A large-scale review covering 10,189 participants across 184 independent samples has found that rage workouts, the popular practice of hammering tyres, pummelling punching bags, or running hard to burn off anger, do not reduce anger and may in some cases increase it. The rage workouts anger research, published in Clinical Psychology Review, is among the most comprehensive examinations of the anger-exercise relationship to date.
What the Rage Workouts Anger Research Actually Found
The review drew on 154 studies and was led by Dr Sophie L. Kjærvik of the Norwegian Center for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies and Dr Brad Bushman of Ohio State University. It compared calming activities (deep breathing, meditation, yoga) against vigorous ones, including jogging, cycling, and hitting a punching bag. According to Ohio State University News, the study was published online on 11 March in the journal.
The findings were consistent across genders, ages, and cultures. Calming, arousal-decreasing activities reduced anger and aggression with an effect size of g=−0.63, a measure that indicates a meaningful, reliable reduction. Vigorous exercise, by contrast, was overall ineffective at reducing anger.
‘Exercise has many well-known benefits for physical and mental health,’ Kjærvik notes. ‘But if your goal is to cool down when you’re angry, vigorous exercise is not the best choice.’
Why Intense Exercise Keeps the Body Primed for Anger
When anger strikes, the body is already in fight-or-flight: heart rate elevated, muscles tense, adrenaline circulating. Calming activities interrupt that chain by slowing the heart rate and releasing muscle tension. Intense exercise does not. ‘Doing intense exercise can keep your body in that heightened state rather than helping it calm down,’ Kjærvik says.
Bushman is more direct. ‘You should definitely exercise. It is good for your heart. But it is an ineffective means of managing anger. It will prolong or perhaps even increase angry feelings and aggressive impulses.’
Not all vigorous exercise behaved the same way in the data. Ball sports were an exception, appearing to reduce anger, possibly because they are social and sufficiently distracting that the mind has less space to replay the original trigger. Jogging was a different story: it raises physical arousal while leaving the mind free to ruminate.
‘Interestingly, not all exercise had the same effect,’ Kjærvik notes. ‘Ball sports seemed to help reduce anger, possibly because they are fun, social, and distracting. Jogging, meanwhile, was associated with higher levels of anger. This may be because jogging increases physical arousal while also providing an opportunity to keep thinking about whatever triggered the anger.’
The Rowing vs Combat Study
A separate study reinforces the pattern. Researchers first made participants feel angry through harsh, unfair feedback, then split them between a rowing workout and a martial-arts-style combat routine. Only the rowers calmed down. Movements that mimic fighting kept aggressive feelings going; non-fighting movements helped them fade.
The related claim that anger makes you physically stronger has a kernel of truth, but a modest one. Anger triggers adrenaline release, which can temporarily lower the perception of fatigue. ‘This doesn’t mean that anger gives you “superhuman strength,”‘ Kjærvik says. ‘Rather, it may help you push closer to your normal physical limit for a brief period.’
What to Do Instead
The practical takeaway from the review is straightforward: if the goal is to cool down, choose an activity that lowers the body’s arousal level rather than one that sustains it. Deep breathing, mindfulness, slow-flow yoga, and meditation all showed consistent results across the studies reviewed, working reliably where vigorous exercise did not.
That does not mean abandoning the gym when you are stressed. The evidence supports vigorous exercise for physical health, mood in general, and a wide range of mental health outcomes. It simply means that working yourself into a sweat when furious is unlikely to resolve the fury, and may leave you more agitated once you stop. The 154-study body of evidence behind the rage workouts anger research now offers a clear alternative: slow it down, breathe it out.
