Moving our bodies - Moving for mental health

 

Moving our bodies - Moving for mental health

Michael Cole, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, and The Society of Sports Therapists (Orcid ID: 0000-0002-4131-9566)

 

In celebration of Mental Health Awareness Week (13^th to 19^th May), and the Mental Health Foundation’s theme of ‘Moving my body - Moving for my mental health’, here’s a short blog post that’s part personal and part political.

Movement is my primary love language.

For me, simply changing my body position whilst sitting in my office chair is self-care. Engaging in exercise is one of the best presents I gift to my body and to my mental health almost every day.

But there are tensions within exercise. In this blog piece I take a brief look at two of these.

Tension 1: Exercise is great, but it’s personal – why aren’t you moving more?

On the one hand, we know that the health benefits of exercise benefit everybody; on the other hand, an individual’s relationship with the act of exercising is highly personal. What benefits everyone’s health may not actually work in practice for each of us.

Take me as an example. I am a bit ‘weird’, in that I gain satisfaction and even pleasure from exercise-induced breathlessness, getting sweaty, and feeling my muscles ache. I love most sports. But ask me to spoil a good walk by playing a round of golf, and I’ll be at the bar sinking a pint rather than on par sinking a putt.

For me, the physical exertion of exercise is cathartically fatiguing, psychologically energising, and spiritually nourishing. As a neurodivergent person prone to anxiety caused by living in a neuro-ableist society, movement might be the most important method of self-care I have in my ‘toolbox’ to help me cope and thrive. Movement helps my mood, sense of self, ability to manage normal daily physical and psychological tasks, and my decision-making¹: in choosing what to do next in work and life, ‘run on it’ has become as important a mantra to me as ‘sleep on it’.

So, whether it’s a gentle roll of my shoulders, a flex of my neck, or briefly standing up at my desk, my mind and body crave movement. If I can squeeze a ‘walking meeting’ into the day, or even a little jog or gym session into my lunch break, giving my body and soul a movement snack is one of the most loving things I do for myself.

Clearly movement is beneficial for my brain, and the research shows this to be true for all of us. It may be especially important for neurodivergent people and those with mental health conditions, especially given neurodivergence is associated with a significant number of co-occurring physical conditions². Just one bout of physical activity can help with mental health and wellbeing³, whilst regular exercise supports long-term mental health and wellbeing, and can help as an adjunct treatment to attenuate depression and psychotic symptoms^4,5. Research into the effects of physical activity for certain groups is ongoing but limited; improvements in psychological function and quality of life are indicated in autistic people⁶, whilst emerging research explores the impact of exercise on neurological conditions via the gut-brain axis⁷, though caution is indicated in some groups, such as Long-Covid patients⁸. We don't yet know the precise dose or how to predict specific responses in the general population⁹, but let's not get bogged down in the details, because what matters to most people are the basic principles of fitness¹⁰, whilst what matters to the individual is what's realistic, sustainable and available for them to choose, begin, and be supported to maintain¹¹ in a harmonious balance¹².

As Chair of The Society of Sports Therapists (SST) and faculty member of the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, supporting people, especially marginalised groups, to move more has been a lifetime’s passion. Movement is medicine¹³ but it is also more than that – movement is life, and lifestyle; movement is language, creativity, and expression – it is embodied liberation and corporeal resistance^14,15,16. But, equity in sport and exercise participation remains a significant and urgent challenge.

Tension 2: Exercise is great, but it’s political – why aren’t you moving more?

Exercise is not just about the individual. The ‘social determinants of health’¹⁷ include real barriers to engagement in exercise. Issues such as urbanization¹⁸, the amount of and proximity to green spaces¹⁹, social deprivation²⁰, school provision²¹, safety for women²² and LGBTQ+ communities²³, ableism²⁴, and medicine and healthcare professionals’ confidence and competency in advocating movement^25,26 are implicated in people’s equitable access to engagement in physical activity.

Exercise is political.

If we are hindered in our ability to speak our physical languages, and if society’s structural ableism restricts the physical freedom and opportunity of marginalised people to speak their physical languages, then movement itself is a site of physical apartheid²⁷. Whilst food banks²⁸ and warm banks²⁹ are not the answer to the causes of social deprivation, they do help the symptoms and provide vital services, especially during a cost-of-living crisis. One idea is to ‘piggy-back’ on these interventions, along with libraries³⁰ and faith centres³¹, to implement co-created physical activity health pathways that better reach underserved groups and support us all to ‘speak our own movement languages’ to achieve the recommended physical activity guidelines¹⁰. We also need to acknowledge and confront the upstream social determinants of health and engage in socio-professional activism³² to challenge existing inequalities. Only then can all of us truly ‘move for mental health’.

Find out more: mentalhealth.org.uk/mhaw 

#MentalHealthAwarenessWeek #MomentsForMovement

References

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2.     Donaghy, B., Moore, D. and Green, J. (2023) ‘Co-Occurring Physical Health Challenges in Neurodivergent Children and Young People: A Topical Review and Recommendation’, Child Care in Practice, 29(1), pp. 3–21. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13575279.2022.2149471.

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