7 Ways Movement Benefits Mental Health

On the night of April 7, 1997, Scott Strode had an epiphany. For years, the Boston native had been living three parallel lives: By day, he was Scott the blue-collar shipyard worker. By night, he was Scott the happy drunk. And by midnight, he recalls, he was Scott the hardcore addict, scrounging for cocaine in East Boston.

“I had a series of really dark nights that sort of kept progressing,” says Strode, author of Rise. Recover. Thrive. How I Got Strong, Got Sober, and Built a Movement of Hope. “I was having blackouts, not remembering what had happened the night before. My relationships were severely damaged. The way I was drinking and doing drugs was stripping away the dreams of who I thought I could be.”

And so, in those liminal late-night hours of April 7, Strode realized he was done, though he wasn’t entirely certain what form “done” would take.

“That last night, I was thinking of my mom and her hearing I had died of an overdose, which seemed like the natural conclusion,” he says. “The ­disease [of addiction] grinds you down. It wants you dead.”

But Strode didn’t die that night. April 8 — his sobriety date — marked the beginning of a life dedicated to healing himself and supporting others on the same journey. “Deep inside I knew I had more potential, and I started seeking a pathway to get back to who I thought I could be,” he says.

One of the first steps on that path was joining a boxing gym.

“I learned to hit the heavy bag and discovered ‘the sweet science’ of boxing, as they call it. I healed some of the self-esteem wounds from early childhood trauma, and each time I climbed into the ring I found this new confidence and courage that I realized had always been with me.”

Boxing was a gateway to other ^­activities, like ice climbing, cycling, hiking, and running, all of which ­became important coping mechanisms.

“When I moved my body, I felt better. When I worked out, I forgot what was bothering me,” he recalls. “Exercise is a chemical reset for the brain. Slowly, over time, it shifted how I viewed myself. I went from thinking of myself as an addict to seeing myself as an athlete. From there, it became easier to view myself as a brother, as a son, as a husband and father. There is something about sports and physical activity that makes it easier to expand your identity and your sense of self.”

Strode went on to complete an Ironman; summit Kala Patthar, a Himalayan peak towering more than 18,000 feet; and survive a blizzard while climbing Alaska’s Denali.

He became an EMT and, in 2006, launched The Phoenix, a sober active community that taps into the mental health benefits of not just moving your body but moving your body in community.

Strode’s story comes as no surprise to anyone who has experienced the transformative effects of movement. Exercise can help people reduce stress and manage depression and anxiety. It can boost self-confidence and creativity. It can be a salve for loneliness, help heal trauma, and support sobriety efforts.

Many of these mental health benefits can be realized with as little as 20 minutes of daily physical activity. Even if you set out only to achieve an improvement in your physical fitness, exercise has the power to change your mind for the better.

“We’re all in recovery from something,” says Strode. “For some people it’s drugs or alcohol. For others it’s early childhood trauma. It could be the grief of losing someone, or the stress of life. Exercise and nurturing community can help us through whatever we’re recovering from.”

7 Ways Exercise Can Boost Your Emotional Well-Being

Movement is indeed medicine for the mind. It’s not a panacea for mental health issues, and moving the body is not always easy when you’re struggling, but a deep well of research shows that physical activity can support mental health in the following ways.

Reduces stress.

Occasional stress is both normal and healthy, but when it lingers, it can wreak havoc on your mind and body. Chronic stress increases your risk of developing anxiety, depression, insomnia, high blood pressure, and more.

Movement tackles stress from multiple angles, explains Brie Vortherms, LMFT, a therapist and senior director of Life Time Mind. It works at a chemical level, pumping out endorphins that help you relax. It also dampens cortisol, epinephrine, and other hormones that contribute directly to stress.

Blood flow is another perk. “The more you work out, the more blood flow you’ll have and the stronger that blood flow will be to the brain,” says Vortherms. Overall, more oxygenated blood improves brain function, which can help you cope with stress.

Exercise also eases stress by counteracting the learned helplessness ­response, says John Ratey, MD, ­associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and ­author of Spark: The Revolutionary New ­Science of Exercise and the Brain.

Learned helplessness is a state of mind that develops in response to stressful situations that feel uncontrollable. In the face of future stress, these feelings cause you not to act, even if you can change your circumstances. Stress mounts, creating anxiety and increasing your risk of depression.

“Movement is a good antidote to learned helplessness,” Ratey says. ­Exercise teaches you to focus on the task at hand and to stick around instead of giving up right away when things get tough or frustrating.

