Integrating Mental Health Knowledge in Exercise

"Decades of research attest to the psychological benefits of exercise, documenting improved psychological functioning for specific disorders as well as biological systems. Notable trends include the reduction of psychological symptoms (e.g., anxiety, depression), increases in self-esteem, facilitation of neurogenesis, enhancement of cognitive functioning, and improvements in stress response. The majority of these studies call for increased utilization of exercise interventions within clinical practice. However, decades of exercise research and the two existing studies on practice habits suggest that exercise continues to be widely underutilized. The data suggest that clinicians believe exercise is beneficial; they report high confidence and rates of utilization in exercise interventions; however, they also report low levels of education in exercise psychology."