Working through your emotions: Exercise repairs the experience of positive and negative emotions through cognitive emotion regulation after a recalled stressor

Exercise is suggested to help regulate emotions; however, its role in the underlying cognitive emotion regulation process—starting with a cue, cognitive actions to modify emotions, and desirable emotional changes—has not yet been demonstrated. This study therefore investigates whether (a) exercise up-regulates positive emotions and down-regulates negative emotions after recalling a stressor; (b) cognitive emotion regulation strategies mediate these effects; and (c) this process is more pronounced in emotionally intelligent (EI) individuals. University students (N = 134) recalled a stressor and were randomly allocated to one of three 30-min tasks during which they reflected on this stressor: (a) exercise; (b) puzzle-solving (active control); or (c) rest (passive control). EI was measured at the start (T0). Four different types of emotions—activated and deactivated, both positive and negative—were measured before (T1) and after (T2) after the 30-min tasks. Cognitive emotion regulation during the tasks was measured immediately after (T2) the 30-min tasks. Results show that participants in the exercise and active control condition reported higher positive activated emotions at T2 than passive controls. Exercisers used more cognitive emotion regulation strategies compared to active and passive controls, explaining their higher positive and lower negative activated emotions at T2. EI had a minor influence on the proposed process. Altogether, this study suggests that exercise optimises the cognitive emotion regulation process, which helps to repair emotions after a stressor.