The Ultimate Anxiety Buster: Exercise
Even moderate workouts offer significant relief, new research shows
You can’t run from your worries and expect the anxiety to go away. Well, actually, you sorta can. With some moderate physical effort—run, walk, hit the gym, do some yoga—you can reduce your anxiety, a growing body of evidence shows. And there’s no time like a pandemic to put this knowledge to use.
In fact, people who exercised during the early pandemic lockdowns last year suffered less anxiety and depression than people who didn’t exercise, according to a new survey-based study involving 200,000 Americans and published yesterday in the journal Preventive Medicine.
But how much exercise is needed? Not so much as you might imagine.
In another new study, a 12-week program combining aerobic exercise and strength training, just three times a week for an hour, significantly reduced anxiety among the participants, who all started out with anxiety disorders and either moderate or high symptom levels. More intense workouts offered greater improvement, but significant gains came simply with light to moderate exertion that made people “a bit sweaty,” explains study leader Malin Henriksson, PhD, a researcher at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.
