As the in­tri­ca­cies of mod­ern life con­front us dai­ly, en­gag­ing in or­gan­ised and com­pet­i­tive sports, phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty, and ex­er­cise can have sig­nif­i­cant ben­e­fits for men’s men­tal health by pro­vid­ing a means to en­hance psy­cho­log­i­cal well-be­ing, re­duce stress, and im­prove over­all life sat­is­fac­tion.

Ben­e­fits of Sports, Phys­i­cal Ac­tiv­i­ty, and Ex­er­cise for Men­tal Health

1. Low­er­ing of Stress and Anx­i­ety:

Par­tic­i­pat­ing in sports has been shown to re­duce stress and anx­i­ety lev­els among men. Ac­cord­ing to Ar­ent et al. [2020], “the ef­fects of ex­er­cise on anx­i­ety and de­pres­sion have been most­ly pos­i­tive… is en­cour­ag­ing and should bol­ster the fu­ture pur­suit of op­ti­miz­ing the ex­er­cise in­ter­ven­tion.”

2. Im­prove­ment in Mood and De­crease in De­pres­sion:

Sports ac­tiv­i­ties re­lease en­dor­phins, chem­i­cals in the brain that act as nat­ur­al painkillers and mood el­e­va­tors. Mam­men & Faulkn­er [2013] con­clud­ed that “from a pop­u­la­tion health per­spec­tive, pro­mot­ing PA may serve as a valu­able men­tal health pro­mo­tion strat­e­gy in re­duc­ing the risk of de­vel­op­ing de­pres­sion.” The Mayo Clin­ic states that “work­ing out and oth­er forms of phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty can ease symp­toms of de­pres­sion or anx­i­ety and make you feel bet­ter. Ex­er­cise al­so may help keep de­pres­sion and anx­i­ety from com­ing back once you’re feel­ing bet­ter.” https://www.may­oclin­ic.org/dis­eases-con­di­tions/de­pres­sion/in-depth/de­pres­sion-and-ex­er­cise/art

3. Im­proved So­cial Bond­ing and Sup­port

Team sports, in par­tic­u­lar, pro­vide a sense of com­mu­ni­ty and be­long­ing, which can im­prove men­tal health by re­duc­ing feel­ings of lone­li­ness and iso­la­tion. Grau­pensperg­er et al. [2020] in­ferred that “greater par­tic­i­pa­tion in team sport prospec­tive­ly pre­dict­ed few­er symp­toms of de­pres­sion and anx­i­ety at sub­se­quent time points. This study in­creas­es the un­der­stand­ing of how sport par­tic­i­pa­tion may re­late to men­tal health among ado­les­cents and pro­vides crit­i­cal ev­i­dence to in­form pol­i­cy.”

Car­less and Dou­glas [2008] con­clud­ed from their study that in­for­ma­tion­al, tan­gi­ble, es­teem, and emo­tion­al sup­port were both pro­vid­ed for and giv­en by par­tic­i­pants through ex­er­cise. We con­clude that ex­pe­ri­ences of both re­ceiv­ing and pro­vid­ing di­verse forms of sup­port in this way are sig­nif­i­cant for some peo­ple liv­ing with and re­cov­er­ing from se­vere men­tal ill­ness.” Men in­volved in team sports re­port­ed high­er lev­els of so­cial sup­port and low­er lev­els of de­pres­sion [Holt-Lun­stad et al., 2021].

Psy­cho­log­i­cal and Cog­ni­tive

1. Cog­ni­tive Func­tion and Men­tal Sharp­ness

Reg­u­lar par­tic­i­pa­tion in sports im­proves cog­ni­tive func­tion and men­tal sharp­ness. Old­er per­sons who stay ac­tive through sports and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty have bet­ter cog­ni­tive per­for­mance and a low­er risk of cog­ni­tive de­cline [Klimo­va and Dostalo­va, 2020].

