I took an interest in the relationship between exercise and mood in the past, and found the following to be true for myself:
1) Moderate aerobic exercise improves mood immediately afterwards, and for the rest of the day;
2a) Extreme aerobic exercise (near the anaerobic threshold for 30+ minutes) drastically improves mood for the rest of the day, though immediately afterwards it can make one feel terrible;
2b) These drastic improvements in mood are often accompanied by a mental dulling (akin to taking a moderate dose of prescription opiates);
3) Moderate aerobic exercise interspersed with intervals (all-out sprints, etc.) is more like extreme aerobic exercise;
4a) To the extent that mood is altered by exercise, there can be a "withdrawal effect" during days of no-exercise;
4b) The ideal, in terms of mood, is to exercise daily or near-daily;
4c) Extreme aerobic exercise or intervals are not a sustainable daily exercise.
I've found all of the above to be true from personal experience as well. I'd like to comment on 4b though:
4b) The ideal, in terms of mood, is to exercise daily or near-daily;
Though this is true for many, what i've found in practice is that it is a balance --daily will work for most, as you have a night to recover, but if you are ill, or low-energy for some reason (stress, diet, whatever) it's best to do every other day, or 1 day on, 2 days off and then start to close the gap. You may find like me, if you overdo it (and once every 2 days could be overdoing it if you are frail/ill) in the beginning you'll get cold/flu like symptoms and be in an even worse state.
This is particularly true of interval training, lifting heavy, or endurance (the last I have no experience of, but It seems a given that it works the same as the other 2 in terms of recovery)
It's worth remembering that you don't get fit from exercising, you get from from
recovering from exercise.
YogaNot sure if this works for other techniques, but I've found some light-moderate yoga before body scanning to be really, really good. I can feel the increased blood-flow and yoga in itself is an excellent preparation for meditation in that it's very calming in itself (you are kind of forced to be mindful to perform the poses without falling over!). Highly recommended.
For all forms of exercise, I found it important to eat a meal within ~1hr of finishing.)
I've found the reverse to be true. Though a meal is very satisfying after a workout, a light meal (heavy on protein if your doing weights) 1/2hr
before exercise will help you perfom the exercise and seems to aid faster short term recovery. Not to say that a meal afterwards is bad, you could probably do both pretty good: Peanuts/seeds snack before your workout, then a light lunch after --nice!
Some things about DietMrs Bagpuss and I have done a lot with diet over the past couple of years. Here's a few things we've found to be true from personal experience.
- The best diet for lifting heavy was the Paleo Diet
- Vegan diets beat regular vegetarian (typically bulking up on dairy) hands down.
- You don't need nearly as much protein as you consume. Greens, other veg, are more than adequate
- Raw foods, (green smoothie heavy) works awesomely for mrs Bagpuss, and girls like it in general.
- After 8mts, Im off the raw foods in favour or a vata pacifying ayurvedic diet (heavier on fats, no "cold" foods)
[EDIT: added bit about yoga]