Catch up on your exercise to ‘break up’ with stress

And if you have yet to start working out consistently, you can make it an integral part of your daily routine for a fit and healthy life.

Exercise can help reduce your stress levels and fatigue along with enhancing alertness, concentration and cognitive function. (Source: Pixabay)

Just a few weeks into the new year, the zeal with which we started our fitness resolution is slowly dying down. Coupled with hectic everyday schedules, our self-care regimen has to bear the brunt. Moreover, the cold and soothing weather of the winter calls for relaxation which further causes our exercise and physical activity to take a backseat. But exercise in any form and duration could be the key to fighting stress. And if you have yet to start working out consistently, you can make it an integral part of your daily routine for a fit and healthy life.

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How exercise can help combat stress

Exercise not only helps you to stay physically fit but also mentally fit and strong. It can help reduce your stress levels and fatigue along with enhancing alertness, concentration, and cognitive function. In addition, exercise has a “meditation in motion” effect, as focusing on physical activity helps you forget the stress of your day. It distracts from the stressor and eventually reduces muscle tension.

Physical activity also leads to increased production of endorphins – neurotransmitters in the brain, also known as feel-good hormones – that ward off pain and help you feel good. So, with exercising, your body feels better, and so does your mind.

Here are a few ways to get started!

Stretching

Stretching not only helps you to work out your muscles, but gets your whole body involved. (Source: Pixabay)

When the days feel constricting, making you feel squeezed, stretching can do the trick for you. It not only helps you to work out your muscles and get your whole body involved, but also helps shake off the feeling of constriction.

A ‘joy workout’ leads through six body-stretching moves, such as reaching, swaying, bouncing, shaking and jumping, meant to boost happiness if you ever feel claustrophobic. A small session of jogging and even brisk walking in nature and greenery, even in a park, can soothe our minds and bodies, including lowering stress hormones and reducing physical measures of stress.

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Stack habits with exercise

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One of the best ways to never miss a physical workout is by working smarter, and that is stacking daily habits with exercise.

Integrate your daily routine with a simple essential exercises. For instance, while brushing your teeth, showering or browsing your phone, add one exercise before, during or after these habits to benefit the most. Some ways to get started include:

*Performing body-weight squats while brushing
*Doing wall sits while mobile browsing
*Trying jumping jacks before showering

Developing atomic habits by stacking our existing habits is very much supported by our brains. ‘Synaptic pruning’ in our brains favours habit stacking. Connection (synapses) with the neurons in our brains gains strength when used frequently and decreases, if not. Similarly, regular habits have higher synaptic connections that we can leverage to create new habits by habit stacking.

Squeeze in a quick, high-intensity workout

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Even at the peak of activities, take a total of at least 10-15 minutes for a high-intensity interval training, or HIIT or tabata which can relax your mind and body. It is an undisputed rule to start with a quick warmup session before starting with high-intensity exercising and cool down post-workout. You can opt for any body-weight exercise that requires full body effort and fits your fitness level. For instance, jumping jacks and mountain climbers are two high-intensity, core-oriented drills for a full-body workout.

(The author is a BAMS and a nutritionist at LivLong)

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