2. Stress Re­lief and Re­lax­ation

En­gag­ing in sports and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty pro­vides a con­struc­tive out­let for stress re­lief. Per­sons who reg­u­lar­ly par­tic­i­pate in phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ties re­port bet­ter stress man­age­ment and re­lax­ation and can make an es­sen­tial con­tri­bu­tion to a thriv­ing work­force that feels bet­ter able to cope with oc­cu­pa­tion­al stress [Ger­ber et al., 2020].

Im­pact

· Pro­fes­sion­al Sports

Pro­fes­sion­al sports leagues have rec­og­nized the im­por­tance of men­tal health. The Na­tion­al Bas­ket­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (NBA) in the Unit­ed States has im­ple­ment­ed men­tal health pro­grams for play­ers. Ac­cord­ing to the NBA, “[The] Mind Health [pro­gramme] is guid­ed by the cen­tral idea of hu­man­iz­ing men­tal health. Our mis­sion is to en­gage, ed­u­cate, and serve the NBA com­mu­ni­ty and to po­si­tion men­tal health as an es­sen­tial el­e­ment of well­ness & ex­cel­lence – both on and off the court. We see men­tal health as a part of our lived ex­pe­ri­ences and are here to help you nav­i­gate chal­lenges but to al­so help you iden­ti­fy men­tal health-re­lat­ed op­por­tu­ni­ties and strengths.”

In Au­gust 2021, FI­FA launched its “REA­CHOUT” cam­paign, “a cam­paign de­signed to raise aware­ness of the symp­toms of men­tal health con­di­tions, en­cour­age peo­ple to seek help when they need it and take ac­tions every day for bet­ter men­tal health.” At the launch, “FI­FA Pres­i­dent Gi­an­ni In­fan­ti­no said: “This cam­paign is very im­por­tant in rais­ing aware­ness about men­tal health con­di­tions and en­cour­ag­ing a con­ver­sa­tion which could save a life.” https://in­side.fi­fa.com/about-fi­fa/med­ical/news/fi­fa-launch­es-reach-out-cam­paign-for-bet­ter-men­tal-health

· Com­mu­ni­ty and Recre­ation­al Sports:

Com­mu­ni­ty and recre­ation­al sports al­so play a cru­cial role. In Aus­tralia, ini­tia­tives like “Men’s Shed” pro­vide a space for men to en­gage in phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ties and build so­cial net­works, sig­nif­i­cant­ly im­prov­ing men­tal health and well­be­ing (Mil­li­gan et al., 2020). “Men’s sheds are com­mu­ni­ty-based, non-com­mer­cial or­gan­i­sa­tions that are open to all men…[to] im­prove the health and well­be­ing of their mem­bers by giv­ing them a safe place to make friends, share mean­ing­ful ac­tiv­i­ties, talk, and ac­cess health in­for­ma­tion and re­sources.” https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/mens-sheds

In Eng­land, the Som­er­set Ac­tiv­i­ty & Sports Part­ner­ship [SASP] Un­break­able Men Pro­gramme “aims to raise aware­ness around Men’s Men­tal Health in Som­er­set and ac­tive­ly en­cour­age Men to take own­er­ship of their men­tal well­ness whilst pos­i­tive­ly im­pact­ing their men­tal and phys­i­cal well­be­ing through phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty. This is done in sim­ple and prac­ti­cal ways with both on­line and face-to-face phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ties.” https://www.sasp.co.uk/mens-men­tal-health

Pro­mot­ing men’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in sports, phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty, and ex­er­cise can lead to sub­stan­tial im­prove­ments in men­tal health, mak­ing it a crit­i­cal com­po­nent of pub­lic and pri­vate health strate­gies to en­hance psy­cho­log­i­cal well-be­ing.

Ed­i­tor’s note: The views ex­pressed in the pre­ced­ing ar­ti­cle are sole­ly those of the au­thor and do not re­flect the views of any or­gan­i­sa­tion in which he is a stake­hold­er.