Nutrition plays a big role in how you feel on the inside. Put the good stuff in and your body will thank you. 

Whether you’re depressed, suffering with S.A.D or temporarily lost your mojo, it’s normal to go through phases of not wanting to exercise. We hope these tips on how to exercise when you’re feeling low help you get the best from yourself when you’re not 100%

It’s rather ironic: study after study after study highlights the powerful and wide-ranging mental health benefits of exercise and yet getting yourself out the door when you’re feeling down can be the hardest thing on earth.

Please note we’re certainly not downplaying the severity of depression and these tips are not the solution for many people’s troubles. We’d strongly encourage anyone who’s suffering to seek help from friends, family or professionals, but hope these tricks help empower you to get out there when you’re not feeling like it.

#1 Celebrate the small victories

Week in, week out, we expect ourselves to get training sessions done and – by and large – we do.

It’s easy to take that for granted and forget that consistent training requires great mental and physical strength. That strength should be rewarded, particularly on the days when you really don’t want to it.

#2 Make it achievable

This one applies to everyone, from elite athlete to weekend warrior. If you’re in a dark spot and are faced with an intimidating session, there’s little likelihood of a positive outcome. You’ll either start the session and have to pull halfway through (leaving you feeling like a failure) or you’ll not even begin because your head simply isn’t in it.

Dial back the planned session, make it more achievable and recognise that something is better than nothing.

Athletes thrive on squeezing the most from each session but understanding that dialling the planned session back to accommodate your mental health is crucial for long-term consistency. It is not a sign of weakness.

#3 Know what you find easy

When you’re in a hole, don’t try to complete a session you find super-tough. Replace it with a session you find easier.

Of course, low intensity aerobic sessions tend to make a good replacement for hard interval sets and still bring positive physiological adaptations, but some find short, sharp sessions mentally easier to complete.

Personally, my go-to session when I feel unable to complete a mentally demanding session is a 30/30 workout. Either cycling or running, it looks like this:

• Warm up: 10 minutes easy
• Main set: 10 X [30s strong, 30s easy]. 5 minutes easy. 10 X [30s strong, 30s easy]
• Cool down: 10 minutes low intensity

This session is only 45 minutes – it flies by but still delivers fitness gains.

Note the sessions you find easy to accomplish and use these as your go-to when your head isn’t in a place to complete the planned workout.

#4 Remember the 5-minute rule

Used in conjunction with #2 – ensuring the session is realistic and achievable – we know we always feel better after exercise.

Rarely will we get home from a run wishing we hadn’t gone, so deploy the 5-minute rule: get changed, get out there and start. If after five minutes you don’t want to continue, you have permission to go home.

Nine times out of 10 you’ll crack on and complete the session.

#5 Give yourself a break

This is so easy to say but for Type A personalities it can be very hard.

Recognising that we’re all human – not robots – is not a weakness. Quite the opposite in fact. Understanding you’re fallible and accepting that we’re all susceptible to wanes in mojo is important because it gives us permission to be kind to ourselves.

There is no failure in admitting weakness and saying, ‘you know what, today I just don’t have the fire in my belly to train’.

#6 Do it with friends

When you hear successful athletes speak about the factors which contribute to their success, you’ll often hear them say their training ‘environment’ – ie, the group of people they train alongside – plays a key role.

Next time you really don’t fancy getting out there, drop a friend a text and ask if they fancy a cruise. You’ll tick the exercise box and another important one: building relationships.

#7 Nutrition matters

There’s a clear link between the food you eat and the quality of your mental health.

This article concludes the typical Western diet “is devoid of many of the key nutrients critical for the proper functioning of the central nervous system.” Another explains how “It is undeniably linked to nutrition, as suggested by the mounting evidence by research in neuropsychiatry.”

People suffering from depression often have low levels of neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, deficiencies of which are as a result of diet.

Because there’s a clear connection between nutrition and mental health, it’s easy to see the link between nutrition and exercise.

If your mental health suffers due to poor diet, you’re less likely to train, which compounds the problem. You feel rubbish so you eat rubbish and you thus lose the mojo to train – it’s a vicious cycle.

Improving the quality of nutrition is a great step on the path to consistent training. Put the good stuff in an you’ll want to reward your body with some exercise.

