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DATE: September 12, 2026 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Weightlifting offers large antidepressant effects for young women with anxiety, regardless of intensity
A recent study suggests that both standard and low-intensity strength training can help alleviate depressive symptoms in young women who experience high levels of anxiety. The findings provide evidence that weightlifting is a viable option for improving mental health, regardless of how much physical effort is involved. The research was published in Journal of Affective Disorders.
Generalized anxiety disorder involves severe, persistent worry that interferes with daily life. Some people experience symptoms that mimic this condition but fall just short of an official diagnosis, known as subclinical or analogue anxiety. Women are twice as likely as men to experience anxiety and depression, and these conditions often occur together. While medication and talk therapy are standard treatments, they can present barriers like high costs or unwanted side effects.
Lead author Darragh O’Sullivan, an exercise psychology researcher at the University of Limerick, Ireland, explained the focus on this demographic. “We also expanded on our previous research by focusing on anxious young women, as women are [generally] less involved in muscle-strengthening exercise, and therefore may have greater potential for improvement,” O’Sullivan told PsyPost.
“Women are also at higher risk of Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, their comorbidity, and experience greater disability from their comorbidity, and therefore may benefit from early interventions, such as exercise, to treat mild symptoms,” O’Sullivan added.
As an alternative, physical exercise has emerged as a potential treatment. Strength training, which involves exercising with weights or resistance to build muscle, has shown particular promise. A 2018 meta-analysis indicated that strength training reliably reduces depressive symptoms across various populations. Building on this, a study covered by PsyPost in 2023 found that an eight-week weightlifting program lowered depressive symptoms in young adults when compared to a group placed on a waitlist.
However, comparing a workout program to a waitlist leaves a gap in our understanding. It is difficult to tell if the physical exertion is what helps, or if participants just benefit from getting out of the house, interacting with a coach, and expecting to feel better. To separate the physical benefits from the psychological boost of receiving attention, scientists needed to compare standard strength training against a very low-effort workout.
The current research was designed to test whether the actual intensity of the weightlifting changes how much a person’s mental health improves. “Although our previous trial demonstrated that guidelines-based resistance exercise training can result in large antidepressant effects when compared to a waitlist control, a key limitation of waitlist controls is that they cannot control for important factors like social contact or expectations for improvement,” O’Sullivan noted. “We therefore expanded on that by comparing the same resistance exercise training intervention to a low-intensity sham resistance exercise training attention control.”
The researchers recruited 55 young adult women with an average age of 22. All participants met the criteria for subclinical generalized anxiety disorder and were not currently engaged in regular strength training. After a brief familiarization period, the women were randomly divided into two groups for an eight-week program. Both groups completed twice-weekly, one-on-one supervised sessions consisting of exercises like squats, bench presses, and deadlifts.
The primary difference between the two groups was the amount of weight lifted. One group performed a moderate-to-high intensity routine, lifting loads set at 70 to 80 percent of their maximum capacity. The second group acted as a control condition, performing the exact same exercises but lifting only 20 percent of their maximum capacity. The authors tracked depressive symptoms using a standard 16-item questionnaire at multiple points during the study and one month after the program ended.
The results indicated that both groups experienced massive drops in their depressive symptoms. In the higher-intensity group, symptom scores fell by an average of 54 percent. Meanwhile, the low-intensity group saw their scores drop by 43 percent. The difference in mental health improvement between the two groups was not statistically significant.
This suggests that a low-intensity workout also yields a strong antidepressant effect for this population. As expected, physical strength changes did differ between the groups. The higher-intensity group increased their overall lifting strength by 41 percent, compared to a 21 percent increase in the low-intensity group. For both groups, the psychological benefits were largely maintained a month after the supervised training concluded.
The strong benefit seen in the low-effort group was somewhat unanticipated by the research team. “The magnitude of the antidepressant effect of low-intensity resistance exercise training exceeded our expectations, but is likely reflective of what is still a substantial change in exercise activity, from not engaging in resistance exercise training to completing low-intensity resistance exercise training twice per week for 10 weeks,” O’Sullivan said.
These results stand in slight tension with a 2024 meta-analysis covered by PsyPost. That review found that higher exercise intensity is generally linked to greater reductions in depression, though it focused on clinical major depression rather than subclinical anxiety in young women. On the other hand, the new findings are consistent with research covered by PsyPost in 2026. That earlier study looked at older women and similarly found that weightlifting reduced depressive symptoms regardless of whether the participants lifted heavy or light weights.
As with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind. The researchers point out that the low-intensity group might have actually received a mild physical training effect, rather than just acting as a psychological control. Because the low-intensity group did gain some physical strength, it is difficult to completely separate the psychological benefits of participating from the physical benefits of the movement itself.
Additionally, the study relied on self-reported questionnaires to track mental health changes. Such surveys can sometimes be influenced by a participant’s expectations or desire to show improvement to their trainers. The sample was also restricted to young adult women with a specific anxiety profile. This means the findings might not naturally extend to men, older adults, or people with a formally diagnosed clinical disorder.
Moving forward, the scientists suggest testing these programs in larger clinical settings. They hope to compare weightlifting directly against standard treatments like talk therapy or medication.
“Both higher- and lower-intensity resistance exercise training can result in large reductions in depressive symptoms in anxious young women,” O’Sullivan concluded. “Young women can benefit from even low-intensity resistance exercise training which requires less physical effort, but we do recommend gradual progression to higher intensity for additional health benefits.”
He added, “For those that are not involved in any resistance exercise, anything is better than nothing, including for mental health.”
The study, “Resistance exercise training compared to a low-intensity sham for depressive symptoms in young women with analogue generalized anxiety disorder: A randomized controlled trial,” was authored by Darragh O’Sullivan, Jennifer M. Rice, Mark Lyons, Brett R. Gordon, and Matthew P. Herring.
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