Strength Training and Mental Health: 8 Proven Benefits

Key Points:

• Strength training has numerous mental health benefits, and may be as effective as pills or therapy in some cases.
  • It improves mood.
  • It reduces anxiety.
  • It improves sleep.
  • It enhances self-esteem.
  • It decreases symptoms of depression.
  • It increases cognitive function.
  • It promotes stress relief.
  • It may help fight substance abuse and addiction.

This article is for informational purposes and is not a substitute for professional care.

What Are the Benefits of Strength Training for Mental Health?

If a pill existed that, with consistent use, lifted your mood, sharpened memory, and built muscle in 30 minutes, I bet you’d take it. Good news: strength training (doing exercises that make your muscles work harder so they get stronger) does all three—and in this article, you’ll learn both how and why, with the science to prove it.

Just a couple of strength training sessions a week can boost confidence and mood, reduce anxiety, and cut depressive symptoms significantly. Along with all the physical health benefits you probably already know about.

For example, the World Health Organization clearly states that physical activity is “associated with reduced symptoms of anxiety and reduced symptoms of depression” and recommends you do some form of muscle-strengthening activities at least three times weekly.¹

Let’s take a closer look at the science behind the words with the top 8 (in no particular order) benefits of strength training for mental health.

Boost Mood and Happiness

Strength training triggers the release of endorphins (your brain’s feel-good chemicals), hormones, and other feel-good brain neurotransmitters that boost your mood.²

You have probably heard of (or experienced) the “runner’s high,” an almost euphoric feeling after endurance training (at least once you’re in good enough shape not to just have to focus on breathing).

Lifting weights can also give your mood a boost, both right after a workout and long-term.

Almost everyone gets a mood boost from lifting. It’s effective for the average adult and older adults. For instance, a 12-week study showed significantly decreased negative affect in the strength-training group of twenty 65+ men and women. Even folks with health conditions like fibromyalgia and people recovering from substance abuse disorders benefit.^{3 4 5}

Key takeaway: Regular strength training reliably boosts mood and happiness in all populations.

Join close to 1M users and track your workouts, gain strength, and boost your mood with StrengthLog for free:

Reduce Anxiety

Strength training can calm that hamster wheel of worry in your brain. It’s like every rep is a tiny eviction notice for anxiety.

There is a lot of scientific support for lifting weights for anxiety. For example, a big meta-analysis with more than 900 total participants found that weight training improves anxiety symptoms among both healthy participants and participants with a physical or mental illness to the point where it is comparable to traditional and accepted therapies.⁶

Studies looking at adolescents (in particular) and older adults are in agreement: strength training is very effective for anxiety.^{7 8}

Some studies have found that training at a moderate intensity at ~70% of your 1RM is best for anxiety.⁹ That’s a weight you can lift ~12 times, which means that bodybuilding-style training and general fitness are tops for anxiety.

Find your one-rep max with our calculator!

And it’s not just long-term relief. According to a 2025 study, a session of moderate- to high-intensity lifting can immediately reduce anxiety symptoms in healthy, physically active individuals, although how effectively differs from person to person.¹⁰

From a personal perspective, I’ve had many clients and known many people over the years who have reported feeling less anxious and more relaxed in their daily lives after hitting the weights, lining up with what the big meta-analyses find.

Key takeaway: Strength training has been shown to significantly reduce symptoms of anxiety, as much as traditional therapy for some.

Improve Sleep

Lifting heavy = sleeping heavy. Strength training is like a bedtime story for your brain, except instead of fairy tales, it’s squats and push-ups.

Sleep is essential for your mental health. A lack of quality sleep is like trying to charge your phone with a frayed cable. It might work for a while, but eventually, something’s gonna spark, and not in a good way.

Strength training improves sleep quality.^{11 12} You fall asleep faster and sleep longer and better, with fewer disturbances. In general, that is. Not everyone’s sleep responds the same way to different things. But if you have sleeping issues, hitting the weights is well worth trying.

Research shows that weight training works wonders for sleep quality regardless of who you are: young, old, male, female, healthy, or with chronic health conditions.¹³

While the researchers don’t understand exactly how weight lifting (and exercise in general) is so effective for your sleep, they have pinpointed lower levels of stress hormones, oxidative stress & inflammation, neurotransmitter and body temperature regulation, muscle repair processes, and stress reduction as likely factors.

It also goes hand in hand with the previous benefit, that time in the weight room dials down any mind-racing nighttime anxiety.

Both morning and evening strength training can boost sleep quality, but morning sessions (at least earlier in the day) are generally more effective.¹⁴ If you hit the hay right after the gym late in the evening, you might be too wound up to fall asleep in a timely manner.

I like to say that regular weight training creates a positive cycle: 1) exercise improves your sleep, 2) good sleep boosts your mood and stress levels, 3) a good mood and a rested body and mind make for great workouts, and 4) rinse and repeat back to #1.

Key takeaway: Strength training can improve sleep quality and duration by promoting deep rest and helping you regulate sleep patterns over time.

