Exercise and Mental Health: Part 2 - Mood Effects

Researchers have investigated the positive effects of physical activity on many different aspects of mental health and I am a believer that exercise can make a major difference in most people's mental wellbeing.  The first blog in this series (HERE) explained the effect that exercise has on brain chemistry; this blog focuses on beneficial mood effects of regular physical activity. 

Mood is a general term that describes a state of mind or particular feeling at a given time.  There are many moods a person can experience, but three moods that I see very often in my counseling practice are anger, depression, and anxiety.  Mood disorders explain when a particular mood permeates most days, interfering with daily tasks and relationships for 6 months or longer.  Research on exercise has a proven effect on minimizing negative moods and regulating against mood disorders as outlined below.

One study shows that regular exercise directly correlates with anger.  Participants self-reported that exercising 2-3 times a week led to significantly less anger as opposed to those who did not exercise at all.  This effect hold for both state and trait expressions of anger. State deals with moment to moment responses - those times that you blow up when cut off in traffic, for example.  Whereas trait anger explains persistent underlying personality tendencies - the low grade simmering of frustration, annoyance, and outright anger.  

A meta-analysis of many respected research studies show exercise is statistically equal to antidepressant in its effect on depression and low mood as well as statically higher rates of preventing relapse of depression and depressive symptoms compared to placebo groups.  These studies covered low to moderate physical activity, such as walking, to more intense cardiovascular and weight training exercise.  This indicates that any type of regular physical exercise helps just as much as the best medication in the field.

Lastly, physical activity is also shown to have a positive effect on anxiety.  One researchers described it in this way, "Exercise in many ways is like exposure treatment," says Smits. "People learn to associate the symptoms with safety instead of danger." The more instances your body has to overcome the symptoms of anxiety - even if they occur to due exercise rather than a perceived threat or worry - the better adapted it becomes to handling the process.  Minds and bodies have are very adaptable to learning the most efficient way to do things, which thankfully applies to dealing with anxiety as well.

Keep reading our next several blogs for more on the positive mental and emotional health benefits of exercise.

(Study summaries here: Anger  Depression  Anxiety)