Can Exercise Help You Heal From Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)?

Physical exercise is good for both your physical and emotional wellbeing — but can it also, actually, help you reduce the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or even represent your path to remission? Here's what you need to know about the role exercise may play as you try to cope with PTSD.

Can regular exercise or physical activity have a positive impact on your quality of life with PTSD?

Aerobic exercises — which would include walking, jogging, swimming, cycling, rope-jumping, squats, and much more — have particularly been highlighted as having the power to reduce the severity of PTSD symptoms. It's no surprise that this kind of exercise can boost mental health, given the fact that aerobic (or "cardio) workouts are also already known to improve mood and help fight anxiety and depression. 

On an obvious level, frequent exercise will help keep you physically healthier — reducing your risk of obesity and heart disease, increasing your fitness levels, and helping you sleep better, for instance.  

Both civilians and combat veterans with PTSD may benefit from regular cardio workouts in some unexpected ways, though:

• Hyperarousal, as a key PTSD symptom, often triggers a rapid heartbeat, sweating, and other physical symptoms. In time, people with PTSD may come to find these physical sensations triggering in themselves. Cardio exercise, which causes these same reactions, has been shown to have the potential to help desensitize trauma survivors to these cues, in turn reducing their hyperarousal symptoms. 
• Cardio exercise may improve your cognitive power and even reduce some of the memory gaps many people with PTSD have. 
• Aerobic workouts may even normalize the levels of various stress hormones — like cortisol — in your body, which could be important since they tend to be altered in people with PTSD.
• Exercise may reduce levels of inflammation in your body, which again have been shown to be elevated in many people with post-traumatic stress disorder. 

What's more, one study even associated regular exercise with a lower suicide risk, likely both because exercise can directly reduce depressive symptoms (also common in people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder) and because many exercise programs have a social component that can also help fight depression. 

If you want to broaden your definition of exercise a little, various studies of differing qualities have also explored mindfulness-based stretching, breathing exercises, and yoga (including meditative components) as a potential pathway towards healing from post-traumatic stress disorder. It seems like all these things can have a positive impact.  

What should this bit of information mean for you if you have PTSD?

It's not uncommon for people with post-traumatic stress disorder to avoid more mainstream treatments for PTSD — medications and various talk therapy programs — for reasons that boil down to "personal preference" in one way or another. You may not be ready for talk therapy, may be afraid of the stigma attending it can bring, or have negative experiences with the medical and bureaucratic worlds that give you reason to believe therapy would not help you. You may have completely different reasons for rejecting therapy, like a lack of time. 

Some of the studies we explored looked at exercise programs as possible replacements for psychological and pharmacological treatment options, though — because they're cheaper, easier to implement, and much less likely to involve any sort of wait list. This is where we want to tell you not to be fobbed off with just an exercise program if you actively want talk therapy and really feel you could benefit from it. Exercise if you can, sure, but fight for your need to access therapy if your health program or veterans' service tries to tell you exercise alone will help you recover. 

What should you know before you start an exercise program if you have PTSD?

Exercise or certain exercise settings may be triggering for some people living with post-traumatic stress disorder. You may not feel able to attend a program or a gym with a large number of people, you may not feel able to work one-on-one with a personal trainer, or you may not feel able to, for instance, go jogging by yourself. Your exact needs depend on who you are, what kind of trauma you experienced, and what your physical limitations may be, but it's always good to assess potential triggers before you start an exercise plan. 

If you attend an exercise program designed for people with PTSD, the instructors are more likely to understand your needs, including being familiar with dissociative reactions, mood fluctuations, and potential triggers — but if you plan your workouts by yourself, you have greater autonomy. This, too, is something to consider. 

As with everyone else, if you haven't been physically active in a while, be realistic about your goals. Start with lighter workouts and increase the intensity and duration over time. Listen to your body, both physically and mentally, and take breaks when you need to.  If you have chronic pain, are physically disabled, or have a chronic medical condition, talk to your doctor before starting a workout program and make sure the program you choose is safe for you and meets your physical needs.

A final word

Exercise probably isn't going to send your PTSD packing all on its own, but it could certainly lessen its severity and help you feel more confident and in control. Since its also good for your physical health, exploring what kinds of cardio exercise you feel you could incorporate into your life is very much a good idea. People who are willing and able to attend psychotherapy should, however, strongly consider adding exercise to their existing treatment rather than ditching therapy to work out instead.