Five Reasons Why Running Is Good for Your Mental Fitness

Trigger Warning: this article mentions depression, anxiety, and other mental health.

This post is presented in partnership with New Balance.

We all know that running is amazing for our physical health like strengthening muscles, maintaining a healthy weight, and improving cardio, but there are also heaps of benefits for our mental fitness too.

From helping reduce stress to improving the quality of sleep, running is a bit of a catch-all when you’re looking to strengthen your mental fitness.

So, to convince you to lace up the runners again and get moving, we’ve teamed up with New Balance to give you five reasons why running is good for your mental fitness.

1. It improves sleep.

Who doesn’t love getting a good night sleep? If you’re struggling to get some quality Z’s then it’s time you take up running.

Running has been proven to help people set a normal sleep schedule. Not to mention the melatonin released during and after a jog help relax your body and encourage deep sleeping.

Getting some quality sleep is obviously important for your mental health, so bring on the running!

2. It reduces stress, anxiety, and depression.

We could all do with a little stress in our lives and running does just that. In fact, it also reduces anxiety and depression.

How? Exercise is proven to quickly improve depression and anxiety through the endorphins it pumps through your brain. Of course, running isn’t a cure-all for these issues, but it can reduce the effects significantly and, in some cases, quickly.

So, feeling a little flat, grumpy, jittery, or tense? A run might be just for you. If it doesn’t improve your stress, anxiety or depression, we defs recommend seeing a trusted healthcare professional.

3. It sharpens your memory.

Do you find that you’re a little hazy in the old memory department? You could defs use a little running in your life.

Not to get all sciencey on y’all but running produces chemicals—like glutamate—that support the part of our brain that focuses on memory and learning. It’s called the hippocampus, Google it.

So, if you’re looking to improve your brain capacity and get some marks at school/uni, running is a great boost.

4. It boosts your Creativity.

If you’ve hit a creative wall and a breakthrough just isn’t coming, you guessed it, it’s time to go for a run.

Just getting the blood pumping and oxygen flowing through your body has been shown to help boost creativity in some people.

Plus, taking up running means a new addition to your routine, a change of pace and new visual stimuli, so you never know what kinds of new ideas could bring up.

So, if you’ve been looking at a blank page for the last hour, it’s time to take a break, put on your exercise clothes and head out for a run.

5. It increases your self-esteem.

Aside from getting fit, running can be about progressing and smashing your goals, and when you start reaching them, you will start to see that you can achieve anything you set your mind to.

It might be as simple as building from a 3km run to a 4km run or looking to just run an extra 30 seconds.

Once you reach your goal, you’ve proven to yourself that you’re capable of setting targets and hitting them, and that is a quality that you can transfer to anything in life. Plus, seeing how your body physically responds to healthy levels of exercise over time can give your self-esteem a boost.

That’s it! Those are the five ways that we found running can help improve your mental fitness. If you’re looking to start running—or increase how often you run—there's no better time than the present.

Why not grab yourself a pair of awesome runners from New Balance to smash your goals from the start.

Plus, Student Edge members enjoy 20 per cent off exclusive products from New Balance to help you get physically and mentally fit.

Are you experiencing suicidal thoughts, sexual assault or domestic and family violence? Seeking to support someone who is? Call Lifeline on 131 114 or Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800.

Visit ReachOut to get support to help you with everything from everyday issues through to tough times.

Header Image: Supplied