We made it! 2026 is officially here. With the festive season behind us and the goal setting started, our expectations for the coming year can produce quite the mixed bag of emotions. The heat of excitement and anticipation is often quickly cooled by anxiety and stress as we surge forward into January and beyond. What role should we expect a renewed commitment to exercise and self-improvement to play in this year’s story of our stress levels? Physical training is inherently demanding, so is it part of the feel-good solution, or part of the anxiety cocktail? Obviously most of us perceive that a commitment to a training regimen is part of a healthy lifestyle, so it must be a good thing, but the relationship between physical exertion and anxiety is more nuanced than one might think.
Of course we already know the well documented physical performance benefits of resistance exercise (strength training); increases in lean muscle mass, bone density and endurance are all results we can expect. Although a number of studies have shown us that aerobic exercise can produce mental health benefits (improved cognition and mood) it’s only more recently that researchers have specifically examined the effects of resistance training on mental health. As you might already expect, according to the latest studies, we now have definitive proof of the anxiolytic effects that even just a single session of strength training can produce! Yes, lifting some heavy(ish) loads leads to lower anxiety.
We can be confident that resistance training goes beyond helping us just build muscle and strengthen tissue; it also drives changes to our neurobiological systems related to mental health and anxiety-related outcomes. More research is needed, but it is hypothesized that the cortisol modulating effects of resistance training could have an effect on the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis. Anxiety is often observed when there is a prolonged activation of the stress response along the HPA axis, but the hormonal effects associated with strength training appear to help us actually regulate this stress response.
All this is quite fascinating, but beyond recognizing that strength training is good for your brain as well as your body (something we were already pretty sure of), what actionable data comes from this research? Well, I’m so glad you asked! As a coach and program designer, I find that the most interesting results of this research are indeed actionable and they relate to training intensity and frequency.
Training Frequency
First let’s address the frequency component. If there are anxiety-reducing benefits associated with a single bout of resistance exercise, can this effect be sustained over longer term exposure to the stimuli? In other words, do we become more used to the effects of training and therefore derive less of a benefit from repeated exposure? Fortunately the answer is “No,” there doesn’t seem to be a drop in effectiveness just because we keep doing it. We can continue to reap the hormonal benefits triggered by strength training without a reduction associated with repeated exposure to the same incentive.
With that said, we must consider the importance of proper recovery for our central nervous systems and our tissues though, so keep in mind that you can only improve from what you can recover from. In a separate study specific to cortisol levels, a 48 hour recovery between bouts of resistive exercise proved optimal to ensure proper cortisol modulation. Yes, we do sometimes have to train on consecutive days, but that’s where waviness of intensity and specialized exercise variety come in. At Breakthrough, our strength programming usually follows an alternating Day A / Day B movement pattern format, and by incorporating Endurance and Yoga classes, our members often achieve a varied A / B / C / D training schedule. This serves to help reduce the risks of over doing it if we have to train on consecutive days, and minimally interferes with the hormonal aspects of recovery.
Training Intensity
If frequent resistance training reduces anxiety levels, does the intensity at which we work matter in this context? As it turns out, when it comes to provoking anxiolytic effects, intensity does play a critical role. Intensity modulation is already a key component in our work to increase strength and just as there are optimal intensity levels for provoking a strength response, there are optimal levels for managing stress responses as well. Surprisingly, the positive mental health benefits can be obtained from diverse intensity levels, reinforcing the importance of careful periodization and load selection. For example, during the research, lifting sessions focused on 45% of a trainee’s single rep max (a perceptibly ultra light session indeed!) produced palpable decreases in anxiety that lasted up to 120 minutes after the session was over, but those beneficial effects were absent after sessions focused on just 30% (very light) levels of intensity.
In another study, training performed at 50% of the single rep max intensity level was shown to produce decreases in anxiety but this did not occur at the 80% intensity level. It would appear that strength work that focuses at intensities above 80% of the trainee’s one rep max is less likely to drive a decrease in anxiety when compared to lifting at moderate or lower intensities (50–70% 1RM). Training at lower intensities can be such a hard sell with many athletes, but a proper dose of low to moderate intensity sessions actually form the backbone of many of our most successful programs. If given the choice, some trainees would eschew low intensity sessions entirely, thinking that they are of little overall benefit, and that progress is only made at higher levels of intensity. Fortunately good coaches already preach that tactical planning to achieve an average intensity level that is neither too low or too high (usually around 73%) is a must to safely reach new levels of strength. Now we also know that the mental and emotional boost achieved from those sessions with loads even under 70% are also a huge part of what sets us up for mental success in the higher intensity sessions!
As 2026 gets going and we’re working through yet another period of heightened stress in this fast-paced modern world, we can at least be confident that a consistent training regimen including frequent low to moderate intensity level sessions is proven to help reduce our anxiety levels, build strength, fitness and improve the overall quality of life. Our Breakthrough Team has always believed in the many benefits of strength training, but researchers now consider that we have enough data to begin making clinical recommendations for the design and implementation of resistance exercise-based treatments for anxiety disorders! If we have to expect some stress in our lives this new year, at least we know we can fight back by lifting some weights, getting stronger, tougher and even reducing anxiety with our training.