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So thanks everyone for posting here, I appreciate it.
So the context is that I'm a very sedentary person. I basically get up, go to my computer and stay there all day. I don't even stretch every hour or whatever. Over the last two (well, now three) days I've tried to go on short (like 10 minute) walks during lunch breaks and... Well, it's kinda working, I think? Or it could be a coincidence or a natural "high" in the sine wave of depression.
Interestingly, I've been told that I should feel better right after walking, but I don't really. Like, I feel basically the same as I do when I start the walk. Perhaps even a little worse because it just gives me a chance to worry about the things I worry about. If it does help, it seems to be in the next few hours or days.
Anyway, at the very least, exercise will stop me dying when I hit 40. :P Still, it is worrying the number of people that say that it eventually goes away when the "novelty wears off", so to speak. That tends to happen to me a lot with a bunch of the stuff I try; I lose motivation, break the habit and go back to how I used to be... Blegh.
Obviously I've seen all the articles saying it's amazing, but I've also seen articles saying it's overblown and a myth or that there's no evidence. Standard article stuff, really. Figured it might be a good discussion topic to get some activity going on Lemmy and spark some interesting discussions.
Starting a new habit is easy, keeping up with it longer than a couple months is hard. For what it's worth, regarding your question, I used to get in a 10 min walk every day, and that was the time I felt the least dragged down mentally and for the first time in my life had some actual motivation amd energy. It was never right after the walk, just kind of overall after I kept at it a few days. New job with different schedule nixed that, and I've been trying to get in some sort of exercise for years now with no luck, back to feeling bleh all the time.
Regarding the "novelty wears off" thing, another side: I've been running for two decades, starting from a sedentary lifestyle, but it only became fun later on. I started running shortly after a friend, probably out of some youthful ambition or inferiority complex, so I ran alone and picked routes where as few people as possible would see me struggle. I don't know why I didn't drop it like so many other things, but I learned to yearn for it and it's part of my identity now.