Last week we had a look at some of the lesser known positive effects of exercise, namely the medicinal benefits enojoyed by those suffering from niggling conditions like chronic pain or migraine attacks. After some very positive feedback throughout the week, an interesting and timely study surfaced, concerning this very theme: exercise as a method of treatment.

We often classify the benefits of exercise loosely into two categories: physiological and psychological. The physiological benefits include some of the more obvious results of exercise we tend to be more familiar with, like reduced body fat, increased muscle mass, improved cardiovascular function, greater functional strength and so on.

The psychological effects, on the other hand, are a little harder to quantify, but have nevertheless been consistently noted both in sports science fields as well as practical personal observation. These effects include increased confidence, lower anxiety levels and improved self-image.

To exercise is to take control over your physical state: to actively build your strength and wellbeing and to transform your health and appearance. At a physiological level, exercise releases feel-good hormones including endorphines, which are chemically related to morphine and produce feelings of pain relief, happiness, and security.

Some studies have even compared these benefits to the effects of popular medications used to treat some forms of mild mental illness. Put to the test, exercise stacks up well, and can hold its own as a legitimate medication-free treatment in many cases. So much so, that in today’s world a new concept has been coined: that of forced exercise.

The phrase might initially conjure images of recruits undergoing military training, police training for annual fitness tests, adolescents reluctantly going through the motions of secondary or post-secondary school physical education classes, or even athletes suffering in training under significant pressure to produce results in their respective competitive arenas.

These are all cases we may have frequently seen personally either live or in movies. However, there is another less obvious category of participants whose involvement in exercise may not be entirely voluntary: those to whom exercise has been prescribed.

Patients suffering from mild mental illnesses and depression, as well as those prescribed with heart disease or obesity-related disorders, today regularly frequent fitness centres alongside the traditional health freaks or gym rats that once constituted the vast majority of gym populations.

A crucial ingredient of the psychological state of those who voluntarily exercise is the element of control. In fact, some might say it is precisely the lack of feeling in control that may produce anxiety for many of the mentally ill. So the question is this: do participants who are forced to exercise enjoy the same psychological benefits as those who participate voluntarily?

Researchers at the University of Colorado in the US have begun to investigate this question, and recently conducted an interesting initial study on rats. Let’s see what they found out.

Over a six-week period, one group of rats remained sedentary, while another engaged in exercise on a hamsters’ wheel. The group of rats that exercised were further sub-divided into another two groups: those who ran on the wheel voluntarily and those who ran on mechanised wheels similar to treadmills set to operate at predetermined intervals.

The mechanised wheels were set to perfectly match the exercise schedule of the rats which ran voluntarily, so that both groups eventually performed exactly the same amount of exercise.

Now here’s the interesting bit. After the six-week period was over, just in case forced daily exerise wasn’t enough, the rats were now exposed to laboratory-controlled stress factors. This was achieved by placing the rats in an environment they had been pre-conditioned to fear.

Anxiety and stress was then measured by how long the rats froze, just like a rabbit or deer caught in headlights. The researchers found that the rats who remained sedentary throughout the prior six-week period registered significantly higher levels of anxiety.

This came as no surprise, as it confirms the results of many similar previous studies. However, the real findings emerged when no significant differences were found in the anxiety levels between the group that was forced to exercise and the group that did so voluntarily.

So what does this mean for us humans? We certainly possess far more complex psychological profiles than laboratory rats, so can the same be said for us? The researchers who carried out this study will no doubt pursue this line of investigation, but in the meantime we can certainly take this as a positive indication.

Unless over-trained as some athletes are, we can say from informal observation of students in schools, military and police personnel, as well as patients referred to fitness centres by medical professionals, that results are generally positive, and positive psychological adaptations cannot be denied.

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