Think physical fitness is out of reach? Discover the truth about exercise and its benefits for bipolar disorder.
Physical activity benefits everybody’s health, but especially those who live with mood disorders.
The three pillars of bipolar mood stability are psychotherapy, medication, and lifestyle management. Exercise falls neatly into that sometimes-nebulous third category and — believe it or not! — can become integral to your daily life.
Incorporating regular movement into your routine is not just a way to improve or maintain your physical well-being, but also a tried-and-true practice for lightening the heaviness of bipolar depression, redirecting the excess energy of hypomania or mania, and reducing stress, no matter your mood.
Many studies have found positive benefits and symptom reduction associated with physical activity, whether aerobic (cardio, like walking) or anaerobic (strength or resistance training, like jumping rope).
RELATED: The Healing Power of Exercise in Bipolar Disorder
In fact, other findings show that daily exercise can boost your mood and even improve your cognition. Not to mention, breaking a sweat is often free, or nearly so — and fun!
It’s easy to find mistaken or misleading fitness advice — shared on social media or propagated on infomercials, then repeated by talking heads everywhere.
Competing and conflicting recommendations can decrease your motivation to get out there and get moving. We asked fitness experts to debunk some of the top myths about exercise.
1. Myth: Exercise Takes a Lot of Time
You don’t have to take a 45-minute spin class or go for a grueling three-mile run to see physical and mental benefits, especially if you’re starting from a sedentary lifestyle.
Exercise medicine researcher Greg Wells, PhD, who works at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and is the author of The Ripple Effect: Sleep Better, Eat Better, Move Better, Think Better, says that as little as 15 minutes a day of any kind of activity — walking, running, dancing, yoga — can have a dramatic impact on your overall health.
“And you don’t have to go really hard,” says Dr. Wells, a well-known sports science analyst. “The key is doing it consistently, making it a daily habit.”
Wells says a quarter-hour of activity is enough to reduce your risk of cancer, improve work productivity, and “jump-start your metabolism.” And if 15 minutes sounds like too much, just getting off the couch during commercials to stretch or walk around the living room is a good start.
“Once you are going, it becomes easier to add more gradually,” Wells adds. For motivation, he recommends thinking in terms of one percent aggregate gains. As he points out, “If you just add one percent more to whatever you are doing each day, you will soon be up to a significant workout.”
Furthermore, there is a growing consensus that brief but intense workouts of just 10 minutes can be as effective as longer periods of exercise. The findings of one randomized control trial support this notion.
Kinesiologists at McMaster University and UBC Okanagan found that participants improved their cardiovascular health after incorporating exercise “snacks” into their routine. Each exercise “snack,” done three times daily, included vigorously climbing a staircase three times, and then resting for a few hours.
2. Myth: Working Out Means Going to the Gym
Health clubs, personal trainers, and the multi-billion dollar exercise industry have a vested interest in getting you to believe this, but it’s just not true. The best workout for you depends on how motivated you are to achieve your exercise goals.
For individuals grappling with the inertia of bipolar depression, finding some large-muscle activities you can do at home (or on your own) removes one more obstacle to exercising.
Some people thrive in the social environment of group exercise, though. If that’s true of you, then joining a gym or online fitness group may well be more effective than staying solo at home.
Plus, a health club or Y will be better equipped with stationary cycles, treadmills, and strength-training machines than the average home. Note: To avoid injury, make sure a trainer helps you determine the correct settings and postures to use with any exercise equipment.
The key is figuring out what works for your lifestyle and preferences and then sticking with that routine.
3. Myth: No Sweat? Then You’re Not Exercising
“So many people think that daily exercise has to be an all-out, heart-racing activity,” says Sohee Lee, founder of SoheeFit and fitness advisor for Women’s Health in New York City. “But you can overtrain that way and injure yourself.”
Exercise comes in all flavors. Gentle movement, like tai chi practice, still provides health benefits. So does sporadic exertion, like playing with your children or grandchildren.
Certainly, high-intensity training can burn lots of calories, boost cardiovascular fitness, and speed weight loss, but it’s not necessary for everyone all the time.
“Ballet dancers will spend their mornings at the barre, working through muscle-building leg exercises, and you’ll never see them sweat,” says Lee. “So huffing and puffing shouldn’t be a measure of your workouts.”
4. Myth: You Must Stretch Before Exercising
Perhaps you were part of a sports team in your school years, back when stretching was a priority before practice started. Recent research suggests that stretching doesn’t necessarily prevent injuries.
