A sweeping umbrella review led by researchers at Adelaide University found that exercise significantly reduces both acute and chronic pain, with average relief roughly 60% greater than the average relief reported in separate trials of common pain medications. The work was published in PAIN Reports, 2026, volume 11, article e1455, and was preregistered on PROSPERO, according to the authors.
The review pooled 157 systematic reviews covering 2,736 randomized controlled trials and 221,279 participants, according to the study. On a standard 0-to-10 pain scale, researchers said exercise eased pain by about 1.1 points on average. The team cautioned that the comparison to medication trials was not head-to-head, and no specific drugs were named in the analysis.
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