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Jennifer Bell
4 Helpful Workouts to Boost Your Mood

4 Helpful Workouts to Boost Your Mood

As you age, it’s not unusual to let your physical health fall by the wayside. It can be hard to find a workout routine that you can stick to. However, this doesn’t mean that seniors have no options for low-impact workout routines to help keep their physical, mental, and emotional well-being in check. Seniors are advised to take up at least 150 minutes of physical exercise every week, which is only about 30 minutes a day.

People across all generations can enjoy the benefits of exercise as long as they put their minds to it. One benefit of exercising is that it is a great mood booster. Exercise relaxes your mind; thus, it’s crucial for your mental health. Therefore, you should try to identify a physical activity that will help you achieve this amongst many other benefits.

While exercise makes you feel exhausted, it is also responsible for releasing the endorphin hormone within the brain. As the endorphin levels increase, they also impact your mood positively. They also help with stress and pain relief, and they take care of your mental health.

The best specialists at a senior living campus advise their patients to take up outdoor exercise routines to combine physical activity with fresh air. Also, you can ask a family member, friend, or caregiver to accompany you to help you stay motivated. That said, here are some of the best mood-boosting exercises that you can take up:

1.   Weight Lifting

Strength training is not only limited to the younger generation. Seniors can also take up to improve their physical strength and to boost mood. During strength training, the brain is prompted to release endorphins which help to boost your overall mood regardless of whether they benefit from it physically or not.

The best thing about it is that you don’t always need to go to a gym to get it done, but you can do it indoors at times in the comfort of your home. When correctly done, you can do it up to 5 times a week. 

Weight Lifting Tip

Don’t push yourself if you are a beginner. Instead, start with a low-weight, low-rep routine and increase as you continue. Also, to avoid fatigue or sore muscles, take a day off from exercise to rest.

2.   Yoga

Yoga is another excellent low-impact exercise that focuses on breathing, posture, and meditation. Yoga has been known to improve your general wellbeing and boost your mood if done regularly. As you breathe in, more oxygen flows to your brain, and it prompts the release of the GABA chemicals, which help to calm your nerves down, thus boosting your overall mood.

If you do this for a continuous three-month period, your nervous system is automatically prompted to keep you relaxed most of the time.

Yoga Tip

In the first few months of this exercise, if you’re a beginner, try and get an instructor to help you learn how to breathe correctly. This will help you practice it later on from wherever you are and yield the maximum benefits. You can also follow along with online videos.

3.   Tai Chi

Tai Chi is a famous martial art exercise invented initially from the Chinese tradition. It mainly focuses on breathing and movement and is best done in the morning hours. The slow organized movements are beneficial to the nervous system as they prompt the brain to release the endorphin hormone. If done correctly over a long time, it will also take care of your general mental health issues, improve your self-esteem, and avoid unnecessary stress.

Tai Chi Tip

If you’re a beginner, learn the basic moves online or through a certified instructor before graduating to more complex movements.

4.   Aerobics

It’s no doubt that aerobics are also responsible for raising serotonin levels in the body. Some of these tremendous aerobic exercises are dancing, gardening, walking, jogging, swimming, or using a treadmill. These cardio activities prompt the brain to send neurons to the nervous systems for the release of serotonin. More production of this hormone leads to mood-boosting amongst other benefits for your general wellbeing.

Aerobics Tip

Don’t push yourself as a beginner. Instead, start with a 30-minute routine as you increase gradually. Also, take the required breaks to give your body rest.

While exercise can do so many things for your wellbeing, don’t start any routine ignorantly. Instead, seek advice from your health care provider to help you identify the best exercise routine for you to take. Also, try to choose an exercise routine that you can enjoy for the long term.

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