Can Exercise reduce Stress and Anxiety?
Video – VLog #05
In the U.K. we are advised to have one hour of exercise in the outdoors during #Lockdown caused by the #Coronavirus.
We ask Willie Nicol in this video how exercise can reduce stress and anxiety?
Script – VLog #05
David Logan: Hi, my name is David Logan, the IT Geek. Explaining the jargon for the homeworker when we are in #LockDown due to the #Corona-virus. I’m located in Annan in Scotland, UK. Talking with me today is Willie Nicol. So how are you and where are you?
Willie Nicol: Hello, David and hello to everyone. I’m well, thanks. I live in Loans, which is near Troon in Scotland.
David Logan: Great. So today, Willie, we have a topic for yourself today, picked a topic. The U.K. government, I’m sure about other countries. generally the same suggests that we should go out once a day for exercise. How does that help our stress and anxiety during this period?
Willie Nicol: Good question, David. It’s a stressful period for everyone, I think, and that is a direct correlation between exercise and stress. Exercise is good for reducing stress.
David Logan: OK, so it’s good for stress. I was out walking this morning on my daily walk first thing. Is it true, that it helps the brain function clearer as well?
Willie Nicol: Yes, that has an element to that. I’ll do this in two parts. Firstly, the stress is quite a normal thing. It only becomes a problem when there’s too much of it and over a prolonged period of time. The stress reaction goes back to cave-man days. Where it was a safety mechanism. If your cave mine was out hunting for food and saw something that wanted to eat him, he would automatically and unconsciously trigger a stress mechanism, which is called the fight-or-freeze. That floods your body with naturally occurring chemicals such as adrenaline, cortisol, which enable you to run faster, fight harder, and so on. Then when danger is past these chemicals subside again, however in modern day times, stress does generate these chemicals again, and if we’re consistently or continually stressed, an overdose of these chemicals is not good. And it can have mental and physical effects.
David Logan: OK – so these chemicals can make the heart work faster? I know you’re not, neither are medical really, but make the heart work faster does it?
Willie Nicol: Well, the original study I told you about the cave-man – yes. It makes your heart works faster so the body pumps more blood around, your heart beats more blood around your body and you become more aware of all your senses are heightened and it’s a anticipation of, say, danger that to these chemicals do the work. But when the dangers past, the chemicals subside again in your body. Modern day living can be quite stressful in these elevated levels of adrenaline and cortisol actually have bad effects. So we need to take some steps to ensure we’re not being flooded with these chemicals due to excessive stress.
David Logan: When I’m being exercised?
Willie Nicol: One of the big exercises – yes. And then the flip side to the stress is exercise. We have all done our workouts or jobs, or walks and we feel pretty good at the end of it. And that is due to another naturally occurring chemical in a body called endorphins. They are actually neurotransmitters, but we just kind of chemicals for the sake of this situation, Endorphins are a feel good chemical like you feel good after you’ve exercised. You get what long distance runners is called the endorphin high, where when you’ve generated a lot of endorphins – you feel great. They can also help you sleep better, it can help you with your appetite management, and generally the added good thing. So any form of exercise that you want to go running or whether you do yoga or whatever it is, creates a kind of feel good factor, which is excellent at reducing stress or helping you manage stress. So endorphins are our natural feel good chemical.
David Logan: That’s great. Do you think I’m going to push it and then challenge you one more question Willie?
Willie Nicol: Sure.
David Logan: When we do exercise, do you think it matters if we do it indoors or outdoors?
Willie Nicol: I don’t think it matters as long as you’re doing it. So the cause of the lockdown just now. We are restricted to about one hour a day exercise period. I have seen people jogging past my front window. I see people walking. I know it’s a friends and family do various activities. Some people are fortunate enough to have an indoor gym in their house, but you can use all sorts of things in your house to, you know, create some sort of gym environment or you can run up-down the stairs or you can stretch or whatever, as long as you’re keeping active and the endorphins are getting stimulated – it’s a good thing. And I said, you know yourself, it’s a good thing if you are stressed as to take time out, go for a walk or jump up and down for five minutes or whatever, because these chemicals, which are naturally occurr in your body, have a function, so the stimulation of endorphins, the feel good chemical is a good thing.
David Logan: Great. So that is a great answer. Thank you. Thank you, Willie. Much appreciated for you taking time to do this. I will end here.
David Logan: And so if you, the viewer wants to know more about how exercise can help you during this period – feel free to contact us on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and we have a web site – so feel free to drop a comment, send us a message and we will come back to you as soon as we can. So I’m David Logan the I.T. Geek, signing out. Goodbye, and over to Willie.
Willie Nicol: Yes. Thanks, David. It’s goodbye from me, Willie Nicol the techno dinosaur and also personal development coach. Goodbye.
David Logan: Bye.
