It's winter when the sun leaves work early. Without the company of warm sunshine, the mood has become a little mournful.
Is there any way to get rid of this mournful mood?
There really is! A study by Professor Hideaki Soya of the University of Tsukuba and his research team published in Scientific reports in 2021 showed that moderate exercise for 10 minutes makes people happy.
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Yes, this is a study that persuades you to run, and scientists have found that moving really makes you happy and makes your thinking clearer.
And it only takes 10 minutes, which is just two songs!
The research team brought in 26 young people and divided them into 2 groups. One group exercised moderately for 10 minutes as an experimental group, and the other group had a 10-minute break.
The "moderate exercise" chosen in the study is simple, not the exercise that everyone imagines to be tired and sweaty. It's about the degree of slight sweating (the average heart rate of the participants in the last minute of exercise is about 141.35 ± 11.31 beats per minute), and some people can reach this heart rate by driving about 5 to 6 km/h on the treadmill.
Both groups were assessed for their ability to regulate emotions and cognition before and after running, respectively.
The researchers measured the subjects' emotional state using a two-dimensional mood scale. Choose one of the following eight words that describe the state of excitement and pleasure and rate it:
Energetic, lively, sleepy, listless, relaxed, calm, irritable and nervous.
It was found that the excitement and pleasure level of the exercise group increased significantly compared to the rest group!
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Not only that, but the brains of the subjects in the exercise group became clearer.
The researchers used a classic psychological cognitive experiment to evaluate the subjects' cognitive regulation abilities through a color-word matching Stroop task (CWST).
Example of a Strupe test for color word matching
Subjects were required to say the color of each of the above words
In the absence of a significant difference in error rates, the reaction time of the exercise group decreased significantly. In other words, the answer can be spoken faster.
But after 10 minutes of exercise, what happened to the body? The researchers identified possible causes by monitoring the condition of the brain.
Activation of the prefrontal cortex in the exercise group increased significantly. The prefrontal lobe is the part of the brain that is primarily responsible for controlling emotions and playing an important role in performing functions.
In other words, the body moves, and the brain rises.
Image source: giphy.com
As long as the time of two songs, move a move, the benefits are really many! If you don't like running, you can also choose other sports, such as brisk walking, jumping rope, and playing ball.
Do you usually use any methods to make yourself happy? Feel free to share in the comments section
As it is, the human body is wonderful
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[1] Damrongthai C, Kuwamizu R, Suwabe K, et al. Benefit of human moderate running boosting mood and executive function coinciding with bilateral prefrontal activation[J]. Scientific reports, 2021, 11(1): 1-12. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34811374/.
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