Totally doable. Hitting the pavement for one just hour a week could be enough to prevent depression. By Kate Mooney , Metro ...
Totally doable.
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| Hitting the pavement for one just hour a week could be enough to prevent depression. |
By Kate Mooney, Metro
We know exercising benefits your mental health in addition to your physical well-being, but how much do you need to work out to see those effects?
According to a new study
published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, sweating it out just
one hour a week was enough to curb symptoms of depression in a portion
of participants.
[post_ads]Researchers from Black Dog Institute,
a mental health research organization in Australia, followed nearly
34,000 healthy Norwegian adults over a period of 11 years and found that
those who exercised at least an hour a week had a 12 percent success
rate of staving off depressive symptoms.
“We’ve known for some time that exercise has a role to
play in treating symptoms of depression, but this is the first time we
have been able to quantify the preventative potential of physical
activity in terms of reducing future levels of depression,” lead author
Samuel Harvey of Black Dog Institute said in a release. “These findings
are exciting because they show that even relatively small amounts of
exercise – from one hour per week – can deliver significant protection
against depression.
Now, 12 percent doesn’t sound like a lot, but if you’re
looking to start small, why not hit the gym or yoga studio one hour a
week and see how you feel? Or, adopt a rescue dog
and commit to taking it on a long, brisk walk one hour a week (in
addition to shorter daily ones, of course). You can always build up from
there. Anything to fight against succumbing to a sedentary existence.
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