Exercise Reduces Anxiety

State anxiety has been shown to acutely diminish after individual episodes

of exercise (Raglin & Morgan, 1987).

Aerobic exercise has been demonstrated to help in the treatment of adults

with moderate to severe panic disorder (Broocks et al., 1998) .

Majority of studies have suggested benefit of exercise in mitigating stress

related symptoms across a variety of study populations, including

nonclinical, clinical and medically compromised adult populations (Lion,

1978; Bahrke & Morgan, 1978; Blumenthal et al., 1982; Prossner et al.,

1981).

In a more recent study of adults with significant anxiety sensitivity, a 2

week exercise intervention significantly reduced anxiety sensitivity relative

to no treatment control, an effect which mediated the benefits of exercise

on negative affect states including anxious and depressed mood (Smits et

al., 2008) .