How to exercise when you’re feeling low – conclusion

Even if you’re passionate about sport and love training, the mind can be cruel and rob you of your desire to get out there and do the one thing that often makes you feel better.

I think the most important of the above tips is #5: give yourself a break and accept that it’s normal for your desire to exercise to diminish from time to time.

Recognise you’re human and be kind to yourself. Keep the healthy nutrition going in and you will stay in shape

Nutrition plays a big role in how you feel on the inside. Put the good stuff in and your body will thank you.

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Evidence shows that being physically active through regular exercise helps preventing or managing a variety of health problems and concerns, such as high blood pressure, stroke, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, many types of cancer, arthritis as well as depression and anxiety. Physical exercise is especially important in childhood and young adulthood as regular exercise has been proven to help against a range of medical conditions and diseases. The benefits are huge and they are both physical as well as mental.

Different types of exercises bring specific different benefits. For example, regular aerobic exercise can aid in weight management and prevention of diabetes. Resistance exercise, such as weight lifting, can increased strength, bones and joints, while exercise that promotes flexibility, such as yoga, can be particularly beneficial to the musculoskeletal system.

The mechanics of exercising

There are 11 organ systems in our body (brace yourself, these are: integumentary, muscular, skeletal, nervous, circulatory, lymphatic, respiratory, endocrine, urinary/excretory, reproductive and digestive – don’t worry we won’t test you on this!) that work together in a harmonised way to keep us healthy.

Whenever we do any type of exercise, our muscles begin to make demands on the rest of the body. For example, during strenuous exercise the heart beats faster so that it can pump more blood to the muscles while the stomach shuts down so that it does not waste energy that the muscles can use. This is why during physical activity we can experience changes in ventilation and even changes in muscle activity.

One single episode of physical activity can cause great but brief changes in the physiology of the body organs, but for specific long-lasting health changes we have to repeat the exercise over and over with dedication and persistence. Simply put we need an exercise or fitness routine: we need training! Repeated activity can change the shape of our bodies, their size and even their functionality but in order to maintain fitness and continue seeing results we need to push the cardiovascular, respiratory and musculoskeletal systems to work harder by increasing and changing the exercise. Why? Because as our body gets fit, it also gets used to the exercise. The good news is that we don’t need to be athletes, who undergo intense regular fitness, to feel the positive effects of regular exercise as benefits can be achieved even by doing moderate and regular physical activity.

The response of the body to long term exercise varies from person to person. This is because we have very unique genetic differences. However, many of the beneficial effects of training exercise, be it weight lifting or aerobics, diminishes with a matter of weeks if the physical activity is substantially reduced. Furthermore, the beneficiary effects can even disappear in a matter of months if training exercise is not resumed. Bye-bye muscles and flat belly!

Interestingly, although for many years the recommendation for treating chronic pain was to rest and be inactive, recent studies have shown that exercise can actually relieve chronic pain and improving the quality of life. Some of these conditions that have shown to be improved by regular exercise are chronic low back pain, fibromyalgia and chronic soft tissue shoulder disorder. Additionally, it can also increase pain tolerance.

Evidence and benefits of physical activity explained

As mentioned above the benefits are huge. But what are they? Let’s take a look:

• Improving blood pressure and preventing strokes

Exercise improves blood pressure which in turns helps preventing strokes. Uncontrolled high blood pressure can lead to stroke by damaging and weakening your brain’s blood vessels, causing them to narrow, rupture or leak. High blood pressure can also cause blood clots to form in the arteries leading to your brain, blocking blood flow and potentially causing a stroke. Of course, some people have risk factors for cardiovascular disease which are independent of lifestyle, for example, having a family history of heart disease. But even for these people, being fit and active is still important and can offset their relative risk of mortality.

• Can help preventing cancer

There is also a lot of evidence suggesting that exercise can help prevent cancer. Being physically active reduces the risk of developing colon cancer by approximately 35%, and breast cancer by approximately 25% when compared with people who remain inactive. There is also a lot of evidence to suggest that it can even prevent other diseases such as endometrial cancer.

