How To Exercise For Depression and Anxiety

Depression and anxiety are serious conditions affecting a lot of people. I’ve struggled with both myself, and exercise has helped me more than anything else. Here’s how exercise to exercise for depression and anxiety relief.

If you’ve ever experienced feelings of depression and anxiety, you know how tough it can be. Even worse, the current treatment options aren’t always effective.

About a third of people don’t respond to antidepressants and therapy, waiting times for treatment can be long, antidepressants come with side effects, and for many people it takes several different medications or treatment methods before they find ones that work.

Many people don’t get treatment at all, and end up suffering with mild or even serious symptoms on their own.

Exercise can help. A big part of why I exercise is that it makes me feel better physically, but more importantly, mentally. If I don’t exercise for a few days, I start to feel down.

The Research On Exercise, Depression, and Anxiety

A big study of more than 40,000 people found that the more active a person was, the less likely they were to report feelings of depression and anxiety. In that study, people who did more than 3 hours of physical activity a week were 128% less likely to report feelings of depression and anxiety.

In people with diagnosed depression, exercise can significantly improve symptoms compared to doing nothing at all (which is relevant given that about half of people with depression don’t get any treatment).

Exercise is more effective than “usual care” (which can range from normal doctor’s visits, medications, therapy, or alternative treatments), and is similar to the effects of gold standard treatments like antidepressants and behavioral therapy. Exercise combined with antidepressants seems to be even more effective than antidepressants alone.

For anxiety, it’s a similar picture.

In people with diagnosed anxiety, exercise improved symptoms more than control conditions. For people experiencing anxiety symptoms without an official diagnosis, exercise was also effective at reducing symptoms.

How Exercise Helps With Depression And Anxiety

Researchers don't fully understand what causes depression and anxiety. They do know that changes in the structure and function of the brain play a big role.

Exercise can affect many of the brain areas that are associated with depression and anxiety, in very similar ways to antidepressant medications (but without the side effects).

Exercise releases many different substances in your brain, which do amazing things.

Endorphins, natural opioids and endocannabinoids (which are made by your body and brain) are released by exercise, which can help regulate mood and boost positive feelings.

Exercise releases and helps regulate neurotransmitters, including serotonin, which is the same neurotransmitter targeted by SSRI antidepressants.

Exercise also triggers the release of neurotrophic factors, which are proteins that help protect and grow brain cells. One of those in particular, which is called brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), has been called “miracle-gro for your brain”.

Exercise releases BDNF, which goes to work repairing damaged brain cells and building new ones. Antidepressant medications also work by releasing BDNF.

Exercise can change the structure of your brain.

It’s been found that people with depression have lower brain volume in certain areas and fewer connections between different brain areas, especially parts of the brain that are associated with emotions and stress responses. Exercise can do something about that.

People with higher fitness levels tend to have more volume in those brain areas, and starting an exercise program results in growth of those areas over the course of several weeks and months.

Exercise teaches your body and brain to deal with the physical effects of stress and anxiety.

The physical effects of anxiety are very similar to stress: increased heart rate, sweating, fatigue… When those feelings come from stress or anxiety, they feel scary and out of your control. You’re not sure how to deal with them or how long they will last.

You also get these feelings when you exercise, but in a controlled way. You know that your heart is pounding because you’re exercising, and you know that those physical sensations will go away once you finish your workout.

Exercise is almost like a practice session for dealing with the physical discomfort of stress or anxiety, and over time you get used to those feelings and are able to deal with them better.

Exercise can bring you closer to other people.

Exercising with a friend, coworker, family member, or in a group fitness setting gives you shared experience, more enjoyment, and motivation.

Social support is important for reducing depression and anxiety, and exercise is one way you can interact with others. Even if you prefer to exercise alone, you could join an online interest group, or simply talk to like-minded people about exercise.

Exercise improves self-esteem and confidence.

People with depression and anxiety often doubt their abilities. They don’t have a strong belief in their ability to succeed, especially in the face of challenges.

Exercise improves self-esteem, self-confidence, and resiliency. Exercise provides “mastery experiences”, which are opportunities to achieve small goals or build skills. Each time you exercise, you have the chance to get a little better and to feel your body improving.

Just the act of lacing up your sneakers and going for a walk is a win. Simply completing a workout you had planned makes you more confident that you can do it again. If you manage to walk a little faster or longer, that’s another win. If you’re able to lift a little more weight or do another rep, or if a certain exercise starts to feel smoother and more manageable, that’s a win.

Some of these wins are small and subtle, and some are more obvious. If you can train yourself to notice each small win, you’re more likely to build confidence.

Even if you don’t consciously notice these small wins, your brain does. Every time you practice a skill, your brain sends electrical signals to your muscles and other parts of your body. As you practice the skill more and more and get better at it, something called “myelination” happens in your brain. Myelin is a fatty substance that wraps around neurons and allows them to transmit signals faster and more effectively. Think of it like insulation around an electrical wire.

Each practice session, each small win, adds a little myelin in your brain and helps it work better. It happens each and every time you do a workout.

Those skills you build aren’t just physical, they’re mental too. You can use the self-confidence you gain from exercise in every other part of your life.

Exercise distracts you from your worries and self-doubt.

Have you ever noticed that when you’re fully immersed in something you’re doing, your mind feels clear and calm? You don’t notice racing thoughts, that inner critic in your brain, or the constant internal dialogue narrating your day. Some people call that feeling “getting out of your head” or “flow state”.

