I don’t know if this has changed for younger generations, but a lot of people, particularly those in intellectual pursuits, suffer to one degree or another from thinking of themselves as a brain being carried around as a meat sack.<p>We are learning more about mind body connections and this is very not true (the ways the vagus nerve can totally fuck with your mental state is terrifying, and there are people with dysfunctions that are five times worse).<p>Any exercise where you think about your body as “you” helps with the dysphoria, and being integrated helps with a whole lot of other things.<p>Especially for men, who are conditioned to not give themselves permission to have feelings and sensations affect their behavior (and then surprise! Are affected anyway, with zero attempts at healthy coping skills).
A key unlock for me was doing exercise where at some point I was trying so hard and breathing so aggressively that I couldn't really think anymore, I could only focus on the task at hand. For me, that's been biking up steep hills. I like biking because I get to see a bunch of cool stuff and if I go up hills I get a dope view.<p>I joke that doing these rides feels like I'm re-boring my arteries because my heart pumps so hard. I feel great afterward. Recommend!
I’ve had major clinical depression for the last 15 years or so. The first 4 months of this year was the lowest I’ve ever been. During that time though I was going to the gym 6 days a week doing weight lifting and then I would cycle 50km a day on top of that. All of it was on autopilot however, my depression just wouldn’t allow me to focus on anything but it.<p>Luckily I had been building up the habit for years in advance but that was the most I had ever exercised and it was also the most I had ever been depressed. In my case I don’t think the exercise helped at all. Perhaps if I hadn’t of been exercising maybe I wouldn’t even be here now though… I’m not entirely sure. Finding the right medication and getting therapy has been what has really helped me. With those two I can see an almost day and night difference but with the exercise I noticed no difference at all. At least I had a great physique though!
Certainly can't speak for everyone, but the most effective form of exercise that I have found is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Couple of reasons. First: The deeper you get into it the more you learn its primarily an intellectual pursuit - its just hidden in a very physical endeavor. When I'm doing Jiu Jitsu, I have to actively think, engage my problem solving skills, I can't go on auto pilot as I do in other things - rowing machine for instance. Second: Anyone can do it, at nearly any age with any body type. If you're older and not super athletic, your Jiu Jitsu will be different than say a 20yo who is very athletic. But that in no way means your Jiu Jitsu or experience will be any less effective. First time posting on HN. Hope this helps someone.
I walk to the store when it's reasonable. I wasn't top tier at it, but the most exercise I could tolerate was playing DDR, because there was a game to it that isn't just physical activity.<p>These kinds of articles are always annoying because it invites a certain kind of person who will gush unendingly about how great exerting yourself is.<p>For me, exerting myself sucks, it is only something I want to do when it's attached to a game I want to play (and even that gets stale). It's only ever something I am either forcing myself to do (yuck) or doing for something besides the physical aspect of it (saving gas, playing a video game).<p>But instead of health advice being tailored to someone with my neurological makeup that causes this dislike of useless exertion, I'm just told that I need to "meditate" more or do yoga/X. If anything, meditation makes my body seem <i>less</i> like "me".<p>Just to add my contrarian two cents to a comment section that is otherwise mostly the former.
The best exercise is the one you'll stick with.<p>For me that's cycling and kayaking, alternating every day. I had tried running just because it's convenient and requires very little gear, but found it incredibly boring. But many of my friends absolutley love running. So asking others might help with some ideas, but ods are, you'll prefer something else.
I am affected quite badly by ADHD and related anxiety/depression issues. Absolutely get out there and do some exercise. There are so many benefits it's untrue. I exercise every day and I think it's one of the most important things I do.<p>That said, don't expect magic. There are no silver bullets. I often see people asking about ADHD and related issues being told to go out an exercise. In my experience you'll be a slightly fitter, slightly healthier, slightly happier person with the same ADHD issues as before. Absolutely go do it, but keep your expectations realistic.
The article does not answer the question. (I don't believe there <i>is</i> a straightforward best answer but the article does not so much as make a conjecture beyond the most obvious prerequisites.)
I like mountain biking on very technical tracks, I can't really think of anything other than the track, it requires full attention. I like that. Put me on a speed cycle (not sure what the English word is), it gets boring, my mind starts to wander, I don't even remember what route I took.
