Objective To explore the effects of outdoor aerobic exercise combined with psychiatric rehabilitation therapy on mental recovery of inpatients with chronic schizophrenia. Methods From June 2015 to March 2018， 200 schizophrenics hospitalized in the mental health center of our hospital were divided into exercise group and control group with random number table method， with 100 cases in each. During the hospitalization， they were treated with drugs combined with psychiatric rehabilitation therapy. On this basis， patients in the exercise group were given outdoor aerobic exercise intervention. The condition of mental recovery was evaluated with the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale （PANSS）， Self-rating Anxiety Scale （SAS）， Selfrating Depression Scale （SDS） and Nurses' Observation Scale for Inpatient Evaluation （NOSIE-30） before the intervention and at 3 months after the intervention. Results After intervention， there was no significant differences in the scores of positive scale， negative scale or general psychopathology scale between the two groups in PANSS （t=1.858，1.909，1.867，P＞ 0.05）. However， the total score of PANSS of the exercise group was significantly lower than that of the control group （t=3.196，P ＜ 0.05）. The SAS and SDS scores of the exercise group after intervention were significantly lower than those of the control group （t=3.251，3.925，P＜ 0.05）. Compared with the control group， the increase of social ability， social interest and personal tidyness scores， decrease of irritability， tardiness， depression and psychoticism scores in NOSIE-30 were more obvious in the exercise group after the intervention （t=5.606，7.527，5.706，3.630，8.183，10.389，6.029，P＜ 0.05）. Conclusions Outdoor aerobic exercise combined with psychiatric rehabilitation therapy is beneficial to stabilize the condition of inpatients with chronic schizophrenia， improve their psychological symptoms and promote mental recovery.