Exercise Is Stress Relief So You Should Probably Go Exercise Right Now

The world is not being kind to us right now. (You might argue that it never has been.) Between the economy, the climate, and the looming political milieu of the next four years—not to mention the ever-present, everyday stresses of staying alive—we could probably all use some stress relief right now. And that is why you should get up and go for a walk right after reading this.

I will never argue that exercise is sufficient to meet everyone’s mental health needs, but it beats a lot of other coping mechanisms, like drinking and doomscrolling and crying in the shower. (Satire site Reductress probably said it best: “Woman Who Says Exercise Is Like Therapy Must Have Some Pretty Light Trauma.”)

If you’re working through truly difficult things right now, please get yourself a therapist. You have plenty of options, even if your insurance sucks. We also have a rundown of ways to calm your panic and anxiety, including a video you can watch while you’re having a panic attack.

Why exercise helps

There are two reasons to exercise when your thoughts are spiraling out of control. One is for the benefits it may bring to the rest of your day and to your long-term health. Exercise tends to use up nervous energy, calm our brains down, and promote better sleep. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America notes that people who exercise are less likely to have anxiety and depression, possibly because exercise helps us cope better with stress.

Exercise isn’t a cure-all, and some people don’t get much of a mental health benefit from it. But exercise is also a way of taking care of your physical body, and that contributes to your overall well-being—even if you are one of the people who don’t see a direct impact on your mental health.

But the other important reason is, I think, simply that it gives you something to do. When I’m running, I can’t check my phone. I accept that for this hour, this minute, I am putting one foot in front of the other.

The best part of your day

Back in the fall of 2020, I read an essay on the pleasures and mental health benefits of walking. I kind of skimmed through it at first, but two lines stuck with me, and I remembered them every time I headed out for a walk or a run, or chose to lift weights in my garage while the world was falling apart around me. The writer, Sarah Miller, said this about using her elliptical to manage depression:

It did make me less depressed while I was doing it, but once I finished I was pretty depressed again. I told my friend this ... he just shrugged and said, “Just do it anyway. That’s one whole hour where you’re not depressed.

This seemed like a good bargain. How much would I pay, while in the throes of anxiety, to spend a whole hour not being anxious? Or even being slightly less anxious? Walking had always seemed like a bit of a time-waster to me, even when I knew it was beneficial, but now I saw it in another light.

I skimmed that essay in September 2020. According to Apple Health, which tracks my steps anytime my phone is in my pocket, I doubled my average daily step count that month, going from a summer average of somewhere in the 3,000s to nearly 7,000. The following month, I walked even more.

In early November, as we awaited the election and then the election results, I fully leaned into my new coping mechanism. From November 3rd to 13th, every single day was over 11,000 steps. I learned that Biden had won while I was walking one of my favorite trails. I originally wrote this article you're reading on January 7—yes, the day after that January 6.

That all happened about four years ago, but the lesson remains. These days I'm more likely to run than to walk, and there have been times I eschewed all outdoor workouts in favor of an indoor spin bike. The specifics change, but the principle remains. During particularly stressful times, I find that the amount of exercise I do expands. I call it my "anxiety cardio." This brings me to the other thing I took from Miller’s essay, the epiphany she reached as she extended her own walk:

These two [walking routes] overlapped — it’s not a large town — and one day, while I was doing the first walk, it occurred to me I could just add the second one and walk longer. You would have thought I was discovering electricity. I could just go and make the best part of my day twice as long?

You can, you really can. If you run or walk or do dance workouts from YouTube as part of your mental self-care, you can do more of them. (From a physical perspective, it may not be wise to suddenly double your running mileage, but most of our bodies would be fine with taking an extra long walk or yoga session. Choose sensibly.)

What you do on your walk or run or other form of exercise is up to you. I love hiking or running through nature, but my neighborhood streets are closer and more time-efficient. I pick the quietest streets and loop through them. Sometimes I listen to podcasts or music, choosing my soundtrack based on whether I want to escape my thoughts or mull them over.

I highly recommend, if you’re feeling down or anxious or don’t know what to do, getting up and doing whatever form of exercise makes the most sense to you. The best part of your day awaits.