For anyone looking to start exercising, try a rowing machine. It’s practically a shortcut to getting in shape and building muscle (when done with proper form and pushing yourself).<p>Even 5 minutes of HARD rowing a day and you’ll see amazing results.
The last part of the article has the best takeaways IMO.<p>Start slow, find something that you enjoy. Escalate as and when you can.<p>Too many people think of exercise as like, get on the treadmill and run as hard as you can and make yourself feel like shit to the extent that you can't go again for a week. The vast majority of people, even people who train hard, don't do things like that.
It surprises me that this is "new".<p>When I was active duty in the navy through the 90's I specialized in psychiatry and worked at an inpatient psych ward.<p>One of the things we did for all patients was force them to go to the gym every day.<p>Yes, force.<p>Military psych wards were a bit different than civilian. You could give orders.<p>In this case, it was necessary - the last thing you'll willingly do when you're suicidally depressed is exercise.<p>Getting a nearly catatonically depressed patient out of bed was a huge challenge, getting them to the gym even harder.<p>But we did it. Every day.<p>In my experience, this was more effective treatment for depression than any meds or psychotherapy. It worked wonders, way faster than SSRIs.<p>Not so great for the psychotic disorders though. We had some "interesting" incidents at the gym.
A lot of people are saying Jiu Jitsu. I'd actually extend that to most contact martial arts. I wrestled in high school and it was fucking brutal. In fact, wrestling made me appreciate my life a lot more, because it's so much easier than wrestling. They call it "the most fun you never want to have again".<p>The grueling, daily, multi-hour practices... the extreme physical conditioning required to succeed... the extremely nerve-wracking matches, especially the lead up to them... honestly, my FAANG job is a total joke compared to the difficulty of this stuff. I think wrestling prepared me quite well for life.
Any exercise is much much better than sitting around for hours researching and reading articles about which exercise would be best.<p>According to reader mode this article is about 10 minutes long so instead of reading it, go for a walk.
It's not exercise (outside the hiking) but ... camping is amazing and a great start if you're not inclined to do much. Limited responsibilities, and the responsibilities you do have (cooking, staying warm, not dying) help sort of reset some biological imperative that gets lost when you're entirely too comfortable at home on the couch.<p>Any form of cycling really clears my head. The sensory stimulation, the forced focus, the sense of freedom, it's wonderful.
When I was less wise, I remember suggesting exercise to someone suffering from depression.<p>Didn't go so well.<p>You reach an unfortunate point when depressed that makes it difficult to listen to actually useful advice. It's an unfortunate state of mind to say the least.
I get inermittent extreme anxiety, for a reason I'm unaware of. However regular gym and running helps with it immensely. It's just difficult to sometimes go to the gym while being so very anxious...
> The benefits of exercise might not be immediate, says Singh, but they should show up within weeks or months. Beyond that, the longer people engaged in exercise, the less beneficial it became for their mental health. This may be because they were sticking to the program less, due to waning motivation or, perhaps, injury. It could also be because the exercise itself began to feel less novel and more repetitive.<p>This is exactly why I use a Quest 2 / pro to workout. When you’re killing zombies, fighting ninjas, or boxing fighters, working out is almost always novel. I’m just playing VR video games, which is why it’s easy to keep a routine even after 3 years<p>I hope Apple Vision can provide this benefit to people who are still skittish about even trying the current generation of VR headsets
Find a sport you like. Exercising shouldn’t be a chore. Even playing pickleball with friends will get your heart and lungs working, and wont require any willpower.
The benefits of exercise are abundant and I don't know many that would argue against that. If exercise is so beneficial to the whole being, why is it such a difficult thing for us to implement regularly on a long-term basis? Even during periods of life where I've been in a good routine with working out, there still seems to be some sort of internal resistance to going to "do the thing."
I’d never seen “an overview of systematic reviews” before — I would have thought this was already common sense, but it should be now more than ever.<p>I was a little confused about the “less is better” part of the article. I think it just meant diminishing returns with more exercise, but it <i>says</i> that less is actually better.
