Does exercise make us feel better?
The simple answer to this question, as is usually the case in psychology is: it depends. A better question would perhaps be, ‘Does physical activity in general make the average person feel more positive?’. The answer to this question would be a resounding, ‘Why, of course!’, but understandably, few would ask such long-winded questions. Nevertheless, research in the last few decades has been fairly equivocal: we tend to feel more positive after exercise than before. According to Reed and Ones (2006), and later, according to Buecker and colleagues (2020), a single session of physical activity is enough to improve the valence of our mood — that is, change how positive or negative we feel for the better. This is based on the average of many studies, but for the more narratively intrigued, here’s a few illustrative examples:
A) Pittsinger and colleagues (2017) found that 30 minutes of surfing increased positive emotions and reduced negative ones. Convincingly, they attained data from over a whopping 100 surfers, and the positive effects were there irrespective of fitness level or surfing skill.
B) Bonham and colleagues (2018) asked 38 runners to report their mood for six weeks and found not only that their participants felt more positive after runs than before, but also that this elevated mood lasted throughout the day of the run and the day after too.
It’s fair to say, then, that exercise in general is good for our mood. Hooray, article over, let’s head to the gym, right? Well, not quite. How and what kind of exercise we do actually affects how said exercise affects our mood. I won’t even try to provide an exhaustive list of every such aspect because if I did, you’d be reading this article for the whole of today and probably tomorrow as well, but I’ll mention three facets of exercise that have garnered a fair bit of research. These three are exercise type, intensity, and duration, which will all be mentioned in turn. So, let’s dive into it!
What kind of exercise makes us feel better?
The good news is, a large body of research suggests that it doesn’t matter whether you’re doing aerobic or anaerobic exercise — I.e. exercise at moderate intensity for a longer time versus short bursts of super intensive work — working out will improve your mood much the same. So, if you abhor cardio, that’s fine, and the same goes if arm day is not your thing either. For example, Chase and Hutchinson (2015) compared the effects of strength training and brisk walking on subsequent mood, and found that for the most part, negative emotions like tension, anger, depression, and fatigue were reduced irrespective of exercise type. They did find that strength training reduced confusion more than aerobic exercise did, but this doesn’t necessarily imply that strength training is a better ‘cure’ for this feeling, since the effect was only apparent because of pre-exercise differences between the two groups, rather than a post-exercise epiphany. In reviews as well, the conclusion appears to be the same: the positive effects of working out on mood are present, whether you’re doing aerobic or anaerobic exercise (Buecker et al., 2020; Chan et al, 2019). So, whether you prefer swimming or Pilates, the potential to improve your mood will be there.
Concerning intensity, there’s a lot of mixed results in the field. Most studies will tell you that low-to-moderate intensity exercise is the most beneficial, both for post-exercise mood and exercise enjoyment, but there’s some discourse to be had here. For example, Greene and Petruzello (2015) found that exercisers felt less positive during high-intensity exercise than during moderate-intensity workouts, and they enjoyed their workout less. Later, though, Buecker and colleagues (2020) suggested that physical activity improved well-being regardless of intensity, and even more confusingly, Chan and colleagues (2019) found that in aerobic exercise, intensity didn’t matter, but in anaerobic exercise, moderate intensities were the best for mood improvement. It’s tempting to believe the latter two studies, as they are meta-analyses, which sit atop the ‘empirical quality food-chain,’ (see Figure 1.), but admittedly, it would be an exaggeration to conclude that exercise intensity has nothing to do with mood at all. All in all, it’d be fairest to say that you can’t really go wrong with a moderate-intensity workout, like jogging or practicing your favourite Just Dance choreography, but you should be careful with high-intensity exercises, as they might just backfire on you.
The duration of workouts might also affect the extent of its mood benefits. According to Reed and Ones (2006), for example, workouts of 30–35 minutes produced the largest positive mood changes, and any longer was actually detrimental. Again, this is pretty compelling as a meta-analysis, and it does make some intuitive sense as well — if you look at any single fitness blog or website, it will likely tell you somewhere that 30 minutes a day is a ‘magical recipe’ for fitness. However, Chan and colleagues’ (2020) later meta-analysis found that yes, 30 minutes is plenty enough to improve your mood, but longer workouts simply don’t add any extra benefit. Put it simply, according to the Chan paper, it’s not bad to exercise more, unlike what Reed and Ones suggested, just that adding extra time to your gym visit might not have additional positive effects on your mood (it might be beneficial in other regards, though!). So, if you’ve got a spare half an hour to exercise, that’s plenty enough to make you feel better, but whether the ‘more is better’ or ‘less is more’ principles apply here remains to be seen.
What about regular exercise?
