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Stopping Exercise Has Adverse Psychological Effects

Withdrawal from aerobic exercise can be bad for your fitness and, in turn, bad for your mood.

According to research findings and widespread clinical observations, depressive symptoms are common after the cessation of regular aerobic exercise and are more common in sedentary than in physically active individuals. To study the nature of these associations, investigators randomized 40 regular exercisers (average age, 31; 55% female) who were not in psychiatric or psychological treatment to withdraw from or to continue their usual aerobic exercise regimens (30 minutes, 3 times/week) for 2 weeks.

Compared with exercisers, those who stopped exercise reported significantly increased fatigue and somatic depressive symptoms after 1 week and modest but significant increases in cognitive-affective symptoms of depression after 2 weeks. Somatic symptoms at week 1 predicted the magnitude of cognitive-affective symptoms at week 2, independent of baseline depressive symptoms or other potential confounders. Cardiopulmonary measurements of fitness indicated that the magnitude of decreased fitness over the two weeks correlated with decreased mood. After adjustment for baseline factors, the magnitude of decreased fitness correlated with fatigue symptoms.

Comment: This research documents that stopping aerobic exercise affects fitness and fatigue and that somatic symptoms precede cognitive-affective symptoms. None of the changes in mood symptoms reached clinically significant levels. Researchers need to examine potential mechanisms, including the effects of exercise withdrawal, on the autonomic nervous and immune systems. Other questions concern the neuroendocrinologically mediated relationships among fitness, fatigue, and depressive symptoms in chronically sedentary individuals; the possible vulnerability of individuals with mood disorders to changes in physical activity; and the potential salutary effects of exercise on fatigue and other depressive symptoms in mood-disordered individuals. Keep exercising if you can.

— Joel Yager, MD

Published in Journal Watch Psychiatry May 3, 2006

Citation(s):

Berlin AA et al. Depressive mood symptoms and fatigue after exercise withdrawal: The potential role of decreased fitness. Psychosom Med 2006 Mar/Apr; 68:224-30.

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