How Exercise Impacts Your Mood and Mental Health (& How to Implement It!)
- Annmarie Jenkins, MS, RD
- Sep 9, 2024
- 7 min read
You probably already knew you should be engaging in some type of weekly physical activity for the wide range of health benefits exercise has such as better sleep, more energy, stronger bones, and weight control. But if the physical benefits of exercise haven’t been rewarding enough to experience that exciting rush of instant gratification needed to take your consistency to the next level, then we recommend taking your mood and overall mental health into consideration to reassess your understanding of how exercise impacts your mood and how to revamp your routine.
Here’s an overview of the research:
Physical activity is positively associated with certain mental health traits (specifically self-concept and body image).
Exercise is associated with better mood, self-esteem, and improved quality of life while decreasing stress tendencies (a factor known to aggravate mental and physical diseases).
Three psychological hypotheses have been proposed to explain the beneficial effects of physical activity on mental health, the main being 1) distraction, 2) self-efficacy, and 3) social interaction, however it’s likely a combination of all three models.
The effects of exercise on mental health are clearly outlined in the research (which we’ll cite at the end), but what happens when knowing better doesn’t necessarily help us do better? How do we execute the gap between knowing and doing so we can take advantage of all the benefits that are truly within our reach? After all, if you could live a better, more energized, and fulfilling life, wouldn’t you want to?
In this blog post, we are going to not only help you understand exercise differently, but also learn how to treat exercise like a prescription - being proactive vs reactive, condition yourself to do hard things so you can live an easier life, and learn the difference between self-care and self-soothing.
Understand Exercise Differently
One of the ways that might help you adopt exercise into your daily routine more effectively is by re-branding the entire concept of exercise. Extreme? We think not. According to research, physical activity is positively associated with certain mental health traits - the most significant effects being on self-concept and body image.
Now follow us here - if exercise will help you think of yourself in a more positive and confident light, you might be more likely to engage in other healthful activities that typically feel difficult to perform when self-esteem is at its lowest. Think about it, when you're feeling confident, you might be more willing to take risks on other behaviors that might advance your quality of life. These behaviors - like signing up for a new gym, reaching out to a dietitian for 1:1 nutrition coaching, waking up earlier, or committing to a new morning journaling habit, typically do not come with the instant gratification we look for when we’re feeling less than optimal. These health behaviors are like a crockpot, not a microwave. They need to simmer before smelling the sweet aroma of success and results.
So if exercise will help increase our self-concept and body image, and greater self-concept will help us engage in other quality of life promoting behaviors, then the lack of exercise - not our discipline, is the limiting factor to living a more confident, vibrant, and healthy life. If you can begin to think of exercise as a daily and necessary mental health deposit, then the physical improvements will come more easily and naturally.
Treat Exercise like Medicine
Now that we’ve introduced how to re-brand exercise in your mind, let’s figure out how we can treat exercise more proactively (or prescriptive) rather than reactively. First, a disclaimer for this entire section and blog. Mental health and all accompanying mental health disorders should be taken with the utmost seriousness and should be managed under the care of a physician and licensed therapist. Medication can be an important and necessary treatment modality in the successful treatment of various mental health disorders and needs. Always consult your medical care team prior to making changes to your treatment plan.
When thinking about exercise differently, we also need to implement it differently. Traditionally, you might work out the most consistently on days when your motivation is very high, in the beginning of a new challenge you paid for, or when you are mustering up every ounce of discipline and willpower you can muster. But if we remember that lack of exercise is the limiting factor to living a healthier and more confident life, then exercise will need to be something we do as a daily part of our preventative health. Think about exercise similarly to taking supplements. You don’t start taking a multivitamin because you start feeling under the weather (or at least you shouldn’t), but you might take a multivitamin daily to address potential nutrient deficiencies due to gaps in your diet. If we’re thinking of exercise like a multivitamin, then what are the potential advantages that this daily prescription might offer?
According to the research, exercise can enhance mood and self-esteem while decreasing stress tendencies, a factor known to aggravate mental and physical diseases. Exercise not only promotes a better frame of mind, but has also been shown to improve depressive symptoms in a way that is comparable to, if not more effective, than traditional antidepressants. Why is this? Multiple hypotheses have been purported, and while no consensus exists for all models, a combination model is likely.
