How Exercise Can Improve Your Mental Health

Physical activity can lift your mood, increase your energy and boost your self-esteem

It’s no secret that exercise is great for your body. But did you know that physical activity can also be a major workout for your brain?

Psychiatrist Lindsay Honaker, DO, explains the positive impact of exercise on mental health.

How exercise benefits mental health

Physical activity can benefit your mental health by:

• Elevating mood
• Increasing energy
• Improving cognition (like helping with brain fog)
• Boosting self-esteem
• Reducing stress hormones, like cortisol
• Providing social connection

“Exercise stimulates your brain,” Dr. Honaker explains. “It releases proteins and hormones that help you feel better.” This includes brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF), a protein Dr. Honaker calls “fertilizer for your brain.” BDNF helps your brain grow and stay healthy. It also helps regulate your mood and releases feel-good hormones, like serotonin, dopamine and endorphins.

Because of its effect on the brain, Dr. Honaker says exercise can help ease the symptoms of:

• Anxiety
• ADHD
• Depression
• PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder)
• Schizophrenia
• Sleep disorders
• Substance use disorders

Best exercises for mental health

As far as which activities are best for your brain, Dr. Honaker says the choice is yours. “The best exercises are the ones that you enjoy and will stick with,” she advises.

Some options include:

• Cardiovascular workouts: Get your heart pumping by walking, cycling, running, swimming or doing high-intensity interval training (HIIT).
• Weight training exercises: Dr. Honaker recommends body weight, light weights or resistance bands to start.
• Flexibility and balance practice: Yoga, tai chi and Pilates use slower movements to get your body moving.

It’s a good idea to combine different types of exercise, too, she adds.

And you don’t need to be a pro athlete to get the brain-boosting benefits. “Any kind of physical activity can help improve your mental health,” says Dr. Honaker. Even gardening or doing household chores can get your body moving while you build up to a workout routine.

How to get started

“Getting started on an exercise program can be intimidating. But there are simple ways to ease into it,” Dr. Honaker encourages. Some tips include:

• Be safe. Make sure you ask your healthcare provider which physical activities are safe for you before starting.
• Start small. You don’t need to run a marathon, says Dr. Honaker. “Start with something doable.” Think walking to the end of the driveway and back. Or winding down after work with a short yoga session.
• Break it up. Instead of aiming for a long workout, try fitting in short sessions throughout the day. Dr. Honaker calls these “exercise snacks.”
• Join a group. The sense of community that group fitness provides is an added boost.
• Use the buddy system. If a group is too much, try inviting a friend to get moving with you. Even if you don’t get together in person to exercise, you can support each other with regular check-ins.
• Make time for yourself. Whether you’re solo or with a friend, remember that your exercise routine is a time for self-care. Framing it as time to do something good for yourself can help encourage you to stick with it.
• Don’t overdo it. Build your routine slowly, even if you already exercise regularly. “Overtraining can actually make mental health symptoms worse,” cautions Dr. Honaker.

Final cool down

Exercise can be an important part of caring for your mental health. But Dr. Honaker stresses that you should check with your care team about how it fits in with the rest of your treatment plan.

“Exercise won’t be the only treatment,” she notes. “But it can complement a plan to care for your mental health as a whole.”