Originally Posted by
cromega
Yeah, if you are depressed, lifting weights will make you feel better. Yoga will also make you feel better. So will taking a walk, meditating, laughing, playing music, going to church and a slew of other things. To actually get better, instead of just feeling better, you'll do better with some cognitive restructuring as described by Ellis in the appropriately named book "Feeling better, getting better, staying better."
The following is a more interesting question. Does getting rid of depression, anxiety, and associated sleep disorders improve recovery and adaptation in strength training? Of course it does, because sleeping better improves recovery. So, it seems odd to me that we obsess about every millimeter of deviation from perfect form in the stress part of the "stress-recovery-adaptation" cycle. While the recovery advice boils down to "eat one gram of protein for each pound of your eeight, and get 8 hours of sleep." This would be equivalent to teaching the deadlift by saying "bend down and pick up the weight."
In his "Barbell Prescription Book" Sully devotes only two pages to how to improve sleep. This is not enough instruction for such an important part of the training program.