How Exercise Boosts Mental Health: Science-Backed Benefits, Explained

Exercising has a well-established, positive impact on mental health. It has been proven in scientific research and in clinical trials — and anecdotally. If you’ve left a workout feeling better than before you started it, that’s the effect of exercise. It’s a biochemically testifiable state of enhanced mental well-being.

In fact, exercise is one of the most effective, accessible tools for improving mental health. It helps reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression and boost mood, sleep, focus, and stress resilience.

1. Exercise can help reduce stress, anxiety, and depression.
2. The body and mind are interconnected and can impact one another.
3. Even smaller bursts of exercise can have benefits.

“Exercise can provide stabilization across the spectrum,” says Stephanie Lechich, a licensed psychologist and performance coach. “It can reenergize those experiencing depression while helping slow down those in an anxious state.” Increasing your activity levels can also help improve markers of your physical health, such as your blood pressure and body weight.

But what are the benefits of exercise for your mental health and well-being? How can you feel better from the inside out by using exercise as a mood-boosting strategy?

The Nervous System:

The sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous systems work in opposition in your body, but exercise can help to regulate and, ultimately, limit anxiety. Initially, the sympathetic nervous system may be activated by intense exercise, but the parasympathetic is triggered by moderate exercise and during cooldown, helping to slow heart rate, lower blood pressure, and relax the muscles.

Hormones and Neurotransmitters:

When you start exercising, changes happen in your body and brain. Your heart rate increases, blood flow circulates more rapidly, oxygen is transported to your muscles and vital organs, and your brain shifts in response to the training stimuli.

Your hormones, neurotransmitters, and other molecules are impacted. Endorphins (feel-good hormones that act as an analgesic, reducing the perception of pain) work in combination with dopamine (drives pleasure and motivation), serotonin (a mood-stabilizing hormone), and others like brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).

As for cortisol, a hormone that manages stress, metabolism, inflammation, and more, “Meta-analyses show that people who are more physically active tend to have healthier diurnal cortisol rhythms,” says Gregory Gordon, MA, CSCS, MATRx. “They also show a more ‘efficient’ stress response, either lower or more quickly recovering cortisol and heart-rate responses to standardized stress tests. That pattern is associated with better long-term health.”

Benefits:

Regular exercise can boost the production of endorphins, along with other key physiological outputs, leading to increased feelings of happiness and motivation, while decreasing feelings of pain.

BDNF is linked to neuroplasticity. That is, the brain’s ability to modify itself to perform better. In fact, BDNF plays a role in neurogenesis, or the process of growing new brain cells.

As stated by researchers in a 2018 study published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, “Neurogenesis significantly improves cognitive performance and protects against neurodegenerative phenomena.”

How does BDNF, neuroplasticity, and neurogenesis improve mental health? Neuroplasticity means your brain can change. So, while you may be genetically susceptible to a mental health disorder, your brain has the power to adjust and modify by forming new neural pathways.

The stressors of life — a high-stakes job, breakup, financial hardship — all affect neural plasticity and may lead to depression and anxiety.

But things can also go the other way. By adjusting your daily habits, behaviors, and thought patterns, you can create new neural pathways and lasting brain changes that improve your mental health and decrease your stress levels.

Benefits:

A regular exercise routine increases BDNF, a protein that supports brain cell growth and neural connections to boost cognitive performance and protect against depression and cognitive decline.

The increased blood and oxygen flow alone is enough to bring about a boosted mental state. Blood transports oxygen and nutrients that are essential for a high-functioning brain. An oxygenated brain can simply work better — specifically, the hippocampus. This is the region of your brain associated with memory and learning and the area responsible for regulating motivation, mood, pleasure, pain, and more.

A 2015 study of mice found that reduced cerebral oxygen levels was a predictor of depression and depressive symptoms. It’s a vicious cycle, with depression also causing reduced oxygen levels. When the brain has less oxygen, brain cells malfunction and can even die. Some research has supported this, finding that mental health disorders are associated with a loss in brain matter.

Benefits:

Improved levels of physical fitness allow for increased blood and oxygen flow through the body, leading to better brain health and reduced risk of cognitive decline and dementia.

You build self-confidence in your abilities by following through with action. Exercise can be used as a tool to practice self-care, while building self-confidence and self-assurance in your abilities.

A clinical trial published in Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment in 2016 found that physical activity is directly associated with self-esteem, perceived physical fitness, and body image. Interestingly, there weren’t any clear links with body mass index (BMI).

What this tells us is that you don’t need to be a certain weight to get the benefits from exercise and physical activity. Anyone at any experience level can build self-esteem and confidence by sticking to regular exercise. It will make you feel happier in your body, which alters the way you inhabit the world.

“When we are fully engaged in an activity, we are fully in the moment, disengaged from judgment and self-consciousness,” says Lechich. “This mindful state, which can be accessed through exercise, fosters a mind-body connection. Mindfulness has been associated with numerous positive health outcomes, including reduced stress, anxiety, and depression; improved emotion regulation; enhanced focus; decreased reactivity; and stronger relationships.”

Benefits:

Exercise builds-self confidence and helps to boost mindfulness, leading to reduced stress and anxiety and enhanced focus.

Experts say that low mood, ruminating thoughts, psychological distress, excess fear or worry, a lack of motivation, inability to concentrate, and fatigue are all considered symptoms of mental illness. However, regular physical activity may help to reduce or alleviate these symptoms.

For those who prefer a lower impact workout, it's possible to see benefits, as well. A study published by the International Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that in a four-week trial, yoga was able to drastically decrease symptoms of mental health conditions and improve perceived quality of life for the women tested.

While the best exercise is one you can do consistently, studies have shown that both exercise outside or in a group can offer an added mental health bonus.

A 2015 study published in PNAS discovered that in a group of participants, those who walked in nature for 90 minutes had lower activity in the prefrontal cortex. This is the region of your brain associated with ruminating thoughts, a symptom of anxiety.

A study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise found that aerobic group sports increase mental resilience and general mental health. This is due to the biochemical benefits of exercise, combined with the component of social connectivity.

You could try a run club, group fitness class, or walk with a friend.

Approximately 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week is the gold standard, according to the American Heart Association. In addition, Gordon recommends two to three days of resistance training per week.

“Realistically, most people don’t come close to meeting these numbers weekly,” he says. “So the most amount you can get in without neglecting your other responsibilities is what you should shoot for.”