Over time, this can improve your response to stressful situations. “A lot of people with mental health issues overrespond to stress and make their own demons too quickly.”

Want to boost the stress-relieving benefits of exercise even more? Take your fitness routine outside. A 2019 study found that spending 20 to 30 minutes in nature leads to a significant drop in cortisol.

Combats depression and anxiety.

Reported depression rates have reached an all-time high. According to a 2023 Gallup poll, 29 percent of American adults have been dia­g­nosed at some point in life — a 10 percentage point jump since 2015.

Meanwhile, according to the National Institutes of Health, generalized anxiety disorder (the most common type of anxiety) affects 3.1 percent of the U.S. population.

While they’re separate mental health conditions, depression and ­anxiety commonly occur together — and ­addressing one often helps the other.

“Exercise is a potent treatment for depression and anxiety,” says integrative psychiatrist Henry Emmons, MD, author of The Chemistry of Joy.

Movement increases production of the natural painkillers known as endorphins; it also enhances dopamine and serotonin, brain chemicals that uplift mood and tend to run low in people with depression. “Anything that increases your heart rate, even for a short period, is going to release those endorphins and chemicals that ­improve your mood,” Vortherms says.

Exercise can also calm anxiety-producing stress hormones like epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine, Emmons adds.

Indirectly, regular movement can combat depression and anxiety by benefiting your sleep. Research has shown that improvements in sleep quality boost the mental health of people with these conditions.

“Improving sleep goes a long way toward improving mood,” Emmons says. It’s common to feel irritable and short-tempered after a sleepless night. But once you get some good rest, your mood stabilizes, and you’re better prepared to tackle the day.

The best exercise for depression and anxiety depends on your personality and preferences. Some people benefit from the meditative quality of aerobic activities like running, walking, and cycling. Others prefer more-intense workouts.

“Giving 100 percent to a high-­intensity workout may make someone feel the absolute best,” says Life Time trainer Austin Head, who teaches the mind-body focused MB360 classes. “For someone else, a gentle yoga or tai chi session may do the trick.”

Consistency is key, Head adds. “There was a period when I wasn’t working out, and it was probably the worst I’ve ever felt mentally.”

Today, he says movement is a nonnegotiable for him. “My mental health is the strongest when I have a consistent fitness routine.”

Boosts confidence.

Self-confidence can help you handle setbacks and failure without falling prey to depression or anxiety. It can also make you happy and improve your quality of life.

Movement matters if your self-confidence is lacking. Finishing a workout, especially one you were dreading, affirms that you can set and achieve goals. This can build confidence over time. “You feel good because you’ve released a lot of neurotransmitters but also because you’ve done something you feel you need to do,” Vortherms says.

“Strength training makes you feel more ­powerful and competent, but when you’re done running two miles, you feel pretty good about yourself too,” Ratey notes.

Plus, the more you exercise, the more you’ll master your chosen ­activity — you’ll walk ­faster, run farther, lift heavier, progress to more difficult yoga poses, etc. Getting stronger, fitter, and faster can further improve your self-image, which is tied to self-confidence.

Any form of exercise can be beneficial. In one study on adolescents, resistance training had greater effects on self-esteem than did cardio; other research suggests dancing is great for improving self-confidence.

Fosters creativity.

Feeling stumped? Taking a break and going for a walk or heading to the health club may be just what you need to get your creative juices flowing.

In a 2014 study, Stanford University researchers tested college students’ creative thinking abilities when walking and sitting. They found their creative output was 60 percent greater while on the move, whether they walked outdoors or indoors.

“We’ve always known that people who exercise are more creative, but we didn’t know how or why,” says Ratey.

Now, scientists under­stand that movement and brain evolution are closely linked, he explains. “As we evolved, we had to make our movements more precise and planful, and that changed our brain architecture.”

Our brains have roughly 86 billion neurons — nerve cells that send and receive messages between the brain and body — and nothing activates these cells and improves their connections more than ­exercise, says Ratey.

In turn, improved connections enhance the essential components of creativity: learning, memory, and thinking. “When you move, you’re using the same cells that you think with, and if you’re activating them, they’re more likely to get better,” Ratey says.

Movement also creates more brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a substance Ratey describes as brain fertilizer. “[BDNF] helps our brain cells grow and get better at making connections, which leads to an environment that’s more receptive to new ideas.”

