Exercise is the best medicine for the mind but what works best for anxiety, according to science?

From ‘runner’s high’ to ‘cognitive squats’... as blue Monday looms, Maria Lally looks at the wonder workouts that are best for brain health – and why they are so good for lifting our mood

No gym or equipment is required to boost your mood with exercise (iStock)

You’re a week in, so how is that January reset going? The intentions were good, but now blue Monday is officially looming (15 January) and the chances are that your motivation is waning. Work changes and relationship resolutions could be passing you by as real life gets in the way, which may be causing anxiety too. But the good news is that exercise is as much about improving mental health as it is about countering the effects of all the sofa-sitting, which is one more reason to refocus on the things that could really make a difference.

“My students laugh when I say this, but jogging is for your noggin,” says Damian Bailey, a professor of physiology and biochemistry and director of the Neurovascular Research Laboratory at the University of South Wales. “I used to run for Great Britain, several kilos ago, but I’m 54 now and I still train twice a day, every day, with Sundays off. And I can honestly say that exercise is by far and away the best medicine, especially when it comes to our minds.”

Traditionally, exercise studies have focused on the benefits to our hearts, lungs, and metabolism, says Professor Bailey. “The effects on our brain and mood have always been the poor sister in these studies, but we’re now starting to scratch the surface and finding out just how good exercise is for the brain in terms of things like dementia, but also depression, anxiety and emotional distress. And the older you get, the more bang for your buck you get in terms of exercise’s effects on the brain. We know that, in terms of exercise, we can turn our brain’s biological clock back by up to two decades, making them younger, healthier, increasing intelligence, and lifting our mood.”