselves to physical action and which may endure for days, weeks, months or even years – employment worries, relationship worries, financial worries, traffic, politics and our own self-talk. It’s like trying to pound in screws with a pipe wrench.

Exercise uses up those stress chemicals and purges them out of our system, resets it to what should be its normal state.

photo credit: doublej11

3. Improved mood. Both depression and anxiety are helped by exercise. In fact, exercise is more effective than some antidepressant drugs, according to psychology professor James Maddux of George Mason University, who calls it “maybe the best non-pharmacological antidepressant we have”.

Now, much as I like my local pharmacist, I’m all about the non-pharmacological interventions.

4. Reduced addiction risk. According to the same article I just linked to, physical exercise is apparently a helpful factor in breaking away from addictions. (One of my clients who came to me to stop smoking took it up as a teenager when an injury prevented her from playing sport; I don’t know if this is part of the same phenomenon.) Note to self: Recommend exercise to clients who want to stop smoking.

5. Energy. I’ve spent a lot of my life fatigued. There could be many reasons for this, but poor diet and lack of exercise are two of the strong contenders. Now that I’m dealing with both of those, I find I do have more energy. So when I read that a study has found that low-intensity exercise reduces fatigue symptoms by 65 percent, I’m not too surprised. (That’s low intensity, notice. Not even medium.)

6. Longevity. In a long-term study of doctors in the US, the two strongest factors in their longevity appeared to be not smoking and being physically active.

Genetics plays a part, but only about 25-30%. A recent study of a very long-lived man found that he and his long-lived younger relatives didn’t have any unusual genetic advantage; they had just eaten well, stayed relaxed, and kept physically active.

7. Physical health. Yes, I deliberately left this until last, because usually people just think, “Oh, exercise, good for your body.” And it is, very good, but as I’ve shown, it’s good for a lot of other things as well. When you’re a skinny teenage nerd who’s alienated from his body (and actually in reasonable health so far, all things considered), the physical benefits of exercise are not a convincing sales story. At my present, bordering on middle, age they are beginning to be, though, and there are many of them.

Exercise is good for the muscles, bones and major organs, for the blood system, lymphatic system and nervous system. In fact, I can’t think of any part or system of the body that exercise doesn’t benefit. The increased blood circulation and increased oxygenation detoxifies the body, and all the parts and systems seem to respond to the challenge of exercise by improving their function.

And exercise doesn’t need to be intensive to start the benefits coming, as I’ll talk about more soon. Until then, contemplate the benefits of exercise, and see if you’re moved to try a little.

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