If you suffer from mental health conditions such as anxiety or depression, you’ve probably heard the phrase “just work out” ad nauseam. But it’s rarely that easy when your mental health issues often translate into bone-tired physical exhaustion.
Yet, there’s a lot of truth to this advice. Physical activity does work wonders in improving your mood and alleviating symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. But, the problem is that a lot of people often give up before they start seeing results.
This is where having a structured exercise routine helps, with workouts that target the specific mental health outcomes you want. Let’s explore the best mental health workouts for anxiety, depression, and overall mood, and see how Brain-Body Therapy’s personalized programs can help you in this journey.
Key Takeaways
- Exercise improves mental health by triggering the release of serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins, which improves blood flow to the brain and builds long-term stress resilience.
- Specific workout types target specific conditions: Zone 2 moderate-intensity cardio and strength training reduce anxiety, while Zone 3 higher-intensity aerobics and resistance training combat depressive fatigue and low mood.
- Brain-Body Therapy offers diagnosis-specific, personalized workout plans for all fitness levels, combining aerobic exercise, strength training, and mindful movement into structured 12-week programs.
How Exercise Changes the Brain: The Science Behind Workouts and Mental Health
Our brains and bodies don’t exist in a silo; they’re interconnected, which means physical movement triggers positive changes in your brain, improving your mood and helping you manage your mental health better.
When you get moving, your brain releases certain chemicals, such as endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine. Endorphins are feel-good chemicals and natural pain relievers that work on blocking stress signals, giving you a general sense of happiness. Ever heard of a runner’s high? Those are good old endorphins at work.
Serotonin
Often known as the “happy” chemical, serotonin is responsible for boosting your mood and regulating your sleep cycle. Lower serotonin levels are associated with anxiety and depression, so by exercising, you’re releasing more natural mood stabilizers.
Dopamine
Dopamine, on the other hand, is responsible for your brain’s reward system. It increases your motivation, and gives feelings of satisfaction once a workout is complete. The rush you feel after a spike in dopamine enforces a repetition of the behavior, helping you stay consistent with your at-home workouts for mental health.
Brain Blood Flow for Stress Relief
Exercise also improves blood circulation to the brain, which helps in managing stress levels by regulating your body’s stress response. Physical movement is also linked with the stimulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein that supports the growth of new cells in the hippocampus region of the brain. It is this region that regulates your mood, stress, and memory.
Pride & Confidence
Beyond these chemical changes in your brain, moving your body also offers intangible benefits. These include a sense of routine, feelings of accomplishment, and an improvement in confidence, self-esteem, and body image.
Now that you know just how physical exercise connects to better mental health, let’s dive into specific workouts that you can incorporate into your routine.
Best Workouts for Anxiety
When you get some physical movement in, your body’s muscle tension decreases, lowering feelings of stress and anxiety. Here are the best mental health workouts for anxiety.
Yoga and Mindful Movement
Yoga is a form of exercise that brings physical movement, breath control, and mindfulness together. It’s a slow form of movement that narrows down your entire focus on your breath and the way you’re moving your body.
This focus takes your mind away from anxious thoughts, letting you be in the moment. It also downregulates your stress response by activating the body’s parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for promoting rest and relaxation. Overall, your heart rate slows down, your sleep gets regulated, and your body’s stress responses are buffered.
Even short 15-minute yoga sessions every day can slowly build up to have transformative effects over time, refreshing your mood and reducing tension.
As you move through Brain-Body Therapy’s guided workouts, you’ll start to practice yoga as a way of forcing your body to move slowly and build long-term stress resilience.
Breathing-Focused Practice
When you’re anxious or stressed, your breathing becomes shallow and chest-based, which keeps your body in a fight-or-flight response. Taking deep diaphragmatic breaths can help you break out of this loop, signaling to your body that you’re not in any danger.
This is where deep breathing exercises come in. It breaks your anxious spiral by telling your heart rate to slow down, lowers your blood pressure, and decreases the levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) in your body. The best part is that you can feel the changes in as little as 5-10 minutes.
Some of the best forms of breathing exercises for anxiety include:
- Cycle sighing: Take a long breath in followed by a shorter inhale, then breathe out through your nose
- Box breathing: Inhale for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 4 seconds, and exhale for 4 seconds
Aerobic Exercise
Aerobic activity, such as walking, swimming, or running (yes, even on a treadmill), reduces muscle tension and helps you physically relax by burning off all the excess adrenaline.
