With coronavirus cases spiking again, public spaces like gyms may be in for shutdowns once more. Even with gyms currently open some people still are hesitant to go due to the potential risk associated. Despite these setbacks, personal health and exercise are vital to your overall health and well-being and can even benefit people in other ways, including improving someone’s chance at sobriety.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the benefits that exercise can have for all people.
Physical Benefits of Exercise
When it comes to staying active and getting the blood flowing, most people understand that exercise can be beneficial to an individual’s physical health. Regular physical activity can help with a number of different things including:
- Reducing your risk of heart disease
- Weight management
- Lower risk of certain cancers
- Improved cardiovascular health overall
- Improved sleep
These are just a few of the many benefits that come from exercising. When it comes to exercising, you don’t just have to be at the gym – you have numerous options. Regular exercise can include jogging, biking, swimming, yoga, weightlifting, and more. There is always something you can be doing to get active.
Mental Benefits of Exercise
Along with the well-known physical benefits associated with exercise, there are many mental health benefits. Exercise has been proven to help with mental health and can:
- Reduce anxiety
- Reduce depression
- Improve mood
- Improve self-esteem
When it comes to exercise, it is easy to get blinded by the physical benefits associated with physical activity but there are numerous, helpful mental benefits that come with exercising as well.
Along with physical exercise, there are mindfulness and meditation exercises that you can implement in your day-to-day routine to improve your overall health and help with any mental disorders that you may be dealing with. Meditation has been shown to improve anxiety and depressive-related symptoms.
Exercise for Sobriety
As we have touched on, exercise in addiction treatment can also be vital for helping people in their sobriety. It is becoming more common for people in recovery and treatment center as they discover the complementary benefits that exercise can have for people in recovery. Not only can it act as a primary stress reliever after therapy and cathartic experiences, it can also reduce a client’s chance at relapse as they often will use exercise as a distraction when urges and cravings to use crop up.
Real-World Example
The Hope House is a drug and alcohol rehab in Arizona that utilizes exercise as an additional treatment method for clients dealing with anything from alcoholism to opioid addiction. These exercise programs are led by trained clinicians and health professionals and are in place to help clients relieve stress and reduce cravings. The best part: they can use this form of treatment after leaving the facility on their own; it is a highly effective form of aftercare treatment.
Overall, exercise is beneficial for numerous reasons. It can help with physical and mental health problems and can go a long way toward improving people’s sobriety and overall well-being.