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Stress

The Stress-Busting Effects of Exercise

How exercise can stave off stress-induced depression.

Key points

  • Stress can cause depression in people who have never had a diagnosis before.
  • Exercise can buffer against the depressive effects of stress.
  • When you're feeling stressed, anxious, or depressed, moderate-intensity exercises like a bike ride or brisk walk may be best.

Sweating the small stuff: a modern-day serial killer.

It’s like death by a thousand cuts, where ordinary everyday stressors can have a major impact on our health. This was demonstrated by a massive 20-year study that tracked over 800 people between 35 and 85 years old. Participants provided a blood sample to determine how inflamed their bodies were. Then for eight consecutive days, they recounted their daily stress and how it made them feel.

People who had more stressful days felt more depressed, and everyone found it harder to be happy on stressful days than non-stressful days. However, people differed in how they reacted to stressful versus non-stressful days and this was key. Some people reacted with dramatic mood swings experiencing the lowest lows on stressful days and the highest highs on non-stressful days. Others reacted less dramatically. It was the people with greater mood swings that had more inflamed bodies, a greater risk of developing anxiety and depression 10 years later, and a greater likelihood of death 20 years later. The message is clear: Don’t sweat the small stuff or you won’t be around. Period.

Sweating It Out With Exercise

 Jacob Lund/Shutterstock
Cycling can help you de-stress.
Source: Jacob Lund/Shutterstock

Exercise helps us react more calmly to everyday stressors. My lab has demonstrated the protective effects of exercise on stress-induced depression by tracking the changes in mental health and inflammation of undergrad students during the last six stressful weeks of the semester leading up to their final exams. At the start of the study, none of the students were mentally ill or exercising and we randomly assigned them to one of three groups.

  1. The control group remained sedentary for six weeks.
  2. The moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) group cycled continuously at a moderate intensity for about 30 minutes three times per week for six weeks.
  3. The high-intensity interval training (HIIT) group cycled for one minute at a high intensity followed by one minute at a low intensity for a total of 20 minutes three times per week for six weeks. The HIIT workouts were slightly shorter than the MICT workouts to match for workload and both workouts included time to warm up and cool down.

Over the six stressful weeks, the control group who remained sedentary became so stressed out that their symptoms warranted clinical diagnosis. This was shocking, especially since none of them had a prior history of mental illness. In contrast, and despite being exposed to the same psychological stressor as the controls, the exercise groups were protected. Stress did not induce depression in either moderate-intensity or HIIT exercise groups; however, the students in the moderate-intensity exercise group ended up less stressed and inflamed.

Not only does our study demonstrate how quickly mental health can decline under chronic psychological stress, but it also highlighted how effective exercise is at protecting us from stress-induced depression. Amazing, right? My new book Move the Body, Heal the Mind shares more about the stress-busting effects of exercise, including specific workouts to do when you’re feeling stressed, anxious, or depressed.

Disclaimer: This information is provided for educational purposes. Always check with a health care provider before starting a new exercise program.

To find a therapist, please visit the Psychology Today Therapy Directory.

References

Sin NL, Graham-Engeland JE, Ong AD, Almeida DM. (2015). Affective reactivity to daily stressors is associated with elevated inflammation. Health Psychology, 34(12), 1154.

Charles ST, Piazza JR, Mogle J, Sliwinski MJ, Almeida DM. (2013). The wear and tear of daily stressors on mental health. Psychological Science, 24(5), 733-41.

Chiang JJ, Turiano NA, Mroczek DK, Miller GE. (2018). Affective reactivity to daily stress and 20-year mortality risk in adults with chronic illness: Findings from the National Study of Daily Experiences. Health Psychology, 37(2), 170.

Paolucci EM, Loukov D, Bowdish DM, Heisz JJ. (2018). Exercise reduces depression and inflammation but intensity matters. Biological Psychology, 133, 79-84.

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