By: Eileen Guo
According to a study conducted by researchers at Yale and Oxford, published in the Lancet, scientists collected data on the physical behavior and mental moods of over 1.2 million Americans.
Participants were asked to answer the following question: “How many times have you felt mentally unwell in the past 30 days, for example, due to stress, depression, or emotional problems?”
The participants were also asked about their income and physical activities. They were able to choose from 75 types of physical activity — from lawn-mowing, childcare, and housework to weight lifting, cycling and running.
Those who keep more active tend to be happier overall.
The scientists found that, while those who exercised regularly tended to feel bad for around 35 days a year, non-active participants felt bad for 18 days more on average.
In addition, the researchers found that physically active people feel just as good as those who don’t do sports, but active people earn around $25,000 more a year.
Essentially, you’d have to earn quite a lot more for your earnings to give you the same happiness-boosting effect sport has.
That doesn’t mean, however, that the more sports you do, the happier you are.
According to the study, three to five training sessions, each lasting between 30 to 60 minutes per week, is ideal.
More than this, however, can have the opposite effect — in fact, the mental health of those participants who exercised for longer than three hours a day suffered more than that of those who weren’t particularly physically active.
The scientists also noticed that certain sports that involve socializing — i.e. team sports — can have more of a positive effect on your mental health than others.
Despite the fact that neither cycling nor aerobics nor fitness technically counts as team sports, these activities can also have a considerable positive effect on your mental health.