A new review looks into the optimum exercise intensity, type and duration for boosting mood
It's well known that physical exercise is beneficial not just to physical health but also to mental health. Yet whereas most countries have detailed, evidence-backed guidelines on the type and intensity of exercise required for various physical health benefits, such guidelines do not yet exist for exercise and mood. This is partly due to a lack of necessary evidence. However, a new systematic review brings us usefully up to-date on the current findings in this area.
Before dipping into some of the key take-aways, an important distinction made in the review is between aerobic exercise and anaerobic. The former involves such things as walking, jogging and cycling and means exercising in such a way that your body is able to use oxygen to burn fat for energy. In contrast, anaerobic exercise—such as lifting heavy weights—is of such vigorous intensity that your body does not have time to use oxygen to create energy and so instead it breaks down glucose(葡萄糖) in your blood or muscles.
Beginning first with the influence of exercise intensity on the mood benefits of aerobic exercise, the researchers, led by John Chan at Shenzhen University, found contradictory results from 19 relevant studies. Some favoured higher intensity, others low, while seven studies found that intensity made no difference to mood benefits.
In relation to the intensity of anaerobic exercise, however, the results were far clearer—the optimum(最佳选择) for improving mood is moderate intensity, perhaps because low intensity is too dull while high intensity is too unpleasant.