levo

Sport and Exercise Psychology

Benefits of exercise to mental health

  • 3 things to know
  • Component 03

Overview

Recall questions on the mental health benefits of exercise and the endorphin, monoamine, thermogenic, stress, BDNF and distraction explanations, self-efficacy, group exercise, body image, sleep, cognitive decline, activity guidelines, green exercise, exercise dependence, and problems proving causation.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

Name three aspects of mental health that regular exercise has been shown to improve.

Key term

What does the endorphin hypothesis claim?

Key term

How does exercise affect the body's stress response?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Name three aspects of mental health that regular exercise has been shown to improve.

    Model answer

    Regular exercise reduces symptoms of depression, lowers anxiety and raises self-esteem.

  2. 2

    What does the endorphin hypothesis claim?

    Model answer

    Sustained exercise triggers the release of endorphins, which bind to opioid receptors in the brain to dull pain and produce a feeling of euphoria and calm afterwards.

  3. 3

    What does the monoamine hypothesis claim about exercise and mood?

    Model answer

    It claims that exercise raises the availability of serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline in the brain, the same neurotransmitters that antidepressant drugs act on.

  4. 4

    Outline the thermogenic hypothesis.

    Model answer

    It proposes that the rise in core body temperature during exercise reduces muscle tension and produces a state of physical relaxation that is experienced as improved mood.

  5. 5

    How does exercise affect the body's stress response?

    Model answer

    Regular exercise dampens activity in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and lowers resting cortisol, so the body reacts less strongly to everyday stressors.

  6. 6

    What role does brain-derived neurotrophic factor play in the benefits of exercise?

    Model answer

    Exercise raises levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which supports the growth and survival of neurons in the hippocampus, an area that shrinks in depression.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

1Closed book
2Open book
3Closed book

The 3-step method, run for you

Answer cold, learn it, then prove it stuck. Levo tracks the jump between your first attempt and your last.

Research Methods and Techniques
Planning and Conducting Research
Data Recording, Analysis and Presentation
Report Writing and Scientific Communication

Cram a whole paper in one sitting

Sort every topic into what you know and what you do not, then drill only the weak ones.

The tests are a old.
centurydecadeyear

Blank Blitz makes facts automatic

Rapid timed gap-fills on the terms and numbers you need to recall without thinking.

APunishment requires deprivation, loss of autonomy and stigma.
BReform requires trust, responsibility and self-respect.
CThe regime that achieves one tends to undermine the other.

Build It gets the exam shape right

Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

Range means the highest score minus the lowest score.
TrueFalse

Test It catches misconceptions

Spot the fault in a statement. The traps are the mistakes students actually make.

721941163128510

Brain Breaks between sessions

Short focus games to reset attention, so the next set lands better than the last.

Every question in Sport and Exercise Psychology, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.