Prime
Benefits of exercise for people with ADHD
As long as your exercise time adds up to your total goal, you can accumulate exercise benefits any way you want. Photo | Internet
What you need to know:
- Exercise is not just good for shedding fat and toning muscles. It can help keep the brain in better shape, too
Working out has amazing benefits that go beyond toning one’s muscles or losing a few kilogrammes. It can also improve one’s brain health.
People that can benefit from working out are those with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Some of the traits of people with this disorder is deficit in paying attention as well as difficulty in controlling their emotions and finishing tasks.
Treatment greatly helps them to remain focused and organised, and this usually involves medication and therapy sessions. These can be coupled with exercise.
Owing to poor concentration, Walter Onyango, a fitness trainer at The Workout Junction, says people suffering ADHD are not eager to engage in any mental work.
“However, when they work out, they get more motivated to do mental tasks since they feel less confused,” he says.
Brian Kasasa, a sports scientist, says when one exercises, their brain releases neurotransmitters such as dopamine that help one to think clearly with better attention.
“People with ADHD usually have low levels of dopamine, hence the need for a boost which exercise provides,” he says.
Ease stress and anxiety
When one cannot do the things that people within the same age bracket do with ease, it is easy for them to get anxious owing to failure. It gets worse when the condition is not understood by those close to them.
“Exercising, therefore, helps to ease the tension they feel just the way it does for someone dealing with work or school-related stress,” Onyango says.
Improves memory
Like a baby that is learning to crawl, it is one step at a time and before long, they can move around the whole house. Similarly, when dealing with a person suffering from ADHD, small yet regular exercising activities will improve their working memory.
“With that, it gets easier for them to remember where they put their books, where the car is or where they left their wallet. All these are powered by the short-term memory which is rather weak among ADHD victims. It is responsible for holding information temporarily and also helps one stay focussed on a task,” he says.
Betters executive functioning
Think about how one would ably plan their day and time and manage it with a few yet premeditated changes. While that seems easy for most adults, it is not so among those with ADHD.
“Exercising helps one to relax while also increasing their breathing. This way, one with ADHD will ably plan, organise things such as their day or an activity, manage time as well as exercise self-control,” he says.
While exercising is an amazing way to improve their lives, more so adults who desire to live an independent life, Kasasa says at times, they fail to work out for various reasons. Here is how to stay the course:
Be real: Sometimes people with ADHD set the bar higher than they can handle only to get disappointed. In return, some give up, which makes them fail to make this a habit. However, Kasasa says, they need to set the bar at the absolute minimum.
“That is not in any way meant to promote laziness but allow you be gracious without losing sight of the prize. Therefore, decide the minimum number of minutes you can exercise, say 15 minutes as well as the minimum number of days you can afford to workout, say twice a week. This method is suggested because the belief is that you will not find it hard to hit your minimum target. Nonetheless, work towards raising the bar so that you can get more out of the exercise,” he says.
Be accountable: With the minimum expectations set, the person ought to be accountable to self. This means that if they set to work out twice before the weekend, they should find time to do so, even if it means doing it on the last two days of the week.
“This way, you will be happy with yourself. However, if you feel it is quite difficult to hold yourself accountable, get an accountability partner until the activity becomes a habit and you can do it on your own,” Kasasa says.
Schedule ‘what if’ workouts: According to webmd.com, aware that most people with ADHD hate structure, there is a possibility that someone may fail to stick with the earlier agreed upon workout days.
In such instances, one schedules some backup days to cater for those where the promise was not kept.
Workouts to try
There are a couple of exercises people with ADHD can try out and these include aerobics (brisk walking, swimming, biking, and running), martial arts, strength training (squats, lunges, weightlifting, and pullups) as well as team sports (football).
