Get off your phone and exercise

Instead of scrolling for five or more hours on TikTok, how about you go for a walk by yourself and clear your mind, try out for that spot on the soccer team at your school, or go lifting with a friend at the gym. Whatever you choose, exercising is a great use of time in a busy student’s schedule.

We have all heard the many physical health benefits that exercise provides, such as stronger immune systems and decrease in degrading conditions such as diabetes, cancer, and osteoporosis, but the benefits of exercise extend past physical health. Lack of exercise leads to energy imbalances which can directly affect our emotions and ability to think cognitively.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, physical exercise has proven to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression in children and adolescents. This is because during exercise our body releases chemical endorphins, which are our body’s “feel-good” neurotransmitters that improve our mental health and decrease feelings of irritation and stress.

By focusing on a single task at hand, exercise can help you to feel calm and lead to feelings of accomplishment once you have finished, according to an article published by the Mayo Clinic. Improving mental health leads to overall ability to perform your best when faced with tasks and challenges in life, and physical activity is a free and fun way to do that.

There have also been many studies done, such as one published by Harvard Medical School, showing that those who choose to exercise have a larger frontal lobe, the part of the brain responsible for thinking and memory. Exercise also encourages the production of growth

factors which affect the growth of new blood vessels and abundance and health of new cells in the brain.

The ability to push yourself and get uncomfortable during exercise can be an extremely mentally challenging task that only makes our cognitive abilities and mental strength stronger, but that’s not all it provides us.

Exercise can also provide a cure for boredom or purpose for our time and can overall promote time management throughout our busy lives, and for those in sports it can also provide an opportunity for socialization with others. As for students readying themselves for the long and tedious college application process, sports and physical activities as hobbies show colleges the well-roundedness of a student and their ability to try new things.

Although it can be daunting at first to try something new and hard that challenges our bodies both physically and mentally, exercise provides us with so many benefits and opportunities that we might never have had. Whether it’s a quick walk or a quick game of ball with a friend, any little act of exercise counts for something and can provide students with more than they would have thought.