Exercise Is Good for Mental Health

Here are some interesting facts.

Exercise has proven benefits for improving physical health. But what about mental health? For starters, active people are nearly 45% less likely to have depressive symptoms than inactive people (Booth, Roberts & Laye 2012). But a deeper look at the connections between exercise and mental health raises more questions:

• How do factors such as frequency, duration and intensity of exercise relate to mental health?
• Are all types of exercise equally effective and beneficial for mental health?
• Is there a point where exercise can become harmful to mental health?

In a recent study to link mental health with exercise, the survey asked, “During the past month, other than your regular job, did you participate in any physical activities or exercises such as running, calisthenics, golf, gardening or walking for exercise?” A yes response prompted this follow-up: “What type of physical activity or exercise did you spend the most time doing during the past month?”

The researchers identified 75 types of exercise which they grouped into eight categories to help the participants specify their physical activities: walking, popular sports, cycling, aerobic or gym workouts, running or jogging, recreational, household, and winter or water sports. Survey respondents reported the number of times per week or month they did each type of exercise and the length of a typical session in minutes or hours.

Here are the findings:

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1. HOW EFFECTIVE IS EXERCISE IN MANAGING MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS?

An analysis of 852,068 adults (out of 1.2 million surveyed) associated exercisers with 43.2% fewer self-reported mental health burdens per month than non-exercisers.

The study observed this correlation across all ages, racial groups and household income levels.

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2. ARE ALL TYPES OF EXERCISE ASSOCIATED WITH IMPROVED MENTAL HEALTH?

Yes: Doing any type of exercise is associated with fewer mental health burdens compared with not exercising. In the study, the strongest correlations were for popular sports (22.3% fewer), cycling (21.6% fewer), and aerobic and gym exercises (20.1% fewer). An exploratory analysis conducted after the main study found that mindful exercises such as yoga and tai chi were associated with a 22.9% reduction in mental health burdens.

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3. IS THERE AN OPTIMAL EXERCISE SESSION DURATION FOR IMPROVING MENTAL HEALTH BURDENS?

Yes: Exercise sessions lasting between 30 and 60 minutes correlated with the fewest mental health burdens—45 minutes produced the best effect consistently across all exercise types.

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4. IS THERE AN OPTIMAL EXERCISE FREQUENCY FOR REDUCING MENTAL HEALTH BURDENS?

Yes: Survey respondents who exercised 3–5 times a week had fewer mental health burdens than those who exercised less than 3 times or more than 5. This pattern persisted across all exercise types for light, moderate and vigorous intensities.

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5. IS ANY SPECIFIC EXERCISE INTENSITY ASSOCIATED WITH MORE FAVOURABLE DECREASES IN MENTAL HEALTH BURDENS?

Yes: The study found that vigorous exercise was linked to better mental health outcomes than either light or moderate exercise.

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The Role of Exercise in Mental Health

Chekroud et al. is the largest cross-sectional study to investigate the effects of exercise on mental health. Here is what works.

• Exercise sessions of 30–60 minutes provide the best outcomes; 45 minutes is optimum. Harder intensities provide better mental health results.
• Exercising at least 3–5 times a week in a variety of modes is appropriate for producing mental health benefits.
• More exercise is not necessarily better. Among survey respondents, exercising more than 23 times per month or longer than 90 minutes per session was not necessarily associated with better mental health.
• Popular sports and small group workouts—correlate with the fewest mental health burdens. The researchers said this finding aligns with previous studies showing that social activity reduces depression and promotes a hardiness in relation to stress. These results suggest favourable stress effects for people involved in group exercise, given that it’s a social activity.

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1. One in five adults has a mental illness (that’s about 44.7 million people in the US alone).

2. Young adults have the highest prevalence.

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