“I like to think of exercise as a bit of a buffer,” Hillary Ammon, PsyD, a clinical psychologist at the Center for Anxiety and Women’s Emotional Wellness, tells SELF. “In stressful situations, individuals who work out routinely may be slightly more resilient because their stress-related hormones and neurotransmitters may be positively impacted by exercise, meaning stress levels may not get quite as high.”
Working out can also give you a feeling of pride and accomplishment, Thea Gallagher, PsyD, clinical associate professor at NYU Langone Health and cohost of the Mind in View podcast, tells SELF. “We don’t know all the mechanisms behind it, but we do know that it typically makes us feel less anxious and depressed,” she says.
Doing things to support your physical health, like cardio, can also have a positive impact on your mind, Dr. Gallagher says. “For so long, exercise has been linked to shape and body image, but it’s actually good for mental health management,” she adds.
Consistent exercise can help lower your stress levels and improve your sleep too—and those can ultimately lower overall feelings of anxiety, Caitlin Mooney, MD, assistant professor in the department of sports medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, tells SELF.
As for resiliency, Dr. Gallagher points out that exercise forces you to be a little mentally tougher. “Hard exercise is challenging and you have to push through,” she says. “You’re practicing resilience with exercise and that can make other things feel more manageable.”
Resiliency isn’t a fixed personality trait, Dr. Mooney says. “It’s influenced by trainable cognitive, behavioral, and biological factors,” she says. Meaning, even if you feel like you’re not the most resilient person out there, that can change over time.
Sports and exercise build resilience in a practical way, Dr. Mooney says. “They provide repeated opportunities to approach manageable challenges, tolerate discomfort, and build mastery through exposure, rather than reinforcing avoidance,” she says. “Training for something can also provide structure, identity, and meaning.”
How to put this to work for you
Everyone can benefit from the mental health perks of cardio, including those who tend to throttle high or who have conditions like generalized anxiety disorder, Dr. Gallagher says. Some people with anxiety prefer intense exercise, while others feel they get more out of gentler movements, Dr. Ammon says. “I’ve worked with some anxious clients who prefer high intensity workouts, as these types of workouts ‘turn off’ their thoughts and help them work the physical tension of anxiety out of their body,” she says. But others like slower-paced workouts. “A combo of both could be beneficial for the mind and the body,” Dr. Ammon says.