Harper College/Student Success/Exercise/Stress and Exercise

What is stress? Stress is your body’s way of responding to certain life events or daily hassles. Your reaction to difficult situations will determine how stress affects your life and health. Stress can come from work, school, relationships, health issues and other situations. You can easily feel stressed when you misplace your car keys, or when you are running late to school or work. Personal relationships, health issues, job and financial hardships can also affect you on a higher level. They hold you back from completing your daily tasks and not only do they affect you mentally but physically.

As a college student, you have a lot of things going on in your life. Perhaps you are working and going to school full time, have siblings to babysit while your parents are working, sports to keep up with to maintain scholarships, and on top of that you want to maintain healthy eating, sleeping and exercise habits. In the long run, all these stress factors could keep you from having healthy relationships with the people that surround you.

We all cope with stress in many different ways. If you let stress get the best of you, it could impact your life in a negative way. Why not get involved in physical activities to relieve stress? The first step to a healthier lifestyle is the most important. It means making time out of your busy day to make yourself your priority.

Stress and anxiety are a normal part of life. Stress could affect you for few minutes, days and even weeks. It will build up and cause more damaging effects. As reported by the ADAA, anxiety disorders affect 40 million adults and are the most common psychiatric illnesses in the United States. The benefits or exercise are endless and will quickly uprise your mood and decrease depressing feelings.

There are several benefits of exercise that will help maintain your mental health and reduce stress. It may take you a few tries to find something you enjoy! A few benefits include:

Improves physical condition
Fights diseases
Mood enhancement
Burst of energy
Releases tension
Releases feelings of frustration
Improves sleep and appetite
Motivates and helps you to concentrate
Improves self esteem

We all know that exercise causes happy chemicals called endorphins to be released. These chemicals trigger positive feelings in your body. Endorphins help reduce stress and scare off feelings of anxiety and depression. Depending on your workout intensity, you have to get your body to the point of releasing those endorphins. But be careful! Do not TOO much stress on your body, it may take reverse turn and end up putting in you a bad mood. After any physical activity, whether it's low or high impact, not only will your body feel better but so will your mind.

According to a recent ADAA online poll, some 14 percent of people make use of regular exercise to cope with stress. Others reported talking to friends or family (18 percent); sleeping (17 percent); watching movies or TV (14 percent), as well as eating (14 percent) and listening to music (13 percent). There are numerous benefits from exercise that help with your mental wellbeing:

Walking: Could be a high/low impact activity. Find a good show on Netlix and hop on a treadmill or go take a walk outside and enjoy the scenery. Make a playlist with your favorite songs and jam out!
Stretching: Helps release built up tension. Pick up a foam roller for faster recovery.
Weight lifting: Great for muscle growth and helps burn fat throughout the day.
Group classes: Great way to meet new people. Helps you push yourself around people that are just as motivated as you.
Yoga: Globally used around the world! Used by many athletes. Focuses on breathing, balance and posture.

The feeling of accomplishment is one of the many great feelings exercise can bring to your life. Start by setting a small goal. Whether you want to lose weight, gain muscle, focus on your flexibility or just want to defeat stress there are many activities to try. Many people will skip their work out because they are too tired or too stressed, and that’s when it has the greatest benefit! It will take time to notice, but once you get started you (hopefully) you won’t want to stop.