Aerobic exercise improves outcomes in a variety of chronic health conditions, yet the support for exercise-induced effects on chronic pain in humans is mixed. While many rodent studies have examined the effects of exercise on persistent hypersensitivity, the vast majority employed forced exercise paradigms that are known to be highly stressful. Since stress can also produce analgesic effects, we studied how voluntary exercise, known to reduce stress in healthy subjects, alters hypersensitivity, stress and swelling in a rat model of persistent hind paw inflammation. Our data indicate that voluntary exercise rapidly and effectively reduces both hypersensitivity and stress-related outcomes without altering swelling. Moreover, the level of exercise is unrelated to the analgesic and stress-reducing effects, suggesting that even modest amounts of exercise may impart significant benefit in persistent inflammatory pain states.