Rage Workouts Can Regulate Your Emotions. Here’s How to Do It.

It’s a stressful time to be alive. You’re juggling multiple jobs, answering emails in the grocery store, and trying to squeeze self-care in between doomscrolling and errands. Free time doesn’t feel free, and even relaxing can feel like something to check off a list. Add in the daily firehose of awful news, and yeah—people are angry.

That anger? It’s valid. And it’s not something you have to suppress. In fact, one of the best things you can do with it is to move.

“Different types of movement can support working through anger in different ways,” says Emily Anhalt, PsyD, a psychologist and emotional fitness consultant. More intense workouts—like running, boxing, or even rage-dancing in your kitchen—activate your body’s natural fight-or-flight response.

That physical intensity helps you burn through the adrenaline and cortisol released when you’re mad, giving your emotions somewhere to go instead of building up inside you.

How to Do a Rage Workout to Regulate Your Emotions

“Anger and rage are actually really healthy emotions to experience, and we shouldn’t suppress them,” Anhalt says. By using the chemicals your body produces when you’re angry, you can prevent that energy from lingering and turning into irritability or burnout.

The idea isn’t just about smashing things, though that might help. It’s about using movement to literally move emotion through your body. Rage workouts can include anything that feels cathartic—sprinting, slamming a medicine ball, or cycling while blasting metal at full volume. It doesn’t need to be structured or pretty. It just needs to feel real.

Even gentler forms of movement can help. A study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders found that walking for 10 to 60 minutes significantly reduced depression, anger, and hostility in young adults. So if you’re not up for a full-on rage session, a brisk walk might do the trick.

The important thing is to listen to your body. If you’re seething, move. If you’re exhausted, stretch. If you want to scream at the top of your lungs, maybe try doing it during a round of jump squats.

Anger doesn’t need to be dangerous, and it doesn’t need to control you. It can be a signal, a release, or even a source of strength. Rage doesn’t have to destroy—it can rebuild. And sometimes, it starts with a really sweaty workout.