Numerous studies highlight exercise as an effective strategy for enhancing mental well-being, yet a new investigation from the University of Georgia reveals that mere physical exertion is not the sole determinant of these benefits.
Rather, the manner in which you engage in activity, the location where it occurs, and the underlying motivation behind it play pivotal roles in shaping mental health outcomes.
“In the past, investigations into physical activity have primarily emphasized duration of exercise sessions or the number of calories expended,” explained Patrick O’Connor, a co-author of the research and professor within the Mary Frances Early College of Education’s Department of Kinesiology at the university. “Researchers have traditionally relied on the concept of an ‘exercise dose’ to explore connections between physical activity and mental health, frequently overlooking critical details such as whether the activity involved companionship with friends or participation in a playful game.”
Exercise and mental health
Scientific literature consistently demonstrates that individuals who incorporate regular leisure-time physical activities—such as jogging outdoors, attending yoga sessions, or cycling recreationally—experience reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety. However, the mental health advantages of non-leisure activities, like household chores or employment in lawn maintenance, remain less definitive. Researchers emphasize that the surrounding circumstances and environment may influence outcomes as profoundly as the exercise’s intensity or volume.
“Consider a soccer athlete sprinting across the pitch to score the decisive goal; in that moment, their psychological state soars,” O’Connor illustrated. “Conversely, performing identical physical movements but failing to score amid team blame can evoke entirely opposite emotions. Such real-world examples underscore the profound role of context, even when the physical exertion remains constant.”
A substantial body of randomized controlled trials further supports the notion that establishing consistent exercise habits can significantly improve mental health, particularly among those already grappling with psychological conditions. That said, many of these experiments involved limited sample sizes, brief durations, and relatively uniform participant demographics, limiting their applicability to broader, more varied populations.
“Across the spectrum of randomized controlled exercise trials, the average improvements in mental health are modest,” O’Connor noted. “This is largely because the majority targeted participants without pre-existing depression or anxiety, where effects tend to be more pronounced. Our message to the scientific community is clear: more extensive, prolonged controlled trials are essential to robustly establish whether exercise genuinely affects mental health on a wider scale.”
Why context matters
The area with the sparsest yet arguably most crucial evidence pertains to contextual elements. Identical physical exercises can yield vastly different emotional responses based on social companions, timing, venue, and execution style.
These contextual influences encompass interpersonal interactions, the approach of instructors, and environmental variables such as temperature or daily schedule. “For instance, trudging to work under scorching sun contributes to the overall context,” O’Connor elaborated. “Similarly, joining a group fitness session might be invigorating with a favored instructor but draining with one you dislike—both scenarios shape the experience.”
“To leverage exercise for mental health improvement, we must move beyond mere dosage and type,” O’Connor stressed. “We need to interrogate the context comprehensively: Who is involved? Where and when does it happen? How is it structured?”
For O’Connor, the core insight is unequivocal: physical motion alone falls short. The true power lies in the significance attributed to the activity, the environment it unfolds in, and the holistic experience it provides, all of which dictate its efficacy for mental health.
The study’s collaborators include Eduardo Bustamante from the University of Illinois Chicago, Angelique Brellenthin from Iowa State University, and David Brown, formerly of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
