Health, wellness, and education

The goal of the HWE intervention was to conduct a time- and attention-matched program with content unlikely to impact primary or secondary study outcomes. HWE consisted of a 30–40 min informational/educational video followed by a 20–30 min discussion of the video (for a total of 60 min of contact). Interactive worksheets and informational handouts were used to facilitate discussion. Participants were invited to take these handouts home following session. The originally planned topics included brain health and functioning, sex and relationships, music history, creativity, and personality types. These topics had been successfully used by the first author in previous studies [34]. As these topics were not originally designed for or tested in Black men with depressive symptoms and the current study was preliminary, we allowed some flexibility in topics based on participant preference. Specifically, if participants reported that some of the original topics did not apply to them, the interventionist would solicit new topics that the participant considered relevant. Then the research team would develop sessions around this topic to offer to the requesting participant as well as future participants. Emergent topics developed through this process included wellness during incarceration, resiliency following incarceration, history of LGBTQ social justice, and history of African American activism. All original and emergent topics were free of any content on depression, exercise, or other topics that could impact secondary outcomes and/or purported treatment mediators [21]. HWE did not include any BA content. HWE participants were not asked to restrict their exercise during the study in any way. To promote equity between conditions, after the final assessment, participants randomized to HWE were provided that same exercise equipment provided to those in the RT group.