Background: Mental ill-health is a severe problem in today's society. In a historical view the treatment of mental illness is still mainly medical and/or psychological. However, over the past decades, several alternative treatment methods emerged in psychiatric care. One of these is physical activity. Mental ill-health often is combined with physical inactivity, which in turn can have negative physical, social and/or mental effects. People with mental ill-health often have to struggle with coping daily life in which physical activity plays an important part. Aim: The purpose of this study was to describe the experiences of physical activity of people with mental ill-health. Method: The method used in this study was a literature review of qualitative studies. Ten articles have been analysed with an inductive qualitative approach.Results: The results were divided into three main themes: (1) possibilities that facilitate physical activity, (2) barriers to perform physical activity and (3) consequences of physical activity. Facilitating possibilities were: being motivated by others, participating in structured education and being part of a social community. Barriers were described as: severe mental illness, practical and social threats, and low self-esteem. The consequences were: making daily life easier, reducing symptoms of mental illness and improving self-esteem. Conclusion: The result shows that patients experience both opportunities and barriers to perform physical activity. When involving in physical activity patients experienced improvement in their mental health. Improvement of self-esteem and social interaction with other persons could also be seen. To be able to involve in physical activity social support and motivation is needed for these persons.