ArticleFrontiers in psychology2022
Too much is too little: Estimating the optimal physical activity level for a healthy mental state.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Mental Health in Ultra-Endurance Runners: A Systematic Review.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2023Pooled it
- Association Between Physical Activity and Anxiety in A Rural Chinese Middle-Aged and Older Cohort.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2026Article
- More is not always better: longitudinal associations and nonlinear dose-response relationships between physical activity, psychological capital, and positive body image among Chinese university students.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Assessment of depression and suicidal thoughts among female trail runners.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Associations between depressive symptoms and frequency, intensity, duration, and style of walking in survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake.PCN reports : psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2025Article
- The Inner Road to Happiness: A Narrative Review Exploring the Interoceptive Benefits of Exercise for Well-Being.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Physical Activity and Mental Health After COVID-19: The Role of Levels and Domains of Physical Activity.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Impact of Pediatric Leukemia on Maternal Anxiety, Depression, Sleep Quality, and Physical Activity.Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research · 2025Article
- The association between weekend warrior physical activity pattern and anxiety: evidence from a U.S. population-based study.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Mental health in children with and without ADHD: the role of physical activity and parental nativity.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2025Article
- Identifying anxiety and sleep problems, associated factors and sex differences in endurance and ultra-endurance runners.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Joint Trajectories of Physical Activity and Depressive Symptoms in Postmenopausal Women in China: A Group-Based Dual Trajectory Analysis of the Five-Year Longitudinal Study.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2025Article
- Determining the interconnection between personality and physical activity on perceived stress in a diverse sample.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Inverted-U association between daily steps and WHO-5 in university students: non-linear modeling and robustness checks.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- The impact of physical activity on self-emotion management among university students in Western China: the mediating roles of self-rated health and life satisfaction.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Public psychology and holistic approaches to prevention and treatment of depression.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Editorial: Advances in the understanding of the affective and cognitive effects of physical activity, exercise, and sports.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- The effects of physical activity on adolescents' depression: evidence from China.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Does physical activity influence health behavior, mental health, and psychological resilience under the moderating role of quality of life?Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Isoflurane Anesthesia's Impact on Gene Expression Patterns of Rat Brains in an Ischemic Stroke Model.Genes · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction: Although physical activity and exercise are generally thought to have favorable effects on mental health, excessive physical activity may have unfavorable effects. In this study, the associations between physical activity and the states of mental health with U-shaped dose-response curves were hypothesized, and the ranges of physical activity resulting in optimal effects on mental health were investigated. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 1,237 adult volunteers in 2017 and 2018. Of these volunteers, 526 participants validly answered the self-administered questionnaires asking about physical activity, depression, anxiety, resilience, insomnia vulnerability, and life events. A comparison of mental health measures by physical activity levels and quadratic equation model regressions were performed. Results: No significant linear associations between physical activity levels and mental health measurements were observed; however, the U-shaped, quadratic equation models indicated a significance. The following levels of physical activity per week optimized the mental health measurements values of the participants: 6,953 MET-minutes and 25.70 h for depression, 5,277 MET-minutes and 21.60 h for state anxiety, 5,678 MET-minutes and 22.58 h for trait anxiety, 25.41 h for resilience, and 9,152 MET-minutes and 31.17 h for insomnia vulnerability. Conclusion: Physical activities in the optimal range were associated with more favorable mental health measurements. Physical activities that were too much or too long and outside of the optimal range were associated with less favorable mental health measurements.
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