People with higher levels of physical fitness may be better able to manage stress, anxiety and anger than those who are less fit, according to a new study.
The research, published in the journal Acta Psychologica, found that individuals with better cardiorespiratory fitness were more emotionally resilient when exposed to stressful situations.
Researchers from the Federal University of Goiás, Brazil, studied 40 healthy young adults, dividing them into groups with above-average and below-average fitness levels.
Participants were shown both neutral images and disturbing pictures, including scenes of injuries and threatening situations, designed to trigger stress and other negative emotions.
Although all participants reported feeling more anxious after viewing the disturbing images, those with higher fitness levels remained significantly calmer.
The researchers found that participants with below-average fitness were 775 per cent more likely to experience an increase in anxiety from moderate to high levels after viewing the stressful images.
They also recorded greater increases in anger and poorer anger control than participants in the fitter group.
“Our findings indicate that individuals with higher cardiorespiratory fitness tend to exhibit lower anxiety and greater resilience when exposed to emotionally stressful stimuli,” the researchers said.
According to the study, regular physical activity may strengthen emotional resilience by improving the brain’s ability to cope with stress.
However, the researchers cautioned that the findings were based on a relatively small study involving only 40 participants.
They also noted that fitness levels were estimated using questionnaires rather than direct physical testing, while biological stress markers such as cortisol were not measured.
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The researchers said larger studies are needed to confirm whether improving physical fitness can consistently help people better manage stress, anxiety and anger.
Even so, they suggested that regular exercise could become a simple, drug-free strategy for supporting emotional well-being, alongside its well-known physical health benefits.
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