Tami Grgas breaks down five ways exercise builds self-esteem: it cuts depression and anxiety, releases endorphins, creates a sense of accomplishment through goals like mastering taekwondo patterns, triggers irisin to protect brain cells and boost memory, and builds lasting confidence from feeling physically capable.
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Hello. Just messing with my lighting here. I'm kind of— it's my birthday today, so I'm being all, I'm not wearing makeup today, I'm just gonna chill, wear a t-shirt, whatever. How are you today? I am doing great. Um, I wanted to tell you about 5 ways that exercise can boost your self-esteem. Now, exercise isn't my favorite way to boost my self-esteem, but there are many benefits to exercise, one of them being the self-esteem boost. Exercising can make you feel more comfortable. With yourself and increase your self-confidence. True. I usually feel better after I've exercised than I am than before or during, of course. Um, do, do, do. According to lots of research, physical activity is directly and indirectly associated with self-esteem. One of the most prominent ways exercise can boost your self-esteem is by making you look better, by toning muscles and losing weight. Those are just the beginning though. Innumerable way— innumerable ways, uh, physical activity can boost your self-esteem, and these are my top 5. Number 1 is to improve your mental health. In addition to building strength, exercise can improve mental health. It has been shown to reduce depression, anxiety, and negative moods, as well as alleviate low self-esteem and social withdrawal. Isn't that interesting? Number 2, it reduces your stress. This is one of the main reasons I use exercise is to reduce stress. Any form of exercise, from aerobics to strength training, to yoga, can act as a stress reliever. Physical activity in any form boosts feel-good endorphins and distracts the mind from daily stresses, which is really good. Uh, number 3. Sorry, I'm reading from my notes. Oh, and by the way, if you want a copy of my notes, just, uh, Hi Jamie, I see you. Just write a message below saying, "Hey, can I have a copy of your notes?" and I'll get them to you. So number 3 is gain a sense of accomplishment. So I went to taekwondo last night, so I did do my pattern, I learned some stuff, and I did feel accomplishment afterwards, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. One of the biggest payoffs of exercise is that Through focus and physical movement, you are able to feel a strong sense of accomplishment. Whether you beat an old time in the 100-meter dash, add more time to your daily walk, exercise can give you a sense of pride at having achieved a particular goal. So my next goal is to try and get my red— I've been a blue belt for a while, so— Here's hoping that they deem me fit to test and that I am fit to test. We'll see. So you can also improve your brain function. So I'm all about the brain lately. The brain is phenomenal. It's crazy. It's— we haven't even tapped into what the brain can do, I don't think. So improve your brain function. During endurance exercise, a molecule called irisin, I-R-I-S-I-N, is produced in the brain through a chain reaction. Scientists believe it has neuroprotective effects and can activate genes involved in memory and learning. That's cool. Through experiments on mice, of course, on mice. At Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute discovered that irisin and FNDC5 become elevated in the brain during endurance exercise. So this FNDC5 is a protein coding gene that is released during exercise and can create brown fat. And I was kind of like, well, what's the difference, right? So I looked it up. Hi, Ellen. And white fat is made of big droplets of lipids and/or fatty acids, okay? The cells in brown fat are packed with mitochondria. Mitochondria are rich in iron, which gives brown fat its color. Brown fat takes up less room than white fat. Oh, there's my cat hanging in the air. James, please go away. Thank you. I want to tell you something, but you're in the middle of something. Yeah, you can wait. I'm almost done, okay? So the, the fifth one is to start feeling better. Which I have to say, after exercising— so during the beginning of this pandemic thing, we had 2 foster kids in the home, and I couldn't get to Taekwondo. So needless to say, I wasn't really exercising. I was, you know, chasing the kids and whatnot. But that, you know, that counts a little bit, but maybe not as much as an hour and a half to 2 hours of Taekwondo. Twice a week. So I kind of fell off that wagon for a little while. And when you fall off the exercise wagon, you don't even really realize how much better it makes you feel when you're doing it. Even though when I'm actually doing it, I'm not really enjoying it that much. Although taekwondo is different because I'm learning new patterns, or— Oh, my favorite is to be breaking stuff. Oh my goodness, I love that. And I love sparring, but we're not allowed to spar right now because of the COVID thing. I don't like step sparring, which is— excuse me— practicing. It's kind of like patterns. Patterns are not my favorite thing, but I'll get through it. I just want to break stuff. So yeah, anyways, I do feel better now that it's been— I think I've been back for about a month and a little bit. I've been doing, um, some of the taekwondo on Zoom, but it's just not the same. It really isn't. So anyways, that's what I've been doing. So they say in this report, it says you start feeling better, okay, in the short term Exercise has been shown to enhance our mood and influence our minds towards adopting more positive thoughts. In the long term, physical exercise can improve our confidence by making us feel good about our physique and abilities. True. Combine strength training, cardio, and flexibility-building disciplines like yoga to reap the benefits of an all-over approach to fitness. So that's my 5 Ways Exercise Can Boost Your Self-Esteem report. If you would like a copy of this, just like I say, message me below and I'll send that out to you as soon as I can. I hope you all have a wonderful day— evening now. Um, Yeah, everybody have a great time. Get some exercise, boost your self-esteem, and I'll see you all tomorrow. Bye! Bye!