The distraction hypothesis suggests that diversion, or distraction, from unfavorable stimuli leads to an improved mood during and after exercise. The self-efficacy hypothesis proposes that since physical exercise can be seen as a challenging activity, the ability to get involved in it in a regular manner might lead to improved mood and self-confidence. The social interaction hypothesis highlights the enhanced social interactions that engaging in a physical activity program can provide, as well as the mutual support from others involved in the same community. Lastly, the endorphin hypothesis states that physical activity causes the brain to produce more endogenous opioid peptides, which reduces pain and boosts mood, helping to also reduce feelings of worry and hopelessness. As anyone who's ever watched Elle Woods in action knows, endorphins favorably improve mood during and after exercise.
So if exercise has all of these potential benefits on our mood, outlook, self-confidence, and body image, why wouldn’t we be aiming to embark on at least 30 minutes of physical activity daily? Just like taking our multivitamin with breakfast, so too will a 25-30 minute physical activity of your choice aid in the maintenance and improvement of desired health outcomes, while preventing the negative outcomes we’d like to avoid.
Condition Yourself to Do Hard Things
We want to get one thing very straight - engaging in positive health behaviors when you’re struggling with low mood, self-confidence, or other mental health disorders is hard. For people struggling with generalized anxiety or depressive disorder, just getting out of bed can be hard. And just because something like exercise might have the possibility of promoting a ton of huge benefits, doesn’t mean it won’t also be hard to start. But if we can start linking positive associations to things that are hard, we might be able to promote an easier life.
Remember the self-efficacy hypothesis - that since physical exercise can be seen as a challenging activity, the ability to get involved in it regularly might lead to improved mood and self-confidence. This means that the pride of overcoming something that is hard in itself is actually what helps enhance our mood and self-confidence. Doing something hard does not automatically equal pain, but instead grows our strength, our perseverance, and confidence that we can do hard things and get better overtime.
What else is hard? Ordering a protein and fiber-rich meal instead of the chicken fingers and fries. Or waking up an hour earlier to establish a morning routine vs snoozing your alarm until right before you need to go to work. If we can enhance mindfulness and begin conditioning our minds that hard = good, we will be more likely to reach our goals faster and enjoy the satisfaction of the journey along the way.
Self-Care vs Self-Soothing
When thinking about exercise, we want to divorce the notion that we’ll only do it when we’re motivated or disciplined enough to lose weight, or worse, because we’ve been told we should. Instead we want to treat exercise, movement, and physical activity more prescriptively - that especially on the days we might be struggling, we’ll get outside for a short walk or hop on the treadmill to get some steps and our daily dose of endorphins. Thinking about exercise in this way shifts away from instant gratification promoting behaviors (like trying to lose weight) and adopts a much longer-term, sustainable outlook on overall human emotional, mental, and physical health.
The idea of using exercise in this manner might seem counter intuitive. After all, when you’re having a rough day, the world screams: self-care. When we think about self-care, what do we typically think of? Soaking in a hot bubble bath, pouring a glass of wine, and ordering takeout to curl up in a blanket on the couch. But what we tend to overlook is that these activities are not actually self-care, they’re self-soothing. Understanding the difference between self-care and self-soothing is important, while also remembering that self-soothing is not inherently bad!
While self-soothing might bring more instant gratification, self-care activities are typically the ones you do not feel like doing, but will benefit the future you. True self-care is so important to implement on a daily or weekly basis, not just when you feel like you need it. While activities in both categories can be effective, we want to be cognizant not to neglect true self-care for all self-soothing.
Overall, exercise is not only important for the wide range of physical benefits such as better sleep, stronger bones, and weight control, but has also been shown to improve our mood, self-esteem, quality of life, and positively aid in overall mental health outcomes. Many different models exist to explain this connection, but it’s likely a combination of all that helps explain the phenomenon that exercise can have on mood and self-concept. To obtain the wide range of benefits exercise can provide, we need to not only understand and re-brand exercise differently, but we need to treat it proactively and prescriptively, condition ourselves to do hard things, and utilize true self-care for the overall promotion of a healthier and more satisfying life.
References
O’Sullivan, D., Gordon, B. R., Lyons, M., Meyer, J. D., & Herring, M. P. (2023). Effects of
resistance exercise training on depressive symptoms among young adults: A
randomized controlled trial. Psychiatry Research, 326, 115322.
Paolucci, E. M., Loukov, D., Bowdish, D. M. E., & Heisz, J. J. (2018). Exercise reduces
depression and inflammation but intensity matters. Biological Psychology, 133(133),
Peluso, M. A. M., & Andrade, L. H. S. G. de. (2005). Physical Activity and Mental health: the
Association between Exercise and Mood. Clinics, 60(1), 61–70.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this post is for informational purposes only. Any changes to your nutrition & health should be supervised by a registered dietitian or physician.
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