From seasonal depression to anxiety, Steve James has dealt with every kind of mental health issue in his 22 years as a frontline worker, and for him, there’s nothing like the release he and the men he helps feel when they hit the boxing pads.
“When you’re doing pads it’s almost a mindfulness exercise. If you start thinking of anything else, you will miss,” says James, who works with South Moreton Boxing Club owner John Houston to help men feeling the creep of depression and associated issues. Their initiative The Cornermen has helped more than 90 people this year. The Oxfordshire gym is the perfect, real-life example of how exercise can help with a slide in mood during the dark winter months.
A 2015 Canadian study found that particularly for those in the Northern Hemisphere brain chemistry changes for some in the darker months and a debilitating seasonal depression can descend. It is not considered a separate condition from any other depression but one that returns as the season changes (some suffer from summer depression).
Exercise can improve depression symptoms as well as prevent depression from occurring. What the boxing scheme proves is that it works on a number of levels including the social. Gym owner Houston says, “Men aren’t very good at talking and often resist counselling. They do pads and we’re working on a skill, it’s explosive exercise and you need gaps. During the gaps, people talk.”
There is also the sense of achievement and pride that exercise can bring. “People realise that if they put effort in things will happen and they learn mental toughness. They think I know this is gonna hurt and I will feel better afterwards.” says James.
Dr Lynette Craft is a senior director of research and health policy in the US and has studied depression and exercise. She says for some it can be as effective as medication and the evidence is strong for its effect on so many aspects of the illness.
“Neurotransmitters – serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine – are altered in people who have depression and with exercise we return or get closer to how the brain should be functioning,” says Craft. “We also know neuroplasticity helps, there are areas of the brain that change with depression and with exercise, we grow new connections.”
The scientific evidence aligns perfectly with the experience of the Cornermen scheme. Craft adds, “There is a social interaction component where if you exercise with other people. If people have depression, they tend to stay at home and don’t interact as much. Exercise also offers the opportunity for positive affirmation – we set a goal we see we’re achieving that goal.”
Her own research dealt with the tendency we have to lose ourselves in circular thoughts when depression takes hold. She found that exercise helped cut unhealthy rumination.
So, what kind of exercise is the most effective defence or treatment? A 2023 meta-study carried out by Dr Ben Singh in Australia found that all exercise benefitted depression but high intensity delivered the greatest results. His study found that “low-intensity physical activity may be insufficient for stimulating the neurological and hormonal changes that are associated with larger improvements in depression and anxiety.”
