Within the depth-psychology and allied clinical corpus, ‘exercise’ emerges not as a peripheral lifestyle recommendation but as a substantive therapeutic modality carrying neurobiological, psychological, and psychosocial mechanisms of action. The literature converges on exercise as an adjunctive — and increasingly primary — intervention for substance use disorders, depression, anxiety, and trauma-related dysregulation. Giménez-Meseguer and colleagues synthesize meta-analytic evidence demonstrating significant effects on craving, abstinence, stress, and quality of life across substance populations. Linke provides theoretical scaffolding by mapping exercise onto reward-pathway neurochemistry, noting that exercise and abused substances activate overlapping dopaminergic and serotonergic systems. Li extends this framework into stage-specific prescription protocols for methamphetamine use disorder, grounding exercise in neuroplasticity windows. Dana’s polyvagal framework treats exercise implicitly as a regulatory practice modulating autonomic state. Tensions persist around dose-response parameters, optimal timing relative to cessation attempts, the challenge of concurrent behavior change, and the durability of benefits post-intervention. The evidence base is complicated by methodological heterogeneity — small samples, absent control conditions, and variable adherence reporting — yet the directional consensus is unusually robust. Exercise occupies a rare position: an intervention that is simultaneously neurochemical, behavioral, relational, and existential.