Read more:

>> Sleep: The Easiest Way to Muscle Growth and Fat Loss

Enhance Self-Esteem

Strength training doesn’t just build muscles. It also pumps up your self-confidence and makes you believe in yourself. That you can handle challenges and reach your goals.

Some early studies found that this mainly applied to men and young adults, but more recent research expands those findings to people of all ages, from teenagers to older adults, from athletes to office workers.^{15 16 17 18 19}

That boost in confidence comes from several places:

• Strength training gives you very tangible progress you can put your hands on. And it does so faster than most things; you can really see and feel the progress on an almost weekly basis, especially if you’re new to lifting. One week, you’re struggling to do five push-ups. A month later, you’re cranking out fifteen like it’s no big deal. That kind of visible, felt progress tells your brain, “Hey, I can do hard stuff.” And your brain eats that up.
• Regular resistance exercise can help you feel better about how your body looks. It can boost your confidence, help you like your appearance more, and make you feel less nervous about how others see your body.²¹
• It also builds a sense of ownership over your body. Instead of focusing on flaws or limitations, strength training reframes the narrative: your body becomes capable and adaptable, and your brain becomes less concerned about what your body looks like and more about what it can do.
• And remember that neurotransmitter cascade we discussed earlier? They make you feel good, but they also make you feel capable, and that confidence spills into everything else.

Key takeaway: Strength training enhances self-esteem by improving physical strength, body image, and self-confidence, leading to a more positive self-perception.

Lower Depression Symptoms

A vast body of evidence, with numerous reviews and extensive meta-analyses over the past decade, agrees that strength training is very effective for reducing mild to moderate symptoms of depression.

So much so that some experts consider it as effective or more effective than psychotherapy and pharmaceutical therapy and could be an alternative or a secondary treatment used alongside a primary one.

For example, one systematic review of 87,508 adults found that muscular strength is inversely related to depressive symptoms.²² And a 2024 meta-analysis of 218 studies concluded that exercise is awesome against depression and that strength training (especially high-intensity) is a top choice that could be considered a core treatment along with psychotherapy and antidepressants.²³

It’s not a magic cure, obviously, but it’s a heck of a good ally. Part of it is the chemical changes we talked about earlier, but there’s also a big psychological component. And it’s helpful for most people, from the average person, young or old, regardless of health status.^{25 26 27 28}

For example, a 2025 meta-analysis looking at 27 different studies with over 3,000 kids and teens from 11 countries ranked strength training as the most effective exercise for reducing depressive symptoms.²⁹

I should mention that some of the studies on resistance training for depression included in meta-analyses are small and rarely blinded (although it sounds very hard to blind exercise intervention; you know if you’re training or not).

Best of all, it has no side effects apart from a stronger and more capable body (besides, you get the antidepressant impact even if you don’t build a lot of muscle and strength just from the lifting alone).

Always consult a qualified clinician before making changes to your treatment plan, but one thing is for sure: more and more research finds strength training very effective for depression, and those studies are growing in numbers all the time.

Key takeaway: Strength training may decrease mild to moderate depression symptoms as effectively as therapy or pills.

Boost Cognitive Function

A 2025 meta-analysis shows that strength training outlifts other types of exercises when it comes to cognitive function.³⁰ Want more detail? We broke the study down in a 28-minute podcast episode—give it a listen:

That’s right: lifting isn’t just for your biceps; it buffs your brain, improving memory, decision-making, and executive functions like attention and conflict resolution.

These positive effects start early; a 2025 meta-analysis recommends that all adolescents participate in exercise like resistance training to promote cognitive development.³¹ They happen in everyone from young people to old, and in both healthy and cognitively impaired adults.^{32 33 34 35 36 37 38}

How does it work? According to research from the last decade:

• First, strength training increases the production of brain-friendly chemicals, such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which is like Miracle-Gro for your neurons. It helps create new connections and protect the ones you already have.
• It also boosts blood flow. More blood to your brain means more oxygen and nutrients, like feeding your brain a smoothie of focus, memory, and clarity. After a workout, you have probably noticed that you feel more alert and mentally sharp (although some hardcore lifters might say that if you can think straight after a workout, you haven’t trained hard enough!), and that’s not just placebo. Studies have shown improved executive function, which includes planning, organizing, decision-making, and other brainy stuff.
• Weight training also literally builds your brain along with your muscle mass, at least growing more gray matter, strengthening the connections in white matter, and improving how different parts of your brain work together.

Together, these changes help you think and remember things better.

Key takeaway: Strength training improves cognitive function by increasing blood flow to the brain, enhancing memory and focus, and increasing grey matter volume.

Promote Stress Relief

The effects of strength training on stress relief haven’t been as thoroughly researched as things like depression and anxiety.

