5 Constructive Exercises To Beat Depression – Dive In And Do Them All!

We hear volumes about tackling depression. Technically, to bring it all together, depression is dealt by working a way to bring that positive change in our mind, getting engrossed in fruitful activities that can keep our mind off depression and following a healthy lifestyle in terms of eating right, sleeping right and doing right. Did you know you can break through a depressive state of mind through exercises?

It is well- known that exercises can do a complete detox to our body as well as the mind with the help of hormones co-operating with each other and showing those results in our mental as well as physical health. Likewise, exercising during depression paves way for overcoming depression quick.

This article strives to be a guide to take you through the various exercises that can be practised when in depression.

How Do Exercises Help to Overcome Depression?

It is obvious that when a person is depressed it is a task to think of exercising carrying that state of mind. In fact, nothing seems to interest a person who is depressed.

However, one has to break these ties and just get into trying exercises without bothering too much. On a whole, exercising not only helps in curing physical ailments but it does its magic on our mental health as well by being a stress buster and a kick start for an improved mood.

What’s the Science in Exercising that Leads to ‘Gone away’ Depression?

1. When endorphin’s start to talk to your brain

You must be wondering as to what’s the link between endorphin’s talking to the brain and healing depression. You got the right thought, endorphin’s is a hormone that is secreted after exercising and it connects with a part of the brain through the cannabis(a chemical substance) and signals your brain to reduce your sadness, anxiety and worry and just not that the endorphin are responsible for making your mood better as well.

2. The lost confidence is back

When you get yourself used to exercising while you are depressed. It does good to your mentally, emotionally, physically and psychologically. When all of the dots are connected well, the confidence in you cannot wait to get back to you.

3. You open up

You may not be in the zone of talking to anyone when you are depressed. But when you go to exercise you will certainly come across a known or an unknown person and as you start to slowly socialize, there is a strong possibility that you will start to socialize like how you would earlier. The more you are around people, the faster depression runs away from you.

4. You Say Goodbye to Bad Habits

Once you get on the fitness freak mode and you begin to exercise there are chances that you may get down or give up on all the habits such as smoking, drinking or drugs which is not good for your body and health as well. All the credits would directly go to the newly inculcated habit of exercising.

Having gone through the importance of exercising to overcome depression, let’s get on to finding the right exercises to eliminate depression from your life once and for all.

Read this: How To Get Out Of Bed When Depressed

Best Exercises To Say Good Bye To Depression

Exercises are designed in such a way that their focus is to repair your mind and body. Follow these exercises :

Exercise No 1: Stretching To De – Depression

Take a look at this video and experience the positiveness your mind and body will attain, follow each instruction carefully and try this in an open and peaceful space.

Exercise No 2: Reverse Depression With Yoga

Have you ever heard of this saying, ‘Yoga is not an exercise, it is an art of living’ This statement is truly justified and you will know it only when you start practising yoga.

Yoga is that form of an exercise that tunes your mind and body in a meditative state and when the mind gets there, it is a cake walk to calm yourself and get out of depression. Read through these asanas and try them out. Keep in mind that you must always perform every asana slowly to absorb maximum benefits.

(i) Hatha Yoga

Pro’s of this asana: This asana is an empowering asana that will co-ordinate with your breath and body movements and help you pick yourself up.

How to Do it :

1. Sit on the floor with your legs crossed.
2. Bring your crossed legs slightly upwards close to your chest and push your upper body forward.
3. Place your palms a little ahead of your hips and not exactly beside your hips.
4. Inhale and move your body forward with your hands and legs in the same position, exhale and bring your body back without changing the position of your hands and legs.

2nd Variation:

1. Move your body forward another time and with the help of you palms lift your body slightly above the ground and balance your body weight on your palms.

Point to Be Noted :

1. When you raise your body forward or go above the ground you must inhale and hold there for 5 seconds.
2. When you bring your body down you must exhale

(ii) Sukha Asana

Pro’s of this asana: This asana is a basic yoga pose, it is a pleasant yoga asana that benefits a person with a relaxed and concentrated mind.

How to Do it :

1. Sit on the floor with your legs crossed.
2. Maintain the right posture by sitting up straight.
3. Clasp your hands and fold them together(as per yoga mudra let the fingers of your right hand dominate over the left while you fold your fingers)
4. Close your eyes and notice the way you are inhaling and exhaling(imagine that you are inhaling positivity and exhaling negativity).

Points to Be Noted :

You must take long and deep breaths.

(iii) Sarvanga Asana

Pro’s of this asana:

Sarvanga asana is good to get out of depression as it stimulates the endophrin’s and it is a great asana for thyroid glands. Possibly a person suffering with the thyroid can be struggling with depression issues.

How to do it :

1. Lie down flat with your palms touching the ground.
2. Lift your legs up in a 90 degree angle.
3. Place your hands above your hips and push your body even more upwards.
4. Remain in this position for about 10 seconds.
5. Slowly bring your body down by placing your legs gently on the floor.
6. Remain to stay flat on the ground, move your neck left and right to ease of the pressure on your neck.

Points to Be Noted :

Do not forget to inhale and exhale while you are doing this asana and you will feel the pressure on your throat when your legs are lifted up.

Watch this video :

Exercise No 3: Aerobicize Your Mind

Aerobics is massive as it includes running, cycling, walking, swimming, dancing and kickboxing. Now you know how elaborated it is.

Aerobics is a fitness mantra to improve your emotional and mental health. As per the World Health Organization, depression has affected 121million people all around the world and Aerobics is one of those exercises that can help in reducing depression.

Tips to Include an Eerobicized Routine :

1. Take out time early in the morning for at least 15 minutes to go for a run.
2. If you have a cycle and love cycling, try and cycle for at least 30 minutes every three days a week.
3. Dancing is a form of expressing your emotions be it good or bad through your body movements. Try and join a dance class if you wish to or just dance to some energizing music at home.
4. Swimming is a lovely exercise when you have to just work around your body and feel great mentally.

Read this : (R)
Read this : (R)

Aerobics is unlike a structured form of exercise, it has got a scope of activities you can venture out on to see where your interest lies. Exercising during a depression is tough until aerobics is not in the list to try on.

Exercise No 4: Try Weight Training

Going for weight training has assured phsyiologically as well as psycological advantages besides being good for strength training. One of the studies done by Harvard proved a few weeks of strength training to have reduced depression in people.

When you consider weight training as an exercise during depression you will notice how there is a release in your hormones that elevate your mood and make you feel good all of a sudden.

In a due course of time, you feel proud of yourself that you are able to carry certain weights that was impossible at one point in time, this gives you that motivation factor to uplift your mood.

Your diet improves and eating the right food is good for your overall well being too.

Here is a video that will help you work on your depression :

Exercise No 5: Get Sporty With A Sport

Sports are not alone the building blocks for your body but they build and repair your ruptured and sad mind. Trying any outdoor sport will help your focus shift to a productive task which will rejuvenate your state of mind.

In a game, you just do not focus on fitness but you are inclined to win the game, you learn about what defeat is and the true spirit of a player is to keep trying. Likewise, this philosophy could help you break open from a depressed state of mind.

The nature of the game keeps your mind occupied which makes it easier for you to get over the dark spaces that you are going through within. A sport is maybe not originally categorized as an exercise but it is an indirect form of exercising.

To summarize it all, exercising during depression aids better recovery and you unleash the positive power hid within you. Every person who stumbles through this episode of depression must take the support of exercising to totally refresh and get back to normal.

If you are in a depressed zone in your life, that’s not the place to dwell in. Forgo your depression picking up an exercise to beat depression.