Physical Activity for Mental & Cognitive Wellness

Feeling well is about a lot more than just how your body feels. Your mental health and cognitive function are crucial components of your overall wellness and should not be neglected. Fortunately, if you're taking steps to increase or maintain your level of physical activity, you're almost guaranteed to see improvements in both. The link between body and mind is inextricable, and for aging adults, you can leverage that link to delay or even reverse the onset of age-related cognitive decline.

Why Mental Health Matters

Think about a time in your life when you felt most at peace, content, or delighted. Now think about a time when you felt anxious, demoralized, or maybe even angry. How did your mental state change how you moved through the world? Even if your outward behaviors were more or less consistent, your inner world probably looked and sounded vastly different. You probably felt more gratitude and agency in your life when you felt good. You probably noticed more annoyances and trusted people less when you felt bad. It was more difficult to handle everyday stressors when you felt that you'd woken up on the proverbial wrong side of the bed, right?

Mental health is an extremely important health factor that can drastically alter how we experience and enjoy our lives. Especially when you're going through a large life transition—like retiring—it's paramount to pay attention to your mental wellbeing in order to move from one stage of life to another with grace, gratitude, and pleasure.

How an Active Body Helps Your Mind

Physical activity triggers a variety of mechanisms in your body that have direct and indirect effects on your mental health and cognition. When you exercise, you increase blood flow to your brain, which supports neuron health with oxygen and nutrients. You also stimulate the release of neurotransmitters like endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine and the production of endocannabinoids, all of which serve very important functions in stabilizing mood, supporting executive function, and maintaining homeostasis. Exercise increases anti-inflammatory cytokines, which are messenger proteins released by immune cells that work to prevent excessive inflammation and promote tissue healing. Without them, inflammation can damage brain cells and impair neuron signaling. Exercise can also prevent vascular issues that can lead to strokes and reduced brain function over time. Elevating your heart rate variability through physical activity is linked to better resilience and cognitive ability in aging brains. Exercise also improves metabolic factors like insulin resistance and diabetes risk that are associated with dementia.

According to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, "anxiety and anxiety disorders are the most prevalent mental disorders," and major depression is "a leading cause of disability for middle-aged adults in the United States," with women at greater risk of developing depressive episodes than men. Symptoms of both can be effectively reduced by engaging in regular moderate-to-vigorous physical activity over several weeks or months, and the risk of developing depression in the first place is also reduced by regular physical activity. Physical activity can work both as prevention and treatment for these and other common mental health challenges many of us face, as well as improving the quality of life for folks with more serious or chronic diagnoses, such as schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), multiple sclerosis, and more.

When comparing inactive people to people who do more physical activity, the active folks perform better on tests involving mental processing speed, memory, and executive function—all of which are areas in which aging adults frequently show evidence of cognitive decline, even without dementia. Regular physical activity is also shown to increase sleep quality, which is truly foundational to both physical and mental wellness. The benefits of regular physical activity on mental health and cognitive function are wide-ranging and supported by substantial evidence.

Better Living through Brain Chemicals

There are several specific brain processes through which exercise benefits our bodies and minds. You probably already know that exercise increases endorphins, but what exactly does that mean? Endorphins are neurotransmitters produced naturally in your body's central nervous system and in the pituitary gland that relieve stress and improve mood. Your body releases them in response to stimuli like exercise, excitement, pain, laughter, and more. They bind to opioid receptors in the brain to reduce pain and discomfort and create a euphoric feeling. They also play roles in modulating your immune system function, influencing appetite, and regulating your circadian rhythm. The immediate lift in mood you feel after a workout? That's your endorphins

Aerobic exercises like running and cycling increase tryptophan uptake in the brain, which is then converted to serotonin. Serotonin serves a lot of different and important purposes, and too-low levels of serotonin are tied to clinical depression. Serotonin helps prevent mood swings by regulating emotions, and higher serotonin levels are associated with lower cortisol, a stress hormone. It also converts to melatonin, which helps you fall and stay asleep for more restorative sleep. Adequate serotonin reduces cravings for carbs, sugar, and alcohol, which can improve mental focus, and optimal serotonin supports processing speed, memory, and executive function. Serotonin activity in your prefrontal cortex is also linked to better impulse control and reduced aggression. From reducing stress to promoting good sleep and stable mood, serotonin is a key player in mental health, and engaging in regular aerobic physical activity can help keep your levels in the optimal zone.

More vigorous-intensity or novel exercises, like high-intensity interval training (HIIT), social exercise, strength training, or outdoor activities, cause a release of dopamine both during and after activity. Dopamine is another neurotransmitter with many hats: it boosts your motivation, reduces stress hormones like cortisol, enhances focus, prevents cravings and addictive behaviors, supports executive function, regulates motor function, improves neuroplasticity and resilience, alleviates symptoms of depression, and helps stabilize mood. While more demanding or challenging activities maximize dopamine production, even light activity can provide a bump compared to being sedentary.

Moderate-intensity steady-state cardio for at least 30 minutes increases endocannabinoids like anandamide, which is behind the feeling known as the "runner's high." Endocannabinoids are neurotransmitters that bind to cannabinoid receptors throughout the entire body, including in the brain, immune cells, and peripheral nervous system. Endocannabinoids support many of the same functions we've mentioned above, from stabilizing mood to enhancing sleep and boosting focus and cognitive performance, plus they regulate functions like reproduction, pain sensation, and appetite. Yoga, pilates, hiking, dancing, circuit training, and massage and foam rolling can also boost endocannabinoids: basically, pair any aerobic activity with something social or relaxing for 30-60 minutes at a moderate intensity to reap the benefits of endocannabinoids.

Additional Support for Mental Health

While physical activity can do a lot for increasing and maintaining your mental wellbeing, it is good to remember that there are additional resources available for addressing mental health concerns. Finding a good therapist, nurturing social connections, eating well, making time for creativity, going outdoors, practicing mindfulness, and getting enough good sleep are all additional areas you can lean into to see positive mental health impacts. You can even combine any and all of these to gain the benefits of multiple sources of mood-boosting activities, for example: join an exercise class with a friend, host a healthy-meal potluck lunch with coworkers, go for a walk outside with a friend or family member, make a craft with a child or grandchild—the possibilities are really endless.

And when it comes to building a new fitness routine that you can be consistent with, you can rely on Restart! to customize an adaptable plan just for you that can help you move easily from your current activity levels to wherever you want to be. Ready to Restart? Get on the list to be the first to know when the app launches here.