• That being said, several smaller studies suggest that it significantly reduces stress in adolescents and has beneficial effects on posttraumatic stress symptoms (particularly avoidance and hyperarousal).³⁹
• In addition, one study with 45 healthy men found reduced cortisol levels after nine months of lifting and concluded that resistance training might be a good alternative to classic relaxation interventions with the added bonus that it builds up your body at the same time.⁴⁰
• In high-level athletes, though, strength training and the constant need to perform can lead to increased stress if you don’t balance it with enough rest and recovery, both physical and mental, but that goes for any sport, in my opinion.⁴¹

However, almost 40 years in the fitness business tells me that strength training has so much more to offer for stress relief than studies (so far, likely because there aren’t many looking directly at it) have found.

I have seen literally hundreds of examples of people who hit the iron to get rid of pent-up stress or prevent it from building up in the first place. For many people, the gym is like therapy, with more sweat and fewer awkward silences, but just as effective.

Key takeaway: Strength training promotes stress relief by reducing cortisol levels, releasing endorphins, and providing a healthy outlet for tension and anxiety.

Help With Addiction and Substance Abuse

Strength training isn’t a cure for addiction, but it can help when used alongside other treatments like therapy and medication (and aerobic exercise, which has been more thoroughly researched).

• It likely does this by modulating dopamine and serotonin systems (the same systems drugs hijack) and helping the brain start to heal. Research on animals also found that strength training makes drugs like heroin and cocaine less rewarding by changing how specific brain receptors work. Animal research is preliminary, and it’ll be interesting to see what future research discovers.^{42 43}
• Also, reducing stress and anxiety, which strength training excels at, are common triggers for relapse.
• Last but not least, lifting can be a very rewarding social experience, and training with others can build both friendships and support. Becoming “someone who works out” can help leave behind an old identity tied to substance use.

There is still a lot of work to do and a lot of research to crunch, but strength training is promising for addiction and substance abuse. And programs like Phoenix (a sober active community) already include strength (and other forms of exercise and fitness) in addiction recovery.⁴⁴

Key takeaway: Strength training helps with addiction and substance abuse by providing structure, reducing cravings through mood regulation, and supporting mental and physical recovery.

How to Begin Strength Training for Better Mental Health

Close to 1 million lifters track their workouts in StrengthLog. Download it to get started with the best programs for free:

Do you need to become a powerlifter or bodybuilder to reap the mental health benefits of strength training? No, you don’t. Even though some studies show even greater benefits if you challenge yourself with heavier weights, the mental health benefits kick in regardless of how heavy or often you lift and at all fitness levels.

Even 2–3 strength sessions per week, using your body weight, resistance bands, free weights, or machines, can work wonders.

If you’re new to strength training or thinking about starting, I recommend a beginner workout routine. Some excellent examples are:

• The Beginner Barbell Workout Plan: a beginner-friendly program using barbells only.
• Our Beginner Machine Program: the same but with machines.
• The Beginner Strength Training Workout for Women at Home: a great program that doesn’t require any equipment (and yes, men can follow it, too!)
• The Beginner Strength Training Program: a mix of free weights and machines.

Here’s what the Beginner Barbell Program looks like:

You train A B A one week, and B A B the week after, alternating workouts each time you go to the gym.

All these programs are available for free in our workout tracker, StrengthLog. The app is also 100% free, and we won’t nag you about paying or force ads on you in the app.

Even better, it is a full-fledged workout log, so you can use it to track your progress. That’s one of the most important things to see quick results from your training, and with StrengthLog, it is both free and easy. Like a little personal trainer in your pocket that does everything a real personal trainer does except scream “one more rep” at you or take your money.

Frequently Asked Questions About Lifting Weights for Mental Health

Strength Training for Mental Well-Being: Final Rep

Strength training is a powerful tool for mental well-being, boosting mood, reducing anxiety & depression, improving sleep, and building confidence, one squat at a time.

Over the past (almost) 40 years I’ve spent in the gym, I’ve seen many examples of this myself, from gym buddies with stress and anxiety from real-life stuff to clients with clinically diagnosed depression.

In my experience it nearly always helps with mood and depression symptoms, alleviating anxiety, or other things mental health-related, like simply feeling better and having higher energy levels in everyday life. And the data back the benefits of exercise up.

Many studies looking at strength training and mental health conclude that “more research is needed”, and that is certainly true. But! Personally, I think that there is already more than enough scientific oomph that anyone should consider picking up the weights. And not just in the “I feel better after a workout” kind of way, but long-term.

So next time life feels heavy, try lifting something heavier. Physical strength and mental strength awaits you.

• If you have no issues but want your brain health to be the best it can be, and for mild to moderate mental health problems, strength training can likely make a big change on its own in many cases.
• For more severe cases (like major depression or PTSD), it’s more like a solid co-pilot, not the whole plane, and therapy and/or medication might need to ride shotgun.

That being said, research supports strength training for mental health for pretty much everyone.

Thanks for reading, and see you in the gym!

• To learn more about mental health, check out organizations like the National Institute of Mental Health (MINH) and the American Psychological Assocation (APA).
• If you’re in crisis, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.

Last reviewed: 2025-11-03

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