Mental health is maintained just like physical health. Especially since sport and exercise are very effective stress management tools to regain inner well-being. This article highlights the incredible effects of exercise on mental health, summarizes its physiological consequences on the brain and its psychological benefits, and presents the sports activities most likely to do you good.
Why is sport good for the mind?
This reality can be depressing: people with mental health conditions have higher rates of disability and mortality, caused by physical illness or suicide, than the rest of the population.
But the good news is that those who exercise or play sports know better how to improve their well-being to preserve their mental health.
What are the physiological effects of sport on the brain?
Physical or sporting activity allows the brain to trigger several mechanisms that are beneficial to health and quality of life.
Release of endorphins and other beneficial molecules
- Release of endorphins: By stimulating pain receptors, exercise sends a signal to the brain to produce endorphins, natural painkillers that trigger well-being.
- For an effort to transform at some point into this kind of fullness, it must border on discomfort.
- A deficiency in endorphins leads to inflammation, pain, migraines, a weakened immune response, and an overall feeling of emptiness.
And that’s not all, practicing sports also stimulates the production of other substances by the brain.
- Adrenaline release: During sport, this stress-reactive hormone increases cardiac and respiratory performance, promotes muscle oxygenation, and releases energy to sustain the effort over time.
- The body is alert, and a feeling of vitality, excitement, and euphoria manifests.
- To the point that some, like joggers, are addicted to reliving this state of grace. Sometimes, athletes lacking adrenaline engage in high-risk, extreme sports. Otherwise, they feel nervous, irritable, or depressed. Adrenaline can act like a drug and, in high doses, be harmful to health.
- The beneficial effect of serotonin: During a workout, blood flow to the activated muscles increases. The amino acid tryptophan circulates to the brain, where it can then be converted into serotonin, which regulates mood and sleep. A serotonin deficiency leads to irritability, negativity, depression, and insomnia.
- The beneficial mechanism of dopamine: Physical activity stimulates the brain’s dopamine release process. The effects produce pleasure, motivation, and rewards, reinforcing the positive perception of effort and the desire to do more. A lack of dopamine leads to motor difficulties and cognitive slowness.
The influence of exercise on neuroplasticity
Neurobiological mechanisms linked to sports practice help maintain thinking, reasoning, creativity, concentration, and memory skills, and possibly also slow down brain aging.
By stimulating blood flow to the brain, physical activity supports the release of BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor). This protein, essential for the growth, function, and survival of neurons, promotes the formation of new synaptic connections, strengthens neural networks, and improves the transmission of electrical signals.
In addition, dopamine and serotonin released following physical exercise also play a role in modulating neuron plasticity, increasing brain volume and capacity.
What are the benefits of sport for mental and brain health?
Reduction of stress and anxiety
Physical activity helps to reduce excess stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline, and helps to normalize their levels over time.
The harmful effects of stress are reduced at the same time. It strengthens the functioning of the parasympathetic nervous system, which calms the body. It contrasts with the sympathetic nervous system responsible for the physiological symptoms of stress. Exercising or walking allows you to release accumulated tension and put your mind on hold, thanks to the attention and concentration paid to movements that clear the mind.
Better quality sleep
The relationship between physical activity and sleep is both complex and crucial.
Exercise facilitates sleep, essential for mental well-being, by reducing periods of insomnia-causing rumination.
- It regulates the production of melatonin, which is involved in the sleep-wake system. Regular physical activity maintains a regular circadian rhythm. The body is better able to anticipate and adjust melatonin production according to day-night cycles. The quality of deep sleep is improved according to some research because it is strongly influenced by the regulation of melatonin.
- It raises body temperature. Then, it decreases, which makes it easier to fall asleep and get through the first few hours of sleep. Indeed, a drop in temperature is a signal for the brain to trigger drowsiness. This is why it is interesting to exercise a few hours before bedtime to take advantage of this mechanism.
- The release of endorphins and the associated feeling of well-being can reduce the causes of stress-related insomnia.
