A 2024 review of 75 studies involving over 8,000 people found that walking significantly reduced both depression and anxiety. The effects weren’t small. They were comparable to what you’d expect from antidepressants.
That comparison to medication isn’t just a figure of speech. In the MOTAR trial, researchers assigned 141 people with depression to either antidepressants or running sessions for 16 weeks. The results? Nearly identical. About 45% of the medication group recovered, compared to 43% of the runners. The runners also got healthier physically, which the medication group didn’t.
This doesn’t mean you should flush your pills and start jogging instead. Walking and running work best as complements to professional treatment, and for severe depression, they’re often not enough on their own. But the research is striking because it suggests something the “exercise is good for you” platitudes don’t quite capture: the effect is large enough to matter clinically, not just statistically.
How walking changes your brain
You’ve probably heard that exercise releases endorphins, which make you feel good. That’s true, but it’s only part of the story.
Dr. Wendy Suzuki, a neuroscientist at NYU, calls even a short walk “a wonderful bubble bath of neurochemicals.” A ten-minute walk boosts dopamine, serotonin, and other feel-good chemicals. But here’s the interesting part: when researchers block endorphins with medication, people still feel better after exercise. So something else is going on.
A 2015 study found that exercise triggers the body’s own cannabis-like compounds, particularly one called anandamide (from the Sanskrit word for “bliss”). Your body makes its own version of what’s in cannabis, and walking releases it.
The longer-term effects are even more striking. Walking actually helps grow new brain cells. A 2025 review found that moderate walking increases a protein called BDNF, which promotes brain cell growth in the area linked to memory and mood.
Depression is associated with shrinkage in this brain region. But a 2011 study found that regular walking reversed one to two years of this age-related shrinkage. The brain physically changes. This isn’t a metaphor.
Breaking the loop of negative thoughts
Brain chemistry is only part of the story. Something else happens during a walk, and it has to do with how we think.
You know that feeling when you can’t stop replaying a conversation or worrying about something? Psychologists call this rumination, and it’s one of the hallmarks of depression. A study found that a 90-minute nature walk reduced this kind of repetitive negative thinking. It also quieted activity in the part of the brain associated with self-focused worry. Urban walks didn’t have the same effect.
Why nature specifically? One theory is that cities and screens constantly demand your focused attention. You’re filtering noise, dodging obstacles, processing information. This kind of concentration is tiring. Natural environments ask less of you. Trees and birds and uneven ground hold your interest gently, without draining you. Your mind gets a chance to rest.
Researchers tested this by having people walk either through a park or along busy streets. The park walkers concentrated better afterward. The street walkers didn’t improve. Where you walk matters, not just that you walk.
There’s also something about the rhythm. Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. This alternating pattern engages both sides of the brain. Interestingly, this same kind of back-and-forth pattern shows up in EMDR, a therapy used to treat trauma. The founder of EMDR, Francine Shapiro, first noticed the effect during a walk in the woods. Whether walking produces similar benefits is harder to prove, but the connection is interesting.
How much walking do you actually need?
Less than you might think.
A 2024 study found that people who took 7,500 steps a day had 42% fewer depression symptoms than people who walked less. For every extra 1,000 steps, depression risk dropped about 9%.
But you don’t need to hit any magic number. Even 10-minute walks reduced anxiety by about 10%. And walking just 20 minutes a day (about 2.5 hours a week) was linked to 25% lower depression risk.
This matters because “starting an exercise routine” sounds hard. But a walk around the block? That’s doable. And according to the research, it’s not nothing.
The creativity bonus
In a 2014 experiment, researchers gave people creativity tests while they were either walking or sitting. Walking improved scores for 81% of participants.
The effect lasted even after they sat back down. Walking seemed to prime the brain for creative thinking. This is separate from the mood benefits. Something about moving through space helps ideas flow.
Walking means not scrolling
Here’s something obvious that’s easy to overlook: when you’re walking, you’re not on your phone.
A 2024 study found that people who blocked mobile internet for four weeks improved their attention spans by an amount equal to being “ten years younger” mentally.
Walking gives you both benefits at once: exercise and a screen break. You get the brain chemicals, the mental rest from nature, the break from negative thought loops, and the recovery from constant phone use. These effects stack.
This is why we built Skrid around earning screen time by walking. The walk isn’t punishment for wanting to use your phone. It’s something that makes you feel better, no matter what happens afterward.
The honest caveats
Walking is not a cure for depression. If you’re severely depressed, exercise alone usually isn’t enough. A 2024 review found exercise as effective as antidepressants and therapy, but mostly in moderate cases. For serious depression, walking works best alongside professional treatment, not instead of it.
The research isn’t perfect either. You can’t give someone a fake walk the way you can give them a sugar pill. So some of the benefit might be people expecting to feel better and then feeling better.
And not everyone can easily go for a walk. People with disabilities, chronic pain, or unsafe neighborhoods face real barriers. Women in unsafe areas walk about 1,100 fewer steps daily than those in safer places. Weather matters too: most people skip walks when it’s icy or rainy.
None of this means walking doesn’t help. It does, for many people. But the benefits aren’t equally available to everyone, and pretending otherwise wouldn’t be honest.
Walking vs. other exercise
Research found walking and jogging among the most effective exercises for depression. But walking has advantages jogging doesn’t. No special clothes. No gym. No shower after. You can do it at any fitness level, alone or with others, in ten-minute chunks throughout the day. (For those wanting more, Tai Chi walking adds a meditative element.)
The barrier is low. And when it comes to changing habits, the barrier is everything.
That’s the thinking behind tying screen time to steps. Walking isn’t necessarily the best exercise. But it’s the exercise most people can actually do, day after day, without making fitness their whole identity. The question isn’t what works best in a lab. It’s what works when you’re tired on a Wednesday night and the couch is right there.
Walking works then. Not always, but often enough to add up over time.