People who move more during the day tend to have healthier stress hormone patterns, with cortisol dropping more naturally as the day goes on — a sign their body handles stress better.

Exercise might help your body handle stress better, especially when studied in controlled trials, but the effect isn't huge and varies a lot between people.

Exercise and your daily stress hormone pattern are only slightly linked, but that link stays pretty much the same no matter the person’s age, sex, weight, or how researchers measure things.

Working out more or less doesn’t seem to change how your body’s stress hormone, cortisol, spikes when you wake up — it’s about the same no matter how active you are.

Exercise can change how your body handles stress by rewiring the system that controls cortisol, the stress hormone.