There’s a theory that explains why you’re able to clear your head and think differently while you’re exercising. It’s called the transient hypofrontality hypothesis.

Basically, those racing thoughts and inner dialogue come from a brain area called the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for your conscious thoughts, critical thinking, and decision making. That brain area gets a lot of resources. Blood flow, nutrients, and neurotransmitters are usually highly concentrated there.

But when you exercise, other parts of your brain need those resources too, like the areas that control your muscles, your heart rate, your breathing, and many more physical functions.

Since those brain areas are so important to your ability to exercise, your brain starts to send resources to those areas and gives your prefrontal cortex a rest.

That means you don’t hear that inner critic or narrator. You get a break from your worries and negative thoughts, and that can make you feel much better.

Exercise helps you sleep better.

There’s a very strong link between depression and sleep. Many people with depression have sleep problems, which leaves them constantly tired and makes them feel even worse during the day. Depression also seems to contribute to bad sleep, causing a vicious cycle of low energy, poor sleep, and depressed mood.

Exercise can help break that cycle by improving your sleep. That could give you more energy to do even more of the things you need to do, and the things you want to do each day.

How To Exercise For Depression And Anxiety

Here’s what the science has to say about how to use exercise to deal with depression and anxiety.

Medium and high intensity exercise can be effective, but it’s important to choose the intensity that feels best for you.

Studies have found that both moderate and high intensity exercise are effective at reducing symptoms. High intensity exercise seems to have a bigger effect on the brain than moderate intensity exercise, so it makes sense that high intensity exercise would be more effective for mental health.

In this case, however, there’s a trade-off.

When you’re feeling depressed or anxious, it can be even more difficult than usual to stick to your exercise program. In that case, it’s important to just do something, even if it’s not the most ideal workout.

It’s really important to do what you like and what’s reasonable and achievable for you.

An Example Of How Choosing Your Own Intensity Can Help You Feel Better And Stick To Your Program

One study had women with symptoms of depression do treadmill exercise 3 times a week for 4 weeks. They were divided into two groups. One group exercised at a moderate intensity based on their heart rate, and the other group could exercise at whatever intensity they preferred.

In both groups adherence to the exercise program wasn’t great, but it was better in the preferred intensity group. Those participants attended 66% of their sessions.

In the group that had their intensity chosen for them based on their heart rate, people only showed up to 50% of the sessions.

Drop-out of an exercise program is a big problem in both research studies and in the real world (especially in people with depression).

The fact that more people stayed in the study when they were allowed to exercise at whatever intensity they wanted is a big deal. Anything that helps you stay engaged and consistent with exercise is great.

The preferred intensity group chose to exercise at a lower intensity than the prescribed group, but both were in a range that should have improved their health and fitness.

The preferred intensity group showed significantly lower depression levels, higher self-esteem levels, better general mental health, and improved quality of life at the end of the program than the prescribed intensity group.

In fact, about a third of the participants in the preferred intensity group reduced their depression symptoms to a level that would be considered “recovered”, while that only happened in 5% of the prescribed intensity group.

Choosing your own workout can be effective for depression and anxiety because it gives you control and boosts your confidence.

With depression and anxiety, things often feel overwhelming and out of your control. With exercise, you can be in control. You can choose how hard to work out or what types of exercise to do, and you can see that you can handle whatever you choose to do.

If you choose to increase the intensity over time as you get more confident and want to challenge yourself, that’s also up to you.

Do what you prefer, what makes you feel good, and what you can stick with.

Aim for at least 3 times per week, more often if you can.

The depression and anxiety-reducing effects of exercise seem to be similar if you exercise 3 or 5 times a week. If 3 days a week is more convenient for you, do that. If you can fit in 5 sessions a week, even better.

Since each exercise session gives you a small brain, confidence, and mood boost, it might be even better to split up your sessions into many short ones across the day or week. Do what your schedule and lifestyle allow.

Every time you practice a movement skill, you build those brain connections and myelin, and you get small wins.

Try doing “microworkouts” like a couple of reps of a strength or skill exercise several times a day. It only takes a minute or two, but the benefits can add up.

Do your structured sessions for longer.

30-minute exercise sessions seem to be effective, and many studies have also found success with 45-60 minute sessions.

Do both cardio and strength training, and other kinds of exercise that you enjoy.

Studies have found benefits from both cardio and strength training, although strength training might be even more effective than cardio. Cardio and strength training have different effects on the brain, so it’s a good idea to include both.

Other types of exercise like yoga, tai chi, and flexibility exercises have also been successful. If you enjoy those, incorporate them into your weekly movement plans.

Give it time.

In most studies, a significant reduction depression or anxiety symptoms happened after about 8 weeks of consistent exercise.

You should feel good after each and every workout, but it takes time for those small boosts to build up into noticeable benefits for depression and anxiety. Be patient.

If You Need Help

I know what it feels like to struggle with depression and anxiety, and how powerful exercise can be. If you want to discover the power of exercise for improving your mental (and physical) health, contact me. I would be happy to help!

If you want to get started on your own, check out my Strength Training For Anxiety program. This 12-week program is guided by an app so you'll know exactly which exercises to do and how to do them. You can do the workouts anytime, anywhere. It also has unique features specifically designed to help you build mental resilience as well as physical strength, so you can feel better and manage your anxiety.