If you find yourself feeling a little blue, it may benefit you to drop down and do some push ups or head to the gym to lift some weights. That's because researchers at the University of Limerick in Ireland and Iowa State University teamed up to confirm the benefits of resistance exercise in the treatment of anxiety and depression.

They said there was "exciting evidence" regarding resistance exercises. It offers the benefits of being an accessible alternative therapy to improve anxiety and depression like more established therapies and it also can improve other important aspects of health at the same time.

"Anxiety and depressive symptoms and disorders are prevalent and debilitating public health burdens for which successful treatment is limited," said Limerick professor Matthew Herring. "The healthful benefits of resistance exercise training, or muscle-strengthening exercise involving exerting force against a load repeatedly for the purpose of generating a training response, are well-established. However, the potential impact of resistance exercise training in the treatment of anxiety and depressive symptoms and disorders remains relatively understudied."

Other studies with small sample sizes have indicated that resistance training does does improve anxiety and depression, but researchers are hoping larger studies can confirm that and also help reveal the mechanism through which the benefits are achieved.

"There is a critical need for confirmatory, definitive trials that adequately address limitations, including small sample sizes, but the limited evidence available to us provides initial support for the beneficial effects of resistance exercise training on these mental health outcomes, including increased insulin-like growth factor 1, cerebrovascular adaptations, and potential neural adaptations influenced by controlled breathing inherent to resistance exercise," Herring explained. "We are tremendously excited to have what we expect to be a highly cited snapshot of the promising available literature that supports resistance exercise training in improving anxiety and depression."

Herring went on to say, "Notwithstanding the limitations of the limited number of studies to date, there is exciting evidence, particularly from our previous and ongoing research of the available studies, that suggests that resistance exercise training may be an accessible alternative therapy to improve anxiety and depression," he added. "A more exciting aspect is that there is substantial promise in investigating the unknown mechanisms that may underlie these benefits to move us closer to maximizing benefits and to optimizing the prescription of resistance exercise via precision medicine approaches."

Click here to read more in the journal Trends in Molecular Medicine.