Exercise and Mental Health: Benefits, Boundaries and a More Compassionate Approach

The mental health benefits of movement

Exercise is widely known to have many benefits for mental health. An extensive body of research has highlighted improvements in mood, reductions in anxiety and stress, enhanced cognitive function, and better sleep quality, to name a few. These effects have been shown across a range of movement types and intensities, from structured training to gentle, everyday activity.

Beyond exercise, we can broaden our language to include physical activity, or movement, to ensure we are not only validating one specific way of being active, but instead acknowledging that benefits (both mental and physical) can be gained from a wide range of activities such as walking the dog, doing the gardening or dancing to music at home – not just from the gym or running!

Movement can also foster connection. Exercising with others may provide social support, belonging, and motivation. Still, while exercise can be helpful for many, it is not a universal remedy.

When messages about exercise become pressure

During World Mental Health Month in particular, we often see a flurry of messaging from public health campaigns, the fitness industry, and across social media that can unintentionally create pressure to exercise. Whilst these are usually well-intentioned and framed as encouragement, they can instead land with an air of obligation or moral judgement. Exercise becomes something we “should” be doing.

This can feel overwhelming for many, including those living with depression, anxiety, fatigue, chronic pain, or low motivation. When we tell people that exercise will improve their mental health, this can land in the form of just another stick for those who are already experiencing low mood and self-worth to beat themselves with. Those who struggle to move may internalise guilt, shame, or self-criticism.

A more compassionate and mental health-supportive approach affirms that people can benefit from movement when, and if, it feels possible, acknowledging differences in capacity, noting that inability to exercise is not a failure, and celebrating small steps, while also validating rest and recovery.

Not all exercise supports mental health

In our celebration and relentless promotion of exercise, we can often fail to acknowledge the ways in which it can become unhelpful or harmful. High motivation and commitment to training or exercise are not inherently problematic, but when exercise engagement feels driven by fear, guilt, shame or an inability to rest, it can be having a detrimental impact to mental health and wellbeing, rather than a positive one.

Rigid, compulsive and punitive relationships with exercise characterised by fear, guilt and shame can lead to overtraining, increased anxiety, physical strain and injury, body image concerns, eating disorders and interference with relationships, social wellbeing, and daily function.

Indicators that someone’s relationship with exercise has become rigid and compulsive can be seen in behaviour such as prioritising exercise over social plans, work, sleep or relationships, exhibiting distress when routine is interrupted, obsessive tracking of steps, calories, or other training metrics, and fixed rules around the timing, duration and intensity of exercise. Cognitively or emotionally, indicators may include intrusive thoughts about exercise or food when trying to rest or engage in other activities, a belief that rest equals laziness, failure or a loss of control, rigid thinking around exercise rules, and preoccupation with body shape, weight, or “earning” food through exercise.

A more inclusive, supportive approach to movement

Fitness industry messaging, particularly on social media, can often lack compassion and reinforce rigid, all-or-nothing thinking around exercise and movement. It can also serve to glorify the unhelpful and harmful relationships with exercise described above, in the name of ‘dedication’.

There is a need for more nuanced conversation around exercise and mental health benefits, and a greater focus on compassionate and non-judgemental support that recognises the range of barriers to activity, meets people where they are at, and helps them to choose forms and intensities of movement that are aligned with their needs, values, motivations, and wider life circumstances.

Shifting from outcome-oriented goals, such as appearance or performance, to experience-oriented goals— enjoyment, confidence, connection —can also reduce pressure and improve sustainability.

Exercise can have a powerful impact on our mental health, but engagement with exercise does not become easier or more accessible just by knowing its benefits, and not all relationships with exercise are positive. Encouragement must coexist with compassion and empathy.

To read more about this, see Mind's resources and guidance on Developing a Healthy Relationship With Physical Activity.

Author

Research Fellow in Applied Psychology, Dr Han Newman