Home Business Owners Seeking Stress Relief Should Turn To Exercise

Oct. 6, 2011 - PRLog -- Rochester, NH – Your Healthy Home Biz www.yourhealthyhomebiz.com today provides another reason for home business owners to incorporate exercise into their workday: stress relief.  In a special article released today, YHHB provides guidance on how to make fitness activity fit into the toughest days. As well as how to make sure it provides the best results.

"It's inevitable as a home business owner that you're going to have one of those horrible, terrible, no good, very bad days when you're tired and under pressure," says YHHB owner Sarah Clachar. "Usually, those days are when exercise is the last thing you want to do. In fact, it's on those days specifically we need it the most and need to find a way to squeeze it in."

Studies conducted by a team of researchers at the Medical College of Georgia under the direction of stress physiologist Dr. Catherine Davis have looked at how exercise affects mood and thought.

The team used 3 groups of overweight 7-11 year-old children to show that exercise helps people think better, manage anger and anxiety better, and feel better about themselves.

With regards to problem solving, the researchers found that exercise increased the activity in the pre-frontal cortex of the brain, the part associated with complex thinking, decision-making and correct social behavior.

They also noted that children who exercised and had previous anger management problems were less prone to outbursts with a regular exercise program.

And finally, they noted that exercise helped the children feel better about themselves. As the researchers noted, this increased self-confidence did not have to do with losing weight since over the course of the study the subjects did not shed many pounds.

Research conducted on mice published in Nature Medicine shows similar physiological results from exercise. Exercise upregulates genes that are associated with creating the same neurological changes as antidepressants.  Other research has shown that exercise increases the amount of the neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine. Both of these are associated with feeling good.

"This research essentially confirms what many folks have already figured out," acknowledges Clachar. "There is nothing quite like a good run to defuse a tense day or help you return to a challenging problem with a better attitude."

In order to incorporate exercise into an especially challenging and stressful day, Clachar suggests home business owners use three tactics:

·   Don't sweat over making it a big session. Take 10 minutes and jump rope. Do some sets of jumping jacks. Or do a few sprints around the yard.
·   Use exercise to shift the mood dramatically. Change the scene by going outside for a few minutes. Play basketball with a friend or family member for a few minutes and enjoy a good laugh over how creative the trash talk can get.
·   Use a timer to impose 20-minute stints of work done with an exercise break after the timer goes off.  This tactic helps break down monstrous tasks into smaller manageable chunks. And provides a regular way to reinvigorate before each focused work spurt.

"I use these tactics all the time to manage stressful days," says Clachar. "They are lifesavers for me, helping me and my business to stay strong and focused."

Clachar also notes that this information provides a great insight for parents struggling with the shift back to school. By keeping exercise a regular part of family time, families can help weather some of the tougher parts as kids return to homework and academic demands.

For more information or to read the full article, visit http://www.yourhealthyhomebiz.com/get-stress-relief-with-....

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Your Healthy Home Biz was created to help home business owners build their businesses without undermining their health. To get a free copy of, "The Easy Way To Sneak Exercise Into Your Workday And Get More Done," visit, www.yourhealthyhomebiz.com.