Caveat Athleto

Exercise is well known to be associated with a reduced risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes, but its association with mental health has officially remained unclear. A study from Yale and Oxford Universities analyzing the physical behavior and mental mood of 1.2 million Americans, published in August 2018 in The Lancet, suggests that exercise is more important to our mental health than our economic status.

Not surprisingly, the general findings were that those who were more active were happier overall. But while exercise can make you happy, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the more you exercise, the happier you’ll get. In fact, researchers suggest that too much exercise may reverse the positive effects and leave you worse off: “Previously, people have believed that the more exercise you do, the better your mental health, but our study suggests that this is not the case. Doing exercise more than 23 times a month, or exercising for longer than 90 minute sessions is associated with worse mental health.”

So what’s the sweet spot?

The study found that those who exercised approximately 30 to 60 minutes, 3 to 5 times per week were the happiest year-round. They noted that those who over-exercised were the ones who have obsessive characteristics that made them overwork in the first place.

The secret seems to be that a good balance between work-out lengths and intensity levels is key. Regular exercise, if carried out with balance, creates positive change in life. Now we know that exercise not only has positive physical and mental benefits but it makes us happier too.

But most of us already know that. Of significance of this finding for me is the link between lengthy exercise sessions and obsessive tendencies. Maybe I already knew that too!!!!