You’ve likely heard that exercise helps deal with emotional stress. If you’re stressed and want to exercise but have a busy work schedule, family, and other obligations, trying to get regular exercise could ironically add to the stress. Patients have told me there simply doesn't seem to be enough time to fit it in.

So, if you’re not someone who already has a regular gym or other exercise schedule and would like to become more active, what is considered an effective amount of exercise to help with stress, and how can you work it in?

First, if you’re already living an active lifestyle, we know from research that you've likely built some stress resilience already. While it’s impossible to avoid periodic stress, active folks are more likely to weather stressful periods better. To quote Nowacka-Chmielewska et al (2022), “Exercise can significantly alter the CNS [central nervous system] expression pattern of several genes and pathways strongly related to vulnerability to stress, and various molecules have been already identified.”

Yet how exercise helps regulate stress is complicated, involving a lot of microbiological activity like increased mitochondria production, which helps clean up cells damaged by stress, and neurochemistry alteration, such as reduction of the stress hormone cortisol. Then there’s how the increased oxygen helps mental clarity, which can be quite lacking if sufficiently stressed.

(For a detailed look at the stress-busting effects of exercise, be sure to read the Nowacka-Chmielewska et al paper referenced above. Perhaps of more interest to some—especially those affected by seasonal depression during the winter, which of course can be considered a stressor—Hossain et al (2024) has an easily digestible, comprehensive review of the effects of exercise on depression.)

Researchers such as Lee et al (2021) tell us, “Exercise combined with standard treatments leads to significantly greater antidepressant effects over standard treatment alone.” Therefore, even if you’re being treated but don’t exercise, beginning a routine is likely to enhance your recovery.

Regarding how much exercise is enough, thankfully, most resources generally agree on the amount of exercise required for stress-busting benefits. Harvard........

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