4 Ways Exercise Can Help With Depression

Why exercise can boost your mood.

Do you struggle with low moods? Or do you find yourself looking online for ways to boost your mood?

There are endless activities out there to try and you might find one that works.

But — one activity I always recommend to the individuals that I work with (who frequently deal with depression) is exercise.

Exercise is extremely powerful when it comes to boosting your mood. The great thing about it is that there are a variety of ways you can exercise to help with depressed feelings — running, walking, yoga, dance, playing sports, and even more.

There are different ways exercise can help with low moods that are often not thought about. By the time you’ve read this, I’m sure you’ll think about implementing some form of exercise in your life to help with any negative feelings.

Let’s take a look at 4 different ways exercise can help with depression.

1. Chemical Changes

This is probably one of the most documented ways exercise can help with depression — exercise produces changes in neurotransmitters (chemicals) that can result in a lifted mood.

Depression has been consistently linked with a common theory that there is a reduction in chemicals in individuals with depression — serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine.

This has led to a lot of medication designed to increase these chemicals for individuals with depression — one of the main medications increases serotonin.

Exercise has been shown to give these chemicals a boost, mimicking the effect that medication can have — hence an improvement occurs in the way people feel after a period of exercise.

This is one of the reasons why after exercise you feel this rush or ‘pump’.

Chemical changes alone cannot explain mental health difficulties — there are loads of different factors that are involved, ranging from biological, to social to psychological.

So — let’s take a look at some of the other ways exercise can help with depression, rather than limiting it to these biochemical changes.

2. Distraction

Have you ever exercised and forgotten about whatever was on your mind before?

That’s because exercise can serve as a fantastic distraction from worrying or depressing thoughts.

When I was in between jobs it was a very difficult time. I wasn’t getting paid, everyone was rejecting me and I just kept doing the same thing every day — applying to jobs 24/7!

As I have loved fitness ever since I was a kid, keeping physically active was one of the best activities that kept me going and got rid of this idea that I wasn’t good enough to get these jobs.

Generally, it’s been shown that distracting activities can help people cope and manage depression. Specifically, distracting activities that are active, such as exercise have been shown to have a greater ‘remedy’ effect than activities that are passive and involve more deep thinking, such as journal keeping.

It can be argued that distraction doesn’t actually tackle the real problem of why someone is feeling depressed — and this is certainly a valid point. But — using exercise to distract you can enhance positive moods and thoughts which will play a massive factor in reducing these depressed feelings.

Personally, after I exercised (when I was struggling to get a job) it put me in such a great frame of mind and I was ready to apply to more jobs and stay determined to my goal.

This ‘exercise-distraction’ period for me was so useful and helped keep me going.

If you’re trying to improve your mood, I urge you to consider exercise as a form of distraction from the negative, depressive thoughts you may be having.

3. Social Interaction

Another great way exercise can help with depressed feelings is through social interaction.

Exercising is a great excuse to meet up with family and friends and have a good catch-up. You can go for a walk, run, play a sport or go to the gym with someone. I mostly exercise with someone. If I go to the gym or play a sport it’s always with a friend.

Social interaction has been found to increase positive affect — which refers to positive emotions and relationships people experience.

Exercise can provide interaction with people which can improve the way you are feeling through raising positive moods and emotions.

The next time you go for a run or walk try asking someone to come along with you.

4. Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy refers to the belief in one's ability to complete a task and achieve their goals.

Self-efficacy has been shown to be a factor involved in depression. For example, higher levels of self-efficacy — meaning a greater belief in your ability to achieve your goals, has been shown to predict lower levels of depression, whereas a lower self-efficacy and negative thought pattern has been linked with higher depression levels.

So — another way exercise can help with low moods and positive thoughts are through raising self-efficacy.

Research has found that exercising for 9 weeks was linked to reduced symptoms of depression and within this research, a raised self-efficacy was seen as a mechanism for this link — indicating that exercise = raised self-efficacy = reduced depressive feelings.

Exercise appears to help improve your belief that you can achieve your goals and increasing this belief can help in reducing low moods and negative thoughts.

Action Points

As we can see, there are many ways exercise can help with your emotions — ranging from biological explanations to psychological and social explanations.

I want to encourage everyone to try some form of exercise but I know the motivation to exercise can be a real challenge if you have low moods.

Here are some points to help if you feel this way:

1. Start Slow

It’s easy to get carried away and start exercising very frequently but this could also make you stop very quickly. Start with just two exercise activities per week. You can gradually build this up once you start forming a habit.

2. Type Of Activity

What you choose is important — this can help you feel more motivated to exercise.

If you find an activity more enjoyable like football, running or walking, start with that.

If you are really finding it difficult to motivate yourself, I recommend going for a walk. Its simple, cost-effective and does not require a lot of physical effort.

3. Intensity

You do not need to exercise with the greatest of intensities to see the benefits exercise can have on your mood. Honestly — a walk or jog can have massive effects.

Working with people dealing with depression — I have received great feedback from recommending starting off with an exercise that is low intensity. The thought of doing something light was more encouraging than doing an activity that is very taxing on their body.

Try doing an activity with a lower intensity so you are not feeling physically drained which will also help with motivating you to exercise.

4. Variety

Another point that can help with motivation to exercise is varying the exercise you are doing. It’s a great way to stop boredom and any thoughts you may have about stopping your exercise.

If you’re exercising 3 times in the week you could go for a walk, do a bodyweight workout at home on another day, then go cycling on the third day.

Knowing that you’re doing 3 activities that are completely different can put your mind in the right frame of mind to start exercising.

5. Exercise With Someone

As we’ve seen above, exercising with someone provides social interaction which has been linked with improving mood and emotions.

Exercising with someone can also give you the push you need. When you’re feeling low, they can be the one to help get you off the couch and start exercising.

Knowing you have someone there with you can go a long way to helping you become more physically active.

Final Thoughts

Exercising is just one way of helping with boosting your mood but there are multiple ways this one activity can help with improving the way you feel.

What we do know is that our mental health is affected by a range of factors and exercise can affect all of these factors which can result in us feeling better.

Exercise can have positive effects from a biological standpoint (chemical changes), a psychological view (self-efficacy and distraction), and a social aspect (social interaction).

We can also implement actionable points to help with improving motivation to exercise.

This includes not starting off with too many activity sessions, starting with a low intensity based exercise, varying your activity, choosing an activity you are going to enjoy, and exercising with a friend.

These points are all real-life examples of the tips I have given to people I work with and have received great feedback on but also tips they have given to me regarding what they have found useful.

I encourage us all to give it a go — try some form of exercise to help with improving your mood. It doesn’t matter what it is. The research tells us we get these benefits from simply walking. Have fun!