Increase in well-being through… | Further reading | |
---|---|---|
Neurophysiological explanations | ||
Cardiovascular fitness | improved physical fitness | Biddle and Ekkekakis [10] |
Thermogenic hypothesis | raised body temperature | Koltyn [52] |
Improvement in cerebral blood flow | increased cerebral blood flow leading to increased oxygen transport | Rogers, Meyer, and Mortel [53] |
Endorphin hypothesis | increased release of endorphins | Hoffmann [54] |
Endocannabinoid hypothesis | increased endocannabinoid release | Sparling et al. [55] |
Monoamine hypotheses | a change in the specific neurotransmitter systems | Chaouloff [56] |
Central serotonin | Dishman [57] | |
Catecholamines (esp. noradrenaline) | ||
Transient hypofrontality hypothesis | reduced neural activity in the prefrontal cortex (thereby reducing conscious cognitive processes) | Dietrich [58] |
Cross-stressor adaptation hypothesis | repeated and sufficiently intensive and long-lasting stressors that lead to nonspecific adaptations of the stress reaction; the reduction in stress reactivity can be transferred to other non-exercise-related stressors | Sothmann [59] |
(Social) psychological explanations | ||
Distraction hypothesis (“time out”) | distraction from problems and stress | Bahrke and Morgan [60] |
Self-efficacy theory/Mastery hypothesis | the acquisition of subjective ability appraisals | Bandura [61] |
Meditative consciousness states (flow experience) | the fit between skill and challenge level | Csikszentmihalyi [62] |
“Exercise and self-esteem” model | increased self-esteema through changes in physical self-efficacy that exert a positive influence on the two components of self-esteem “physical competence” and “physical acceptance” on a more global level | Sonstroem and Morgan [63] |
Social support | experiencing social support and an accompanying increase in self-efficacy | Fox [4] |
Mixed approaches | ||
“Dual-mode” model | the existence of two mechanisms (cognitive processes and the perception of interoceptive information due to physiological changes); depending on the intensity of exercise, these two mechanisms vary in the strength of their (positive or negative) influence | Ekkekakis [64] |
Two-dimensional activation model | an intensive increase in the energetic arousal level accompanied by a simultaneous decline in emotion-related tension arousal | Thayer [65] |