Study finds direct link between women’s mental health and exercise levels

ASICS’ Move Her Mind study, which involved 26 focus groups and a survey of nearly 25,000 participants worldwide, found that women who engaged in regular exercise reported feeling 50% more energized, 48% more confident, and 52% happier than when they were inactive.

Lack of exercise has proven to be detrimental to women’s mental health.

ASICS’ Move Her Mind study, which involved 26 focus groups and a survey of nearly 25,000 participants worldwide, discovered a clear correlation between a woman’s mental health and activity level, People magazine reported.

Notably, women who engaged in regular exercise reported a significant boost in their mental well-being, feeling 50% more energized, 48% more confident, and 52% happier than when they were inactive.

Women also reported feeling 67% more anxious and 80% more frustrated when they did not exercise consistently, indicating that workouts helped them deal with negative emotions more effectively.

However, more than half of the women surveyed said they didn’t have enough time to exercise.

“Regardless of their level of activity, women are facing barriers to being as active as they would like to be,” said the lead researcher, Dr. Dee Dlugonski.

Recommended Stories

• Mental Health Awareness Month kicks off with an urgent report on Black maternal mental health

• Women may need less exercise than men to live longer, new study finds

• For children struggling with mental health disorders, movement may be the answer

• Debbie Allen stresses water, exercise — and lots of it — as the keys to her health at 74

• AI chatbots are here to help with your mental health, despite limited evidence they work

The most frequent barriers reported by women regarding exercise were insufficient time (74%) and too many other commitments (76%).

Having children also had a significant influence over a woman’s ability to exercise regularly; over 60% of women stated that becoming a mother was the main reason they stopped going to the gym regularly, with their levels of activity declining throughout the years spent bearing and raising children.

However, mothers weren’t always resuming their physical activity as their children grew older; over 50% of women reported their level of exercise decreased with age, and some even stopped completely. The top two reasons for the halt were work and a lack of time.

“Many women reported experiencing gendered expectations that impacted the time they had free to either exercise or play sport,” said Dlugonski, People reported. “Caregiving roles, such as caring for children, elders or conducting other household responsibilities, were particularly salient barriers reported by women in the quantitative and qualitative data.”

The post Study finds direct link between women’s mental health and exercise levels appeared first on TheGrio.