Largest study of its kind reveals the best exercise for improving mental health — and how long to do it for.
Team sports have the strongest link to improved mental health, followed by cycling and aerobic and gym exercise.
The largest benefits to mental health were seen in those doing around 45 minutes exercise between three to five times a week, research finds.
However, all types of exercise were linked to better mental health, including doing household chores, lawn-mowing and fishing.
Overall, people who exercised had 18 fewer days of poor mental health per year compared with people doing no exercise.
People who had been depressed in the past felt the greatest benefit from exercise.
The results come from 1.2 million people in the US who reported their activity levels for a month.
They were asked to estimate how many days they thought their mental health was ‘not good’ based on depression, stress or emotional problems.
Most people benefitted from exercise, however, doing too much exercise was linked to worse mental health.
Those who did over 90 minutes a day saw only small improvements in mental health.
Those who did more than 3 hours exercise per day reported worse mental health than those who did none at all.
Dr. Adam Chekroud, who led the study, said:
“Previously, people have believed that the more exercise you do, the better your mental health, but our study suggests that this is not the case.
Doing exercise more than 23 times a month, or exercising for longer than 90 minute sessions is associated with worse mental health.
Our finding that team sports are associated with the lowest mental health burden may indicate that social activities promote resilience and reduce depression by reducing social withdrawal and isolation, giving social sports an edge over other kinds.”
The study also showed that exercise had much bigger benefits to mental health than factors like earning more money or being better educated.
Dr Chekroud continued:
“Exercise is associated with a lower mental health burden across people no matter their age, race, gender, household income and education level.
Excitingly, the specifics of the regime, like the type, duration, and frequency, played an important role in this association.
We are now using this to try and personalise exercise recommendations, and match people with a specific exercise regime that helps improve their mental health.”
The study was published in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry (Chekroud et al., 2018).
