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Wellness
LifestyleHealth & Wellness

Coronavirus: why hiking is good for your mental health during virus outbreak and flu season in Hong Kong

  • Exercising outdoors helps to reduce anxiety and depression, and Hong Kong has many beautiful trails to enjoy
  • Hikers tell how taking to the hills has left them feeling energised, relaxed and at one with nature

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A hiker enjoys the view at Sunset Peak, Hong Kong. Exercising outdoors helps to reduce anxiety and depression. Photo: Felix Wong
Kate Whitehead
It’s twilight on the Morning Trail and there is a steady stream of hikers heading up the winding path from Conduit Road to The Peak in Hong Kong. Some are regulars and others are new converts who have decided to ditch the gym to exercise outdoors. No one is wearing a mask – despite the pall of the coronavirus outbreak hanging over the city.
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“I usually do yoga on Thursday nights, but I’m worried about being in big groups because of the virus. I feel safer exercising outdoors. If I’m moving my body it makes me feel less stressed about everything that’s going on in Hong Kong,” says Pansy Wong, a secretary who works in the city’s Central business district and lives in Sai Ying Pun, an old neighbourhood to the west of Central.

Wong is onto a good thing. There is plenty of research to show that exercise improves not only your physical health but also your mental health. Regular exercise helps reduce anxiety and depression, and releases chemicals such as endorphins and serotonin that improve your mood.

This the focus of Mind Hong Kong’s month-long “Move it for Mental Health” campaign, which encourages Hongkongers to get moving for their mental health by exercising for 30 minutes every day in February.

Amah Rock overlooks Sha Tin in Lion Rock Country Park. Photo: Martin Williams
Amah Rock overlooks Sha Tin in Lion Rock Country Park. Photo: Martin Williams
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“There’s a definite biofeedback loop between physical and mental health,” says the non-governmental organisation’s CEO, Dr Hannah Reidy. When we are anxious, we notice changes in the body. If we are low, we tend feel lethargic and feel aches and pains. When we are tense, our lungs often feel under pressure.

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