I've read sudoku bing good exercise to avoid early deterioration as you age--use it or lose it. I find Go (board game) to be more interesting and develops a lot of cross-transferable skills outside of only games or memory. Playing StarCraft 2 is also a fun(?) way of maintaining speed.
> The benefits of exercise might not be immediate, says Singh, but they should show up within weeks or months. Beyond that, the longer people engaged in exercise, the less beneficial it became for their mental health. This may be because they were sticking to the program less, due to waning motivation or, perhaps, injury. It could also be because the exercise itself began to feel less novel and more repetitive.<p>Not mentioned here that I think should be considered is how much of the benefit was just due to _novelty_. If the effect wears off over time then at least part of it may be going out and doing something different.
It’s a bit cliche at this point thanks to people like Joe Rogan, but Jiu Jitsu is, imo, the best possible form of exercise.<p>It’s not only physically exhausting, it’s also mentally very difficult. And not just because it requires deep levels of knowledge to be good, but it also resets any preconceived notions of strength. It’s not uncommon for a new white belt male that weighs 200lbs to get absolutely waxed by a 100lbs brown belt female. I see it happen all the time. Of course, as you belt up, and gain more understanding of the sport, there are ways to utilize a size and strength advantages. But that’s secondary to knowledge.
I'm on the unfortunate side of having panic disorder. Some exercise, like weightlifting can trigger panic attacks due to the sudden spike in adrenaline. Steady-state cardio is usually fine.
I recently stopped doing exercise in the morning. I found that it spikes my dopamine too high too soon which makes it harder to work. I wonder if anyone has studied this...
I've had life-long depression<p>exercise has made my anxiety and depression worse. I've done all kinds from weight training to ramping up to a full marathon<p>I don't believe this metareview one bit
The only thing more consistent than the benefits exercise has brought to my mental health, is the strange irrational hatred some people have for the idea that it can help.
Exercise is the best drug there is. When you hurt afterwards, it's not your body saying, "do that less." It's your body saying "do that more!"
2.5 hours a week is insanely low for any young person in good health. I'm positive that at least 8-12 hours of determined, physically intensive training compared to a measly 2.5 hours of "exercise" per week will do a hell of a lot better for anyone's mental health than treating the usage of one's body as somehow secondary to the "knowledge based" work we're all forced to do to make a decent living in modern society.
>Higher intensity physical activity was associated with greater improvements in symptoms.<p>Haven't read the whole study, but i assume people with fewer symptoms of X are able and motivated to exercise more <i>because</i> they have fewer symptoms.. And the article is just inventing the most interesting causal link for a study that doesn't travel far from correlation?
Graduated high school almost at the bottom of my class, nearly didn't graduate. Working out changed my life. I recently graduated summa cum laude with my degree in data science while working multiple jobs, taking on a minimum of 18 credits each semester. Some of my best semesters were when I was extra consistent with my workout routine.
I never liked the gym, but I do three things in terms of exercise regularly: yoga, walk, and tennis. I like playing tennis way more than doing yoga and walk, and I look forward to it so much. But I'm only able to do yoga and walk daily, playing tennis has way more friction, so I can only do it a few times per week.
I would fully expect that exercise done socially would have direct mental benefits. Even if it is just having someone to exchange hello. Indeed, the suggestion of an "exercise buddy" seems lined up in that direction.<p>I am interested in knowing if my thinking on the benefits of socializing are out of date, on this.
The article is very badly written. Better to read the abstract.<p><a href="https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2023/03/02/bjsports-2022-106195" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2023/03/02/bjsports-2022-...</a>
Dunno, I was in Taekwondo as a kid and it made my anxiety worse, because I was always watched by my parents or had to do the moves in certain way. Could not do exercise on my own, and school was already lonesome.
Exercise makes me irritable and miserable. I've tried large amounts and medium amounts, obvs small amounts are included in daily life. My kids are similarly effected. One size does not fit all.
Not really a fan of most exercise . find it tiring and repetitive. but i tried windsurfing a long time ago and found it exhilarating.. maybe i need to try that again.
Soon we might get excercise in a pill when it comes to mental health<p>We are close in getting inhibitors that block enzymes from breaking down endocannabinoids !