How to support your mood #6: how to use exercise.

Exercise can be one of your most powerful tools to inhibit anxiety and depression.

If you can feel your anxiety rising, any form of movement which increases your heart rate can act as a powerful brake on escalating emotions. This can be as straightforward as a series of jumping jacks, going up and down the stairs, or running on the spot.

Part of the power of exercise is that it floods the frontal lobe of the brain with opioids which dampen the amygdala. The amygdala is your fight or flight centre which disables rational, measured responses to triggers. Therefore, when nudged by exercise, the frontal lobe can dampen down anxiety. A potentially powerful, free, readily available intervention: isn’t that fantastic?

Just one word of caution: there is a point at which you can have too much of a good thing.

If you crash after exercise or if it takes you days to recover, your exercise regime may be too intense for you and, therefore, counter-productive. Consider reducing the length and/or the intensity of the activity: focus on finding the level of activity that doesn’t exceed your energy threshold, that you can easily recover from, and then repeat the next day.  

So choose whatever brings you joy and don’t overdo it. If you can’t face an exercise class, just walk out the door into the fresh air and go from there.

Sources:

Dishman, R.K. and O’Connor, P.J. (2009) “Lessons in exercise neurobiology: the case of endorphins”, Mental Health and Physical Activity, 2, pp. 4-9.

Paolucci, E.M. et. al. (2018) “Exercise reduces depression and inflammation but intensity matters”, Biological Psychology, 133, pp. 79-84.

Plag, J. et. al. (2020) “Working out the worries: a randomised controlled trial of high intensity interval training in generalised anxiety disorder”, Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 76: 102311.