Exercise as a buffer against difficulties with emotion regulation: A pathway to emotional wellbeing

Though exercise is associated with emotional health, it remains unclear what psychological processes account for this relationship. The present study explores emotional recovery from and responses to stress as links. It extends prior research by exploring whether poor response tendencies, such as a ruminative response style, could mediate the relationship between regular exercise and clinical symptoms, and whether acute exercise facilitates emotional recovery from a stressor in a heterogeneous sample comprising sedentary as well as active individuals and those reporting mood and anxiety symptoms. Participants completed questionnaires, performed 30 min of cycling or stretching, and underwent a stressful speech task. State affect and difficulties with emotion regulation and rumination were measured at various time points. Minimal regular exercise predicted more depression, anxiety, and stress, and cross-sectional data suggest that poor stress response tendencies (more habitual rumination and low coping self-efficacy) could partially mediate these relationships. Relative to stretching, prior exercise did not affect initial reactions to the stressor or reports of struggling to regulate one's emotions. However, it attenuated the effects that rumination and difficulties with emotion regulation had on delaying emotional recovery. Results suggest that enhanced emotional resilience to the prolonged effects of stress accounts, at least in part, for the emotional benefits of regular exercise. There appear to be benefits afforded by even single sessions of exercise and cumulative benefits from regular activity for coping with stress.