Most importantly, though, aerobic exercises activate your fight-or-flight response and bring it back down. This desensitizes your body to the physical symptoms of stress and anxiety and strengthens its resilience against them.
Brain-Body Therapy’s Zone 2 guided workouts for anxiety work to reduce stress and build resilience. These workouts were designed by a mental health specialist to blend yoga, conscious breathwork, and aerobics to target anxiety directly.
Best Workouts for Depression
Fatigue, lack of interest in hobbies, low self-esteem, and feelings of pointlessness are some of the common symptoms that depression causes. The following workouts target these symptoms, improving overall mood.
Strength and Resistance Training
Resistance training has proven to work as a natural antidepressant among people suffering from depression. On a chemical level, it increases the production of BDNF and neurotransmitters such as endorphins and serotonin, elevating your mood.
Research suggests that inflammation in the brain may be a major contributing factor to depression. Strength training decreases neuro-inflammation by stimulating the production of anti-inflammatory proteins known as myokines, alleviating symptoms of depression.
Moreover, the structure and progressive growth you experience when you train with weights can give you a sense of accomplishment, which can boost your self-esteem. You also get a tangible goal to work towards, breaking the cycle of feeling withdrawn from life.
Brain-Body Therapy’s Zone 3 weight-training workouts are designed to give you structure and increase the release of antidepressant chemicals in your brain. Seeing your daily progress on the app also gives you a sense of accomplishment.
Cardio-Based Workouts
Beyond getting your heart pumping, which greatly reduces your risk of cardiovascular disease, the benefits of cardio workouts for mental health are many. They release endorphins, the feel-good chemicals that enhance your mood, and expand your hippocampus.
The rhythmic movement of these activities also take your mind away from negative thoughts and increase self-esteem. You also get a bout of energy after your workout, which can work wonders in helping you get out of depression-related fatigue.
When it’s cardio day on your Brain-Body Therapy-guided workout plan, start the timer and take your indoor fitness bike for a spin or go for a brief run on the treadmill.
Outdoor and Nature-Based Movement
The old adage is true. Getting some fresh air and being one with nature does make you feel better, mentally. Studies have found that a simple 20-minute walk in a natural environment lowers your cortisol and quiets down the part of your brain that engages in repetitive negative thoughts.
The benefits that nature offers, combined with the physical movement of walking, also aids in producing neurotransmitters and balancing your sleep cycle. When using Brain-Body Therapy’s app, brisk-walking in nature could be your choice of cardio once a week.
Best Workouts for General Stress and Overall Mental Wellness
Whether you want relief from the daily stressors of life, or are simply looking to enhance your mood levels, here are some tips on the best types of workouts.
Short, Accessible Workouts for Busy Schedules
If your busy schedule prevents you from hitting the gym or going on long walks, “snack workouts” that don’t last more than 5-10 minutes might be what you need. In addition to offering a lower barrier to entry by not asking you to set aside a lot of time, these micro workouts offer immense mental health benefits, too.
Some examples are:
- Using 10 minutes to go through a series of squats, jumping jacks, lunges, and push-ups
- Going up and down the stairs 5 times in quick succession
- Wall sits, with each sit lasting 30-60 seconds
- A brisk treadmill run
Additionally, you can also bake in some low-intensity movement into everyday tasks, such as taking the stairs instead of an elevator, walking to the grocery store, or playing with your kids.
Try to incorporate a few of these snack workouts throughout the day, and soon you’ll see their effects compound.
Group and Social Workouts
For those who have trouble staying consistent, joining group exercise classes can help you stay accountable and keep you going, especially when your individual motivation runs low. Alternatively, you can also play team sports, such as tennis, football, or pickleball.
When you get physical movement as part of a group, you take care of your mental health while putting an end to your isolation. Making social connections also increases your sense of self-worth and purpose, lowers stress levels, and helps with anxiety and depression.
Trust the Experts to Provide a Plan Suited to Your Needs
Physical movement is often the missing puzzle piece in a mental health improvement regimen. This is exactly the gap that Brain-Body Therapy was built to fix.
It all began when Rio Wilson, a single mom, harnessed the power of exercise to heal from her mental trauma. To help others do the same, she earned a Master’s in Counseling, and teamed up with Luke Lombardo, a former Ironman triathlete, to design an app that blends psychotherapy with exercise.