Any exercise activates your brain, but those that challenge your balance and coordination — like walking on uneven terrain, dancing, and playing sports — are best, Ratey says. “Your brain responds by firing a lot of nerve cells. The more your brain cells are being used, the better they get.”

Builds connection.

The United States is in the midst of a loneliness epidemic. Feeling lonely and isolated increases the risk of developing depression and anxiety.

Moving our bodies, it turns out, is a powerful antidote.

“Exercise raises oxytocin, which is the bonding and love hormone,” explains Ratey. Moreover, exercise can keep depression and anxiety at bay. When you feel better, you may be more eager to socialize, which helps combat loneliness.

Movement can be a bonding ­experience that spans ages and abilities. For many of us, the ­social aspect of exercise is what attracts us. We join sports teams, running clubs, and group fitness classes to get in shape and nurture relationships. Often, it’s those social networks that motivate us to show up and exercise even on our worst days.

Strode discovered the power of community firsthand when he traded shots at the bar for boxing gloves, running shoes, and an ice-climbing pick.

“You can find a meditative state in endurance activities and find your ­inner strength in strength training. But there’s a special beauty in ­doing them alongside other people,” he says. “You can find awe on a ­mountaintop. You can also find it by witnessing other people accomplishing hard things.”

You’ll reap the benefits of exercise even if you work out solo. Research has found that older adults with high physical activity levels are 35 percent less likely to self-isolate and 30 percent less likely to feel lonely compared with those with low activity levels. Active older adults also report having more purpose in life and tend to be more resilient to setbacks.

Heals trauma.

Trauma can be physical, mental, emotional, genera­tional, or institutional. A traumatic experience can be acute or chronic. Examples of trauma include illness, accident, assault, neglect, natural disaster, torture, and war. But even life events that most people welcome, like childbirth, can be traumatic.

Without resolution and healing, trauma can persist in our minds as well as our bodies, which remain primed to react long after the original threat has passed.

“Traumatized people chronically feel unsafe inside their bodies: The past is alive in the form of gnawing interior discomfort,” writes psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk, MD, in The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. “Their bodies are constantly bombarded by visceral warning signs, and in an attempt to control these processes, they often become expert at ignoring their gut feelings and in numbing awareness of what is played out inside. They learn to hide from their selves.”

A wide variety of resources are available to help people coping with trauma. Among them are modalities that integrate movement into healing practices. Intentional, trauma-informed exercise has emerged as a complementary therapy that can reestablish trust in the body.

“With any kind of trauma, trust is the biggest issue we’re working toward,” explains trauma-informed strength coach Mark Schneider, CSCS, owner of The Retreat Strength Gym in Minneapolis. “Strength is a manifestation of trust in yourself. The more you believe in what you can do, the more you can access what you can do — and the more likely you can meet and exceed limits. Trust in your own ability is paramount.”

Trauma-informed movement practices — which may include yoga, strength training, primal movement, and somatic exercises — are not intended to cure trauma. Nor is there a one-size-fits-all ­prescription for healing. Rather, they can help repair the effects of trauma and gradually rebuild resilience.

Supports sobriety.

Physical activity is the No. 1 pillar of a sober lifestyle, ­explains sobriety coach Veronica Valli, author of Soberful: Uncover a Sustainable, Fulfilling Life Free of Alcohol.

“When we pursue sobriety, movement helps enormously. In fact, I require all my clients to adopt some form of regular exercise,” she writes in a 2022 Experience Life article. “Movement fills time in a positive way, improves our energy levels, and connects us to others in a healthy fashion.”

Moreover, exercise can stimulate the production of feel-good chemicals like dopamine and serotonin, restoring the balance that alcohol disturbs.

The type of exercise you do matters less than the act of doing it — which Valli describes as an expression of self-worth.

“You might choose long walks, kettlebell training, long-distance bike rides, short HIIT workouts — how you move doesn’t really matter,” she notes. “What’s important is finding activities that bring you joy, which is the best motivator.”

Strode agrees. “If you’re trying to change your life, it doesn’t take much to make a difference,” he says. “When I started my sobriety journey, I would do pushups and sit-ups and squats during commercials on TV — even that had a profound effect.

“When you’re ready, start moving your body, set a routine, and surround yourself with other people. Most importantly, show yourself some grace. Climbing a mountain isn’t all ascending into the sunlight; there are dark sections too. As long as you keep moving, you’ll climb back into the light again.”