My fighters often comment on how good they feel after our classes. The fighter’s families notice that their mood is so much better on the days that their loved one attends. This positive impact is not just experienced by people with Parkinson’s, but by any person or animal… we are meant to be with others and moving!
This is why when someone says, “I am going to try this on my own first”, I will say, “Sure, you can do this on your own. But will you stick with it? And if you do, are your results going to be the same?” I’ve seen it happen so many times. These individuals don’t continue exercising, and their results aren’t the same. They come back to me and always agree that it’s just not the same as being in class.
Jack Raglin, a professor in the department of kinesiology in the School of Public Health at Indiana University, Bloomington says, “People who are depressed often isolate themselves, so exercising in a group setting can help alleviate symptoms and deal with this very pernicious symptom of depression.”
Group exercise classes and team sports might also have an edge over other forms of exercise because they add an element of accountability. Raglin did a study finding that couples who started an exercise program together had significantly higher attendance and a lower dropout rate than those who started one on their own.
“If you just run on a treadmill or lift weights alone in a gym for example, you will get the physiological stimulation, but there are other elements of depression that you’re not going to tap into.”
Researchers found that working out in a group setting “lowers stress by 26 percent and significantly improves quality of life, while those who exercise individually put in effort but experienced no significant changes in their stress level and a limited improvement to quality of life,” according to a study published in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.
“The communal benefits of coming together with friends and colleagues, and doing something difficult while encouraging one another, pays dividends beyond exercising alone,” said Dayna Yorks, DO, lead researcher on this study.
Scientists don’t know the exact mechanism that makes exercise elevate mood and decrease anxiety, but there is a body of research to show that it does work on the short and long term. “If you conceptualize exercise as a pill it means, well, it’s a rather small pill that’s easy to take and easy to tolerate,” says Raglin.
Dr. Antonia Baum, a psychiatrist and the former president of the International Society for Sports Psychiatry says, “We are animals. We are meant to move and if we don’t, a lot of systems slow down, including our mood and cognition.”
Baum says she works with each of her patients to incorporate exercise into their lives, but getting people who are depressed to start exercising is easier said than done. “Being around people who are working hard tends to break people out of a depressive cycle.”
RESOURCES:
J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 1995 Sep;35(3):206-13. Twelve month adherence of adults who joined a fitness program with a spouse vs without a spouse. Wallace JP1, Raglin JS, Jastremski CA.
Dayna M. Yorks, Christopher A. Frothingham, Mark D. Schuenke. Effects of Group Fitness Classes on Stress and Quality of Life of Medical Students. The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, 2017; 117 (11): e17 DOI: 10.7556/jaoa.2017.140