The more important activity is the warm-up. If you’re going to play softball with the accounting department, for instance, take a few slow laps around the diamond before the game begins to loosen up your muscles and raise your heart rate a bit. There’s no need to flex or extend every muscle to its full length.
On the other hand, Wells says, “Stretching at the end of your workout, or after properly warming up, can bring you great flexibility benefits.” If you’d like to become more limber, there are big plusses to a yoga routine or stretching practice guided by someone who knows proper form.
5. Myth: One Workout and You’re Set for the Day
Studies have shown people who exercise regularly, but spend most of the day sitting, won’t live as long as people who integrate low-level activity throughout their day.
When you sit for hours on end, your metabolism slows down drastically, and your susceptibility to a range of health problems increases. Taking even one minute every hour to wiggle, dance around, or pace the room can combat the ill effects of a sedentary lifestyle.
“The more people engage their large muscles on a regular basis, the healthier they are,” Wells says.
Keep an eye out for easy ways to increase your movement:
- Take the laundry upstairs as soon as it’s done and come back down right away, instead of waiting until you’re going up anyway.
- Walk over to talk to a colleague instead of shooting off an email.
- Park your car farther from your destination.
There are plenty of opportunities to work more activity into your day — even after you’ve gone for a long morning walk.
6. Myth: Women Who Lift Weights Will ‘Bulk Up’
Weight-bearing activities are important for everyone, no matter their gender identity. According to Wells, it’s now recommended that adults perform weight-bearing activities a couple of times a week.
“There are so many benefits — for bone density, muscle rebuilding, improved mood, and decreased risk of diabetes and heart disease,” he says.
If dumbbells and bench presses seem intimidating, you can do push-ups against the wall or hold a plank position for half a minute to get similar benefits.
Because women don’t have much testosterone, which is the chief hormone for muscle growth, “bulking up” is an unlikely side effect. Female bodybuilders report having to work out for four to five hours a day and completely change their protein intake in order to build that kind of muscle.
More typically, strength training helps develop not only more strength, but also muscle tone, which helps decrease body fat and burn calories more efficiently. Lifting free weights, doing circuits on weight machines, using stretchy bands, or performing resistance exercises that use one’s own body weight (like those wall push-ups) all achieve the desired result.
7. Myth: The Bathroom Scale Is Your Best Measure of Fitness
Most people who start exercising won’t see immediate weight loss unless they are also decreasing their calorie intake. And that’s hard to do because exercising naturally increases your appetite.
Just because you don’t lose a lot of weight right away, or ever, doesn’t mean that exercise isn’t helping you overall. Heart health and mental health benefits come with every kind of physical activity.
RELATED: Bipolar and Exercise: 5 Simple Ways to Boost Your Mood With Movement
If you’re feeling frustrated because your pant size hasn’t budged, focus on other improvements. Is your mood more stable? Do you have more energy throughout the day? Are you getting stronger? Keeping the overarching benefits of exercise in mind is more beneficial than focusing exclusively on a number on the scale.
In fact, since research shows that exercise boosts your mood, paying attention to how your mood improves afterward can keep you more motivated for the next time.
8. Myth: Exercise Is a Chore That You Have to Force
It’s true that getting up and out for some physical activity can feel daunting at times. As Newton’s first law of motion states, a body at rest stays at rest unless an external force is applied.
That’s why fitness experts recommend tricks such as:
- Scheduling exercise as an appointment with yourself
- Making dates with a workout buddy
- Putting together a pick-me-up soundtrack
- Finding activities that you find fun, in and of themselves
It’s also true that, for some workouts, you will need to develop power over that inner voice that whines, This is too hard, I want to quit! Get an answer ready for that voice, something like, Just 30 more seconds! or Just five more breaths!
Self-talk that is positive and affirming will go a long way toward building your resilience, as well as your self-esteem.
It’s common to feel unmotivated or somewhat physically uncomfortable at the start of your exercise session, but unless you are injured or sick, that discomfort should soon dissipate as you get involved in your activity.
Lee says that changing your perspective to view fitness as a privilege can give you added inspiration.
“To have the ability and freedom to move and sweat every day is something that not everyone gets to do,” she says. “With every workout, you become better than you were yesterday.”
Editorial Sources and Fact-Checking
UPDATED: Originally posted July 12, 2021