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By Annette Zapp, NSCA CSCS TSAC-F, FireSQfitness
Moving your body has a great impact on physical health. Health benefits of meaningful physical activity are well documented and correlated with many noncommunicable illnesses including cardiovascular diseases and cancers. Physical activity is also critical for building and maintaining muscle and bone mass, controlling blood glucose, and optimizing many other biomarkers. But there’s more. Did you know that inadequate physical exercise has also been demonstrated to have a negative impact on mental health? Hippocrates knew this when, over 1600 years ago, he suggested going for a walk when you are in a rotten mood. Both aerobic and anaerobic training are recognized means of decreasing both state and trait anxiety. (State anxiety is a temporary adverse reaction to an event, such as when a student is preparing for an important exam; while trait anxiety is a personality feature that is more consistent, for example an athlete who always gets an upset stomach prior to competition.) According to textbook published in 2020, there is a very strong correlation between depression and activity. In this case, less truly is more. Less physical activity tends to correlate with more depression. The great news, however, is that we have the power to partially modulate our outcomes with physical activity. Although we could get deep in the weeds in terms of intensity, mode, length of sessions, frequency of training and many other variables, let’s keep this simple: meaningful daily movement of your body is beneficial, so let’s figure out some strategies to get that done!
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