If you feel like your brain is running like your Chrome browser, with a hundred different tabs open and shifting between all of them but never closing any, you might get what it feels like to think with ADHD. It can look like struggling to focus in class or meetings (the “boring” stuff especially), losing track of time, feeling hypersensitive, or blurting out comments you later wish you kept to yourself.
Fortunately, there are lifestyle changes that help make daily life feel more manageable. One of the most underrated habits of all is exercise. With regular movement, your brain can shift between tasks and focus on what’s most important with more fluidity and ease.
While ADHD is different for everyone, there’s no denying the science that movement helps. Exercise can naturally declutter your mental space, boost your processing power, and maybe even build in a kind of “anti-virus” for intrusive thoughts.
In this article, we’ll explain exactly how your brain chemistry and structure change with both short bursts and long-term exercise. Whether you have an ADHD diagnosis or not, you can benefit from understanding the powerful impact physical activity has on your mood, focus, and problem-solving power. Plus, we’ll share practical tips to add more movement to your day. No matter how hard it’s been in the past to exercise regularly, we’ve got you covered.
We all have unique brains, with some of us tending more towards certain traits and characteristics. When a group of people show similarities, they tend to get labels. For example, people who have a harder time switching between tasks, paying attention or remembering certain things, or regulating their emotions might get the ADHD label (also known as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).
The thing with ADHD is, there’s such a wide range of signs and symptoms, which is why it’s said to have a spectrum. That means you might display just a few of its traits, some with less intensity, and others with more.
There’s also talk in the scientific community about how well we can really label ADHD. Its symptoms overlap with so many other issues, interpretations, and cultural factors, making it hard to diagnose. This includes anxiety, depression, poor nutrition, and lack of exercise and sleep. For example, there’s evidence that for many, when the environment works for them instead of against them, symptoms can begin to dissipate. For instance, studies show that social support is associated with lower symptom severity in adults. Too much stress, after all, makes life harder for everyone.
For many, symptoms get worse when going through a hard time, like changing careers, ending a relationship, or moving somewhere new. Not having proper social support, financial stability, or a sense of security can naturally make managing everyday life more difficult for anyone.
Feel free to check out specific mindfulness meditations for ADHD to gain more coping tools for managing stress.
Plenty of research is coming out showing the positive impact exercise has on ADHD symptoms. For example, a 2023 meta-analysis reviewing 44 studies showed that all types of physical activity were effective. Interesting, open-skill activities that make people react dynamically, like sports or games that make you adapt to changing situations, improved decision-making and cognitive flexibility. Meanwhile, closed-skill activities, like aerobics, helped improve memory, attention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.
Another 2024 review on adults showed that even exercise less than 30 minutes may still have a small positive effect on cognition. A study on different types of exercises for adults with ADHD also showed that cycling and mind-body yoga improved impulsivity.
Learn more about how to calm your ADHD brain with yoga through specific exercises.
Overall, it’s clear that movement has a positive impact. Exercise triggers a domino effect of brain changes, like shifts in neurotransmitters that help improve focus, reduce impulsivity, and improve cognitive processing. It’s like its own form of movement-based therapy, helping to balance out the highs and lows of symptoms.
Exercise shapes the way your brain chemicals and bodily hormones work. Overall, it works a bit similar to stimulants used for ADHD medications. For example, it boosts dopamine (a “feel good” neurotransmitter), as well as norepinephrine, which acts a bit like a stimulant (similar to ADHD medications).
Let’s dive in to see how it works exactly.
Over time, regular exercise helps remodel your brain's reward system, helping you to have higher circulating levels of dopamine (keeping you feeling stable and able to tackle life’s problems). Here are the main ways it helps boost your mood and cognition:
Together, these neurotransmitters help improve signaling, basically cleaning up the communication in your brain. It works to make the outside noise of life feel less overwhelming, which is similar to what ADHD medications do.
Specifically, norepinephrine makes you alert, think quicker, and helps control your emotions. Dopamine filters incoming stimuli and improves impulse control by stabilizing your reward system. It can also increase motivation to start tasks. Serotonin complements all this by making your mood more stable and improving how your brain processes new information. Put together, exercise makes your brain manage info better and improves overall communication.
Exercise also triggers neuroplastic processes that can actually shift the structure of your brain and how it works. That means it can eventually improve your neurotransmitter system and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). This increases and supports neuron survival and the growth of new neurons and synapses. Overall, exercise works to:
Cognition is another way to say the way you think, reason, remember, problem-solve, and learn. Exercise makes your thought processes go more smoothly by improving your memory and problem-solving. It kind of helps the brain filter out the stuff that isn’t necessary, letting you focus on what matters.
Exercise is also an outlet for excess energy, letting you release tension from your body. It can actually calm your brain and make it feel easier to just think clearly rather than spiral. In the end, it helps you become more productive and feel balanced.
Here’s what to keep in mind if you want to add exercise to your life, and make it last:
You can also check out these 6 Essential tips to master working out with ADHD.
People with ADHD often say that it’s so easy to get bored with routine (and yet routine is also helpful, so it’s a catch-22). That’s why workouts and routines that engage and stimulate are key for sustainability. Variety is truly the spice of life, which is why trainwell trainers make working out fun. They offer the structure and accountability we all need to build a new habit while adapting fitness plans to each person’s constantly fluctuating interests and needs.
Most of us feel so much better after a good workout, but getting started (and staying consistent) is hard. With trainwell, you get flexibility for schedules, energy levels, and plans to avoid the typical 3-weeks-in boredom. Want to see for yourself how much more engaging and interesting working out can be? Get the consistency, excitement, and support you need with trainwell by trying our free 14-day trial.
Written by Jennifer Olejarz.