Everything so far is all well and good, but you might be wondering, ‘alright, working out might make me feel better after the fact, but is that true for the long-term as well?’ Fortunately for us, psychology has an answer to this question. Fairly recently, studies have suggested that regular physical activity is associated with better overall mood in women of various ages (Ellingson et al., 2014; Holahan et al., 2020), but a slightly older review by Guszkowska (2004) posited that mood improvements occur regardless of gender. It is entirely possible that mood improvements over time are more marked in women, though I wouldn’t go shouting about it on Twitter because there’s a distinct lack of studies that actually consider gender as a difference-maker. So, whether you’re a lady, a gent, or a non-binary folk, regular exercise will probably still help your mood on the long-run.
Is there a way to ‘optimalise’ our routine for mood improvement, then? Well, Reed and Buck (2009) says that exercising for at least 30 minutes, 3–5 times a week, for around 10–12 weeks is a good start, but the truth is, once again: it depends. We have seen that 30 minutes is a good baseline for workout duration, and physical activity guidelines would also agree with the 3–5 times/week frequency, but I know that that would certainly not feel enough for me. I also know people out there who would struggle to incorporate that much into their habits to begin with, so, for the lack of any better options, I’ll stick with what we know fairly certainly: as long as it’s regular, every workout counts.
The Big Picture
Although by and large, exercise does seem to make us feel better, there is a word of caution to be had here — like in most quantitative research, conclusions are based on responses from large sets of people. On the one hand, this is great, because the average person will find exercise beneficial for their mood. On the other hand, whether and how much physical activity is beneficial will vary individual-by-individual. Basically, it’s entirely possible that some people will be left feeling worse off, even when following recommendations from all the latest research. For example, according to Legrand and Thatcher (2011), and then Guérin and colleagues (2013), our post-exercise mood depends on how motivated we are to exercise in the first place, which also affects how intensive exercise feels for us. What more, this changes within each individual from day-to-day. So, yes, the signs point to the positive effects of exercise, but there will always be exceptions, and it’s important to be mindful that.
So, what’s the conclusion? In general, we’ve got great news, as exercise seems to improve our mood both after each bout of physical activity and on the long-term. If you want to go sure-fire, research suggests that the benefits peak at medium intensity exercise that lasts around 30 minutes, and you don’t need to do endless amounts of cardio if you don’t like it, because resistance training has the same effect. That said, it’s important to tailor our exercise to our own needs and preferences — there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to getting the best out of physical activity, and not all conclusions here will be true for everyone. Certainly, though, exercise makes us feel better only inasmuch as we enjoy what we’re doing.
References:
Bonham, T., Pepper, G. V., & Nettle, D. (2018). The relationships between exercise and affective states: a naturalistic, longitudinal study of recreational runners. PeerJ, 6, e4257.
Buecker, S., Simacek, T., Ingwersen, B., Terwiel, S., & Simonsmeier, B. A. (2020). Physical activity and subjective well-being in healthy individuals: a meta-analytic review. Health Psychology Review, 1–19.
Chan, J. S., Liu, G., Liang, D., Deng, K., Wu, J., & Yan, J. H. (2019). Special issue–therapeutic benefits of physical activity for mood: a systematic review on the effects of exercise intensity, duration, and modality. The Journal of psychology, 153(1), 102–125.
Chase, R., & Hutchinson, J. (2015). The effects of acute aerobic exercise versus resistance exercise on mood state. J Multidisciplinary Res, 7(2), 15–16.
Ellingson, L. D., Kuffel, A. E., Vack, N. J., & Cook, D. B. (2014). Active and sedentary behaviors influence feelings of energy and fatigue in women. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 46(1), 192–200.
Greene, D. R., & Petruzzello, S. J. (2015). More isn’t necessarily better: Examining the intensity–affect–enjoyment relationship in the context of resistance exercise. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, 4(2), 75.
Guérin, E., Fortier, M. S., & Sweet, S. N. (2013). An experience sampling study of physical activity and positive affect: investigating the role of situational motivation and perceived intensity across time. Health psychology research, 1(2).
Guszkowska, M. (2004). Effects of exercise on anxiety, depression and mood. Psychiatria polska, 38(4), 611–620.
Holahan, C. K., Holahan, C. J., Chen, Y. T., & Li, X. (2020). Leisure-time physical activity and affective experience in middle-aged and older women. Journal of women & aging, 32(6), 672–683.
Legrand, F. D., & Thatcher, J. (2011). Acute mood responses to a 15-minute long walking session at self-selected intensity: Effects of an experimentally-induced telic or paratelic state. Emotion, 11(5), 1040.
Pittsinger, R., Kress, J., & Crussemeyer, J. (2017). The effect of a single bout of surfing on exercise-induced affect. International journal of exercise science, 10(7), 989.
Reed, J., & Buck, S. (2009). The effect of regular aerobic exercise on positive-activated affect: A meta-analysis. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 10(6), 581–594.
Reed, J., & Ones, D. S. (2006). The effect of acute aerobic exercise on positive activated affect: A meta-analysis. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 7(5), 477–514.
