Does Exercise Stop You Going Green?

August 12, 2010 By Mark

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Can you remember a programme years ago called The Incredible Hulk? And if you’re not familiar with the story when he became angry he turned green. But I digress this isn’t what this post is about. It’s more about the overall effect of exercise and how it can affect our moods.

Some people in Germany were monitored, and they were found to be happier overall when they were doing such activities as gardening or walking. Even animals which have been monitored in laboratories have been found to be more emotionally stable when they exercise. Although it is very hard to estimate emotions in animals.

So if we become angry in certain situations is it feasible that exercise can influence this also? Let’s take a closer look and see. A study presented at the American College of Sports Medicine looked at this in greater detail. It asked students to fill a questionnaire in regarding how quickly they would get angry in certain situations.

The researchers chose the students whom they described as being very touchy in certain situations. The participants were invited to the lab and asked how they were feeling at the time, they then had a hair net with electrodes attached, which monitored their brain patterns.

They were sat down and pictures were flashed in front of them depicting certain scenes these were purposely chosen to make them become angry and showed scenes of violence associated with things such as the Ku Klux Klan and children being fired at by military soldiers.

Their brain activity was checked, which showed they were becoming angry. The researchers then asked them from a scale of zero to nine how angry they felt. Then on alternating days they either did one of two things rode a stationary exercise bike for 30 minutes or did nothing.

During these days, their brains were measured for activity of anger to see if there was any difference between the two activities. Here is where it becomes quite interesting the participants who hadn’t exercised became more angrier when they saw the slides for a second time. After the exercise and a second viewing their anger was more on a level plane, they still became somewhat upset upon the second viewing.

It didn’t make them totally hardened to what they had seen, but when they had finished their exercise, they were no more angrier from when they first started. The results of this study conclude that exercise can have a calming effect and enable us to cope better with life’s stress.

When the participants hadn’t exercised it was more difficult for them to control their emotions. However, when they had it was much easier for them to cope with things. Exactly, how this mechanism works isn’t fully understood but some people say it may be due to the fact.

Of a neurotransmitter in the brain called serotonin when this is low in animals it can cause aggression so the theory is that when you exercise this is increased. When some animals were analysed in a laboratory it was found that certain genes in their brains changed and changed their overall way of being emotionally.

Perhaps this would explain why when we don’t exercise consistently we can tend to feel a bit crappy, and it may take a while for certain processes to change within our brains. This isn’t exactly rocket science, but nonetheless, it’s still interesting I think from a personal point of view.

It’s interesting to know these things because sometimes at least we have another way of dealing with problems rather than going into a shell which we can tend to do when problems arise.

People who suffer from road rage might find this research interesting it may be time to leave the car at home and use pedal power for a change, so when you have been for a ride you can get in your car, and you may feel somewhat less likely to blaspheme at people.

Here is some food for thought to finish on, does exercise make you feel more focused, less angry, and overall a more balanced person? Any feedback is welcome.

Source http://well.blogs.nytimes.com