BUDDY UP!

Want to get your endorphins flowing and feel good? While any type of exercise will help, research shows that working out with others can give you an even bigger wellbeing boost

- Sarah Sellens and Katy Sunnassee

Exercise is great for your mental health. It encourages the release of feel-good chemicals such as endorphins that naturally boost your mood. You don't need to spend a long time doing it either, as a little goes a long way an Australian research team found 12 per cent of depression cases could be prevented if participants did just one hour of exercise per week. Indeed, keeping fit is so successful as an anti-anxiety remedy that many GPS now prescribe exercise as a treatment for depression, and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends those with mild-to-moderate depression do three 45-minute sweat sessions per week.

But the type of exercise you do does matter when it comes to minding your mental health. According to the latest science, team sports and group fitness classes come up trumps for the feel-good factor, having been shown to reduce mental health problem such as anxiety and depression in a whopping 1.2 million participants. So, what's the secret and how can you tap into the benefits?