Does exercise really help with low mood and anxiety?
Exercise demonstrably helps with low mood and anxiety, with walking, jogging and yoga as the best-studied forms. The evidence is promising, though it is not equally strong in every case.
Walking or jogging helps most with clinical depression, followed by yoga and strength training. More intense movement generally brings greater benefits for low mood. With anxiety the opposite is true: shorter sessions at lower intensity appear to have the strongest effect. Group exercise and guided sessions work better than exercising alone without support.
The benefits of movement are wide-ranging: moderate to vigorous aerobic activity helps not only with depression and anxiety, but also with a whole range of other conditions such as post-traumatic stress, schizophrenia and ADHD. For the last two it also improves thinking and concentration. This broad effect makes exercise an interesting addition to treatment, regardless of the specific complaint.
Notably, many studies suggest that exercise appears to be just as effective as talking therapy or antidepressants. This is based on a limited number of studies and the strength of the evidence is moderate. It is not a reason to stop proven treatments; always discuss that with your healthcare provider. Exercise works best when you stick with it: yoga and strength training have the lowest dropout rates, which makes them attractive choices in practice.
A honest caveat: the certainty of the evidence is often low. Keeping people unaware of what treatment they are receiving is virtually impossible in exercise studies (you know whether you are exercising or not), which means that expectation effects can inflate the results. Only one study in the largest analysis met all criteria for reliability. Side effects are rare, but muscle injuries and, in some cases, a worsening of depressive symptoms have been reported, especially in severe depression. Whether the effect is maintained in the long term after a programme ends is not yet clear.
This answer draws on several large combined analyses that bring together dozens of comparative studies. The researchers themselves note that the evidence for reducing depressive symptoms is largely of low certainty, and for anxiety symptoms of moderate certainty. One outcome measure (quality of life) was rated as predominantly very low certainty. The certainty is so low in part because keeping participants unaware of their treatment is virtually impossible in exercise studies, and because many individual studies have methodological shortcomings.
Can you exercise too much?
Yes, exercising too much can lead to sustained loss of performance, mood problems and physical harm. The most concrete signal is a drop in performance that does not recover after more than four weeks of rest.
Can intense exercise actually make you age faster?
Regular, well-paced exercise keeps cells measurably younger, as seen in longer telomeres and less DNA damage. How you structure your training determines whether you reap that benefit.
Is the sauna after exercise good for your recovery?
Taking the sauna regularly after exercise probably adds some extra benefit for fitness and blood pressure, on top of the gains from exercise itself. The sauna after sport is not harmful.
Is it better to exercise in the morning or in the evening?
Research shows that evening exercise is slightly more favourable for blood pressure and blood sugar, while morning exercise shifts your sleep rhythm to an earlier time. The timing you can stick to consistently matters more than whichever time is theoretically optimal.
Does creatine also help ordinary people, not just athletes?
Creatine also helps ordinary people, especially older adults who combine it with some strength training: more muscle mass, more strength, and in those aged 66 and over, better memory as well. Combining at least 5 grams per day with strength training gives the best results.
How quickly do I lose fitness if I stop exercising for a while?
A period of training protects your fitness for a while after you stop, but the older you are, the faster that effect fades. Start moving again as soon as possible to hold on to what you have built up.