Congratulations to Associate Professor Matthew P. Herring who is keynote speaker at the 29th Annual European Congress of Sport Sciences in Glasgow (2 -5 July 2024).
Enhancing Health, Performance and Community Sport is the theme for the ECSS Congress in Glasgow and reflects a broad programme of scientific presentations across all sport and exercise disciplines.
Matthew will present the case for the value of physical activity to protect against mental illness among adolescents, adults, and older adults, targeted exercise training, including comparatively understudied muscle-strengthening exercise, as an alternative or augmentation therapy for mental illness, and psychobiological factors which might influence these relationships.
Physical Activity and Exercise for Mental Health: How, Why, and In Whom?
Physical inactivity and mental illness are longstanding, interrelated global pandemics. Substantial evidence supports the prophylactic effects of regular physical activity and the efficacy of exercise for mental health, particularly anxiety and depression, across the lifespan in the general population. However, how, why, and in whom physical activity and exercise protect and improve mental health are less well known. Recent reviews from the World Health Organization Guidelines Development Group (DiPietro et al., 2021) revealed that knowledge on optimal/minimal physical activity dose has remained limited. Moreover, investigations of modifiable sources of variability in the physical activity—mental health relationship, which could prime or enhance implementation and benefits, are limited. For example, evidence of the efficacy of understudied exercise modes, including muscle-strengthening exercise, is comparatively scarce. To this end, Dr. Herring will discuss the protective associations of physical activity, including doses lower than those recommended for overall health, for mental health, effects of diverse modes of acute exercise and exercise training, particularly resistance exercise training, on mental health, and biopsychosocial factors that may predict/influence benefits of physical activity and exercise for mental health.
Full Scientific programme can be found here:
https://sport-science.org/index.php/scientific-programme/scientific-pro…