• Supporting fast metabolism

Exercise is crucial in supporting a fast metabolism, burning calories, maintaining muscle mass and losing weight. Inactivity can cause weight gain and obesity. Daily physical activity is essential to maintaining a healthy weight and reducing the risk of chronic disease. Studies show a strong link between the lack of regular physical activity and chronic disease as inactivity can lead to significant increases in belly fat, which in turns increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and early death. There is a lot of supporting evidence showing that waist size has a direct link with type 2 diabetes risk.

As recommended by the British NHS (National Health Service) regardless of your height or BMI, you should try to lose weight if your waist is 94cm (37ins) or more for men and 80cm (31.5ins) or more for women. You are at very high risk and you should contact your GP if your waist is 102cm (40ins) or more for men and 88cm (34ins) or more for women.

• It is good for our muscles

Exercise such as weight lifting, for example, can stimulate muscle building when paired with adequate protein intake. This is because exercise helps release hormones that promote the ability of your muscles to absorb amino acids which helps them grow and reduces their breakdown. With age we tend to lose muscle mass and function, which can lead to injuries and disabilities. This is why it is so important to keep being active as we age.

• Promoting bone strength

Exercise is also very good for our bones as it helps build bone density while we are young and preventing osteoporosis later in life. The activity, however, must be such that force is transmitted through the bone. For example, jumping will be more beneficial than swimming. This is because jumping is weight-bearing and the impact with the ground encourages the maintenance of bone mineral density. This also explains why impact exercise such as running, gymnastics, soccer and baseball have been shown to promote higher bone density over non-impact sports such as cycling and swimming.

A healthy musculoskeletal system is associated with psychological well-being, improved quality of life and functional independence which is especially important for people later on in life.

• Improving blood flow and antioxidant protection

If you thought it could not get any better, then hear this: regular moderate exercise can provide antioxidant protection and promote blood flow, which can protect your skin and delay signs of ageing! This is because when the body’s antioxidant defences cannot completely repair the damage that free radicals cause to cells, oxidative stress occurs and it can deteriorate your skin.

• Improving blood flow and brain health

As regular exercise improves blood flow to the brain it is also thought to help brain health, memory and mental function. This is true both for adults and children. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that regular physical activity can lower the risk of cognitive decline by approximately 20%. Furthermore, very interestingly, exercise has been shown to reduce changes in the brain that can cause Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia.

• Improving mood and helping with depression, anxiety and stress

Exercise has been shown to improve the mood as well as decreasing feelings of depression, anxiety and stress. This is because exercise can increase the production of endorphins, which are known to help produce positive feelings and reduce the perception of pain. It can also increase brain sensitivity for the hormone’s serotonin and norepinephrine, which relieve feelings of depression. Needless to say, physical activity can provide a distraction and improve mood, in fact, there are many studies over the benefits of regular exercise to combat negative and low moods.

A study in 24 women who had been diagnosed with depression showed that exercise significantly decreased feelings of depression and one study across 26 healthy men and women, who normally exercised regularly, showed that those who stopped exercising for two weeks experienced increases in negative mood.

• Boosting energy levels and reducing feelings of fatigue

Exercise is a real energy booster and studies have shown that engaging in regular physical activity can increase energy levels in healthy people. It can even reduce feelings of fatigue in people who suffer from chronic diseases syndrome (CFS) and increase energy levels in people suffering from progressive illnesses such as cancer, HIV/AIDS and multiple sclerosis.

• Stimulating good sleep

Regular exercise can help relax, sleep better and feel more energized during the day. Studies have shown beneficial effects for the elderly, who tend to be affected by sleep disorders, and even people with insomnia. This is because during exercise we use lots of energies which stimulates recuperative processes during sleep.

• Improving sex drive

Lastly, exercise can help improve sexual desire as well as function and performance in both women and men. It is also thought to help decrease the risk of erectile dysfunction in men. This is because engaging in regular exercise can improve blood circulation, strengthen the cardiovascular system, enhance flexibility and tone muscles, all of which can improve your sex life. Plus, as you look and feel better due to the exercise, you also become more confident.

Summary

The benefits of exercising are huge. Whether you walk to work, train for a specific sport, opt for a mix of exercise classes or simply take up dancing in your own sitting room, as long as you follow the guideline of 150 minutes of activity per week (30 minutes a day 5 times a week), inevitably you will improve your health in more than one way! So, what are you waiting for?

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