July 07, 2023 2 min read
Exercise can decrease stress hormones like cortisol, and increase endorphins, your body’s ‘feel-good’ chemicals, giving your mood a natural boost, says Keiana Armani, certified fitness trainer & CEO of Indigobluestyle. Below we’ve rounded up the best exercises to relax both your body and mind.
Yoga is an excellent stress-relief exercise, involving a series of moving and stationary poses, or postures, combined with deep breathing. Yoga encourages mental and physical relaxation, which helps reduce stress and anxiety. The physical postures promote flexibility, relieve tension, and alleviate pain.
Pilates improves your ability to respond to and cope with stress, enhancing your stress resilience. Pilates also tones your body, which in turn helps you look good and feel better. Since pilates is all about de-stressing both body and mind, this workout will help you to feel your best!
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Hiking is a great weight-bearing exercise that can clear your mind while toning your body. Hiking helps increase the strength in the leg muscles, builds stability in the core muscles and enhances balance skills. Spending quality time in the great outdoors reduces stress, calms anxiety, and can lead to a lower risk of depression.
Running is a super effective way to ward off stress, better your health and even increase your energy! Because of its cardiovascular benefits, ability to reduce body fat, and the improved muscle tone you'll experience, running makes you feel better about yourself too.
Swimming is a killer cardio exercise! It targets mainly large muscle groups working together at the same time which enhances your cardiovascular strength. They help to increase positivity and bring about a sense of wellbeing and happiness and help you to de-stress your mind without heavy stress on the body.