Improvement of mood and depressive states
By producing endorphins, serotonin, and a rush of dopamine, regular exercise also improves mood.
Research conducted by Duke University in the United States has established that physical activity has an effect comparable to that of an antidepressant, to the point of being prescribed for mild depression and as a complement to drug treatments.
Increased resilience
Physical activity is also an excellent way to train and maintain resilience :
- self-awareness and self-confidence: it offers challenges and opportunities to self-assess, persevere, acquire new skills, and progress,
- energy to act: it increases the capacity for decision-making and effort,
- frustration management: it confronts the acceptance of failure, discipline, and the resulting emotions,
- sense of reality: it helps you stay grounded and pursue a realistic and achievable goal. Physical activity doesn’t lie!
Boost cognitive performance
A study, not yet translated into French, conducted on a group of people aged 55 to 80 by Kirk Erickson at the University of Pittsburgh highlighted an enlargement of the area of the brain involved in memory thanks to physical activity. Furthermore, the risk of neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s) is reduced.
What physical activities are excellent for mental well-being?
These criteria are useful when choosing a physical activity that is beneficial to mental well-being :
- requires concentration, nothing better to distract yourself from unpleasant parasitic thoughts,
- leads to an almost meditative state: certain activities can relax and calm the inner state,
- is practiced in nature : breathing the scent of trees is beneficial because they release phytoncides, molecules that calm the sympathetic nervous system , which reacts to stress, according to research.
- It is sufficiently enduring: the body expends energy using oxygen, which activates mechanisms essential to the functioning of the body and the brain.
Mindful Exercises Yoga and Tai Chi
Yoga and tai chi offer mindfulness-type exercises: Moving meditation: They encourage focusing on the accuracy of slow, gentle movements that calm the mind,
- Focus on breathing: Deep, controlled breathing regulates the autonomic nervous system, which improves mental health and helps reduce anxiety.
- Anti-stress practices: certain tai chi movements or yoga positions are known to lower cortisol, the hormone that can react excessively to stress.
- Improved sleep: relaxation and breathing techniques promote sleep,
- Emotional balancing. The practice gives the habit of finding a state of inner calm, applicable during a daily challenge.
Endurance sports cycling, running, and swimming
Cycling, running, and swimming, practiced at medium intensity over a fairly long period, are aerobic endurance activities, which have several advantages: T hee mind: aerobic exercise helps eliminate tension, irritability, a nd accumulated frustration through better oxygenation of the brain, which promotes mental clarity.
- Beneficial effect on hormones: Endurance activities have very good effects on the release of endorphins for well-being and the reduction of cortisol, the stress hormone. They also produce a dose of adrenaline and noradrenaline, involved in the feeling of euphoria.
- Activation of the parasympathetic system: Aerobic exercise stimulates the parasympathetic system, which is effective in releasing emotional tension.
- Mental concentration,n attention to often repetitive and pleasantly familiar movements, pushes aside ruminations or painful thoughts, and an almost meditative inner state can be beestablishedd
- Weight loss: It has been proven that moving helps you lose weight and maintain a healthy weight for a long time, which can also contribute to mental well-being.
The mental benefits of these physical activities vary from one person to another, of course.
To reap the benefits of exercise, practice regularly and combine aerobic and mindful practices. Consult a fitness professional to develop a program that’s right for you, gradually and at your own pace.
In an interview with the newspaper Ouest France in 2025, Thomas Pouteau, 23, vividly and vividly sums up the beneficial effects of physical exercise on the mind. This young man, who had become anorexic, found an antidote to his illness in regular physical activity. “Thanks to sport, I went from black and white to color.”
He is not the only one.
Researchers at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden followed 286 people for 3 months, some of whom had been very anxious for 10 years. The results of a study published in English in the Journal of Affective Disorders confirm the point of this article: three one-hour sessions of physical activity per week significantly reduced their anxiety, regardless of the intensity level, and even more so with a moderately sustained effort.
