You Need This Much Of Rigorous Exercise To Stay Sane During This Pandemic: Study

The pandemic has taken a toll on people's mental health. A new study pointed out the amount of exercise required to reap the mental health benefits in the current situation.

COVID-19 is a global public health emergency that has caused worldwide concern. But very little attention has been paid to the adverse impact on mental health or effective mitigation strategies to improve mental health during this pandemic.

The experts at the Tsinghua University, Beijing sought to assess the adverse impact of COVID-19 outbreak on the mental health of Chinese college students in order to understand the underlying mechanisms and to explore feasible strategies to mitigate them.

They found that people might need more than the usually recommended amount of exercise to reap the mental health benefits given the severity of the current pandemic situation.

The amount of exercise needed to counteract negative emotions: 45 minutes

The researchers found that 45 minutes of vigorous physical exercise during the current pandemic situation could sufficiently reduce negative emotions and boost mental health.

They studied 66 college students in China who stayed at home to follow social distancing guidelines. While these students were involved in the study, the pandemic worsened and steadily peaked in China. None of them contracted the disease during the study.

The students were asked to take an online survey two weeks apart. The survey included questions pertaining to their indulgence in physical activity- its intensity and time spent. They were also asked to report their emotions.

The results demonstrated a dose-response curve between physical activity and negative emotions. The researchers found that too little and too much physical exercise worsened the students’ negative emotions.

In order to minimize negative emotions and boost mental health, the researchers recommended getting the physical activity that amounts to 25,000 metabolic equivalent of task (METs) which corresponds to 80 minutes of moderate or 45 minutes or vigorous physical activity per day.

Previous studies have suggested 35 minutes of moderate-vigorous exercise per day. But, given the worsening state of the pandemic, the researchers opine that people need more exercise than usual to reduce negative emotions and compensate for the psychological burden that they experience while following social distancing measures.