Some people find strength training is a better mood booster than other types of exercise.
While studies suggest weightlifting can have mental health benefits, know your limits and hire a trainer to avoid injury.
The thought of doing something as ordinary as going to the grocery store used to overwhelm Becky Stuto, who's experienced depression for about 13 years. "Depression … is like bricks or a lead cape that you wear that is just weighing you down," she says. "Every task is overwhelming."
But today when Stuto, a 45-year-old associate clinical social worker in Sacramento, California, cracks her last egg or depletes her dark chocolate stash, a trip to the grocery store seems like what it is: something she, like everybody else, simply has to do now and then. "I'm OK with it," she says. "I feel lighter; my way of thinking is more proactive and not just stagnant."