Together, they built specific routines that target your unique mental health needs, giving your brain and body the glow-up they deserve.
Download the app and get started with your own brain-body journey
Brain-Body Therapy’s Custom Workout Programs for Mental Health
Brain-Body Therapy’s workout plans hinge on using your body to heal your mind. The app offers various types of guided workouts, which we’ll outline below.
Personalized Workout Plans Based on Your Mental Health Goal
Whether you suffer from anxiety or depression, Brain-Body Therapy offers workout plans tailored to targeting your specific symptoms. Each workout program combines aerobic exercises with strength training and mindful movement, and is designed to meet you at your current activity level.
Not sure whether you’re exhibiting symptoms of anxiety or stress? Start with a free quiz on the Brain-Body Therapy app to see whether an anxiety or depression focused workout is right for you.
Programs for Every Starting Point
Brain-Body Therapy’s programs are inclusive, meaning they are designed for beginners and fitness pros alike. Each guided workout plan lasts 12 weeks, with each phase building on the other.
The initial workouts are for helping you build confidence, consistency, and structure, so that you can gradually move on to higher intensity exercises. All of these advanced exercises also have low-impact alternatives that are still effective.
Resources for Employers and Universities
Any business or university looking to incorporate physical movement as part of a broader mental wellness initiative can use Brain-Body Therapy’s guided programs.
Brain-Body Therapy Zone 2 Workouts for Anxiety
This program is designed specifically for people suffering from anxiety. It consists of moderate-intensity cardio exercises and strength training. These workouts have been chosen for their ability to regulate your nervous system, reduce stress, build mental resilience, and promote a sense of calm.
Brain-Body Therapy Zone 3 Workouts for Depression
These workouts, geared towards users suffering from depression, are made up of higher-intensity aerobics and resistance training. The goal here is to give your body more energy to combat depressive fatigue, increase feelings of motivation, and improve your mood.
Brain-Body Therapy Workout Program Progression
As you move through each phase of a guided Brain-Body Therapy workout program, you’ll begin to practice additional forms of movement. These include yoga, breathing exercises, and other therapeutic exercise modalities, which are designed to support long-term growth, recovery, and mental wellness.
Take the First Step Towards Better Mental Health with Brain-Body Therapy
The research is clear: physical movement can work wonders in enhancing your mental health. Even if you’re in therapy or on an antidepressant regimen, combining them with exercise can lead to better outcomes than any sole approach.
Brain-Body Therapy’s guided workout programs are designed to give you the motivation to keep moving, even on days when getting out of bed feels like a huge task. Join us in taking the first step towards improving your mental health.
Mental Health Workouts – FAQs
How does exercise actually change brain chemistry to improve mental health?
Physical activity increases the production of feel-good, happy chemicals, such as serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins, that boost your mood. It also helps your body build resilience against stress. Brain-Body Therapy’s custom-built workout plans are designed to release these chemicals and get you feeling your best again, body and mind.
What are the best workouts for managing anxiety?
Aerobic workouts, yoga, and breath-control exercises work wonders in lowering your heart rate and reducing stress. The overall effect leads to a decrease in anxiety levels.
What types of exercises are most effective for depression?
Weight training and cardio exercises are the most effective for depression. They boost your energy and motivation, break your loop of negative thoughts, and make you feel more content and happier.
Can yoga or breathing exercises really make a difference for mental health?
Yes, yoga and breathing exercises help your body feel relaxed and in the present, which can lower stress. This is why each of Brain-Body Therapy’s workout routines integrates these intentionally.
What is the best workout for general stress relief if I’m not dealing with a diagnosed condition?
Workouts such as yoga and mindfulness are great stress relievers as they regulate your nervous system.
Do I need to work out for a long time to see mental health benefits, or can short workouts help?
Even a single 10-minute workout session can enhance your mental health, so short workouts do help.
Does the type of exercise I choose matter, or is any movement helpful?
Certain exercises have specific benefits for mental health, which is the whole idea behind Brain-Body Therapy’s targeted workout plans. Some reduce anxiety and stress, while others target depressive symptoms. So, the type of exercise you choose does matter as it needs to target your symptoms and help you achieve your mental health goals.
Can someone who hasn’t exercised in years start a Brain-Body Therapy program?
Yes! Brain-Body Therapy programs are designed for users with all types of fitness levels, so you can join even if you haven’t exercised in years.