- Fitness and Mental Health – How it Helps and How it Goes Bad
- Kettlebells Transform Your Body Unlike ANYTHING Else – Huge Benefits Explained
- How Sitting, Stress, and Clothes Destroy Our Bodies
- Why Steroids Are NOT Functional – Don’t Trade Your Health for Muscle
- How to Keep Leveling Up INFINITELY – Like Sung Jin-Woo
- The Ideal Physique is Easy for Most Guys When They Learn This – Toji Workout
- How to Train Your FOOT Muscles for Balance, Power, & Injury Prevention
- How to Do Sit Ups CORRECTLY for Ripped, Powerful Abs
- How to Train Your Nervous System Like a NINJA
- Pike Push Ups are Good and You Should Probably Do Them, Maybe
Fitness and Mental Health – How it Helps and How it Goes Bad
There are a lot of great reasons to get into training and I’d argue that “getting bigger muscles” isn’t necessarily in the top three. From having more energy, to reducing pain, to being better able to enjoy the things you want to do.
Another overlooked benefit of training, though, is what it can do for your mental health. Fitness is wonderful for improving confidence and mood and even improving outcomes for a number of mental health issues.
But this is also a highly complex and nuanced topic. And one that doesn’t always receive the delicate treatment it demands, here on YouTube. For fitness to have a beneficial impact on your mental health, it needs to be approached with that goal in mind. And, likewise, it’s very important that we recognise the limits of what a fitness regime can do for you.
In this video, I want to explore this topic in more depth and perhaps add a little more nuance to the conversation.
A Dangerous Assertion
The main issue is with sweeping statements that frankly… and I’m sorry to say this… get my goat. All too often I see “fitness influencers” claiming that working out can cure your depression. With this, also, comes the implication that if you are depressed, it’s because you’re not working out hard enough.
Without naming names, I get highly frustrated when I see YouTube videos telling people “of course you’re depressed, you’re overweight and lazy.” You just need to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Start a training program and gain the confidence and improved mood that will cure your malaise!
As someone who has had indirect experience with depression, who has received therapy, and who has an undergraduate degree in psychology… I find this dangerous and frankly: offensive and ignorant.
I do understand that, in many cases, it comes from the right place. We want to empower people to cure their own mental health and to get up and do something. And working out will certainly improve your chances of recovering from depression AND a number of other mental health conditions.
But, likewise, it is a gross oversimplification that makes the terrible error of laying the blame at the feet of the afflicted. And it also risks discouraging the viewer from seeking professional help. Remember: depression can be life threatening and there is still a lot of stigma surrounding it that can make it harder than necessary to seek help.
Oh, and someone who is clinically depressed, might not find they magically gain the energy to get up and train just because some YouTube prick shouted at them.
The issue often comes from conflating “depression” with “feeling a bit miserable.” And, to be fair, we all use the terms interchangeably from time to time. If you’re just in a funk, then absolutely: working out will help you to feel better.
BUT if you have clinical depression, this is a far more complex condition. And it can have a variety of causes, many of which we don’t fully understand. People telling you that it has been “disproven” in some way, that a chemical imbalance may cause some cases of depression, are simply misinformed on the subject.
I also get very frustrated hearing people explain depression as being a problem with the “dopamine system.” Again, this is a huge oversimplification and, also, largely nonsense.
Dopamine has more to do with motivation and reward. There is no concrete evidence that using your mobile phone in any way “breaks” your dopamine system. The system itself is also far more complex than most videos would have you believe: with dopamine affecting the brain differently depending on which area it is released in, having complex interplay with countless other neurotransmitters and hormones, and being responsible for many more functions throughout the human body.
Generally, serotonin is more implicated in depression than dopamine, anyway. Not only because it is linked with our mood but also because it may play a role in neuroplasticity and resistance to stress. Dopamine dysfunction is more closely related to anhedonia and low motivation, which are symptoms associated with certain types of depression. But not depression itself.
Gut-brain interactions, inflammation, stress response, and more can also all play a role. Along with maladaptive thought patterns, genetics (twin studies show us some people are genetically more prone to depression), receptor sensitivity, and the list goes on.
So, when someone tells you that your depression IS caused by “low dopamine” because of your “modern lifestyle” this should immediately be a red flag that tells you they don’t know what they’re talking about.
And, if they go on to tell you that using antidepressants is a bad thing, or that therapy causes more harm than good… and they feel they have the authority to say this because they – what – cured their own bad mood? Watched a few YouTube videos that told them that? Have big muscles…??
Those people need to stop talking.
This speaks to my biggest pet-peeve about fitness on YouTube. The dick measuring. The complete lack of nuance and understanding. The ignorance masquerading as bravado.
If it were that simple, then why do some people use social media and eat chips all day and still manage to be perfectly happy? While others are rich and in immaculate shape and deal with severe depression?
Just think for more than two minutes before making that short.
People who make these claims have not experienced real depression: which is characterised by debilitating sadness, negative thoughts, extreme fatigue, low enthusiasm, and much more.
I have not personally experienced depression myself. But I have experienced intrusive thoughts and anxiety. When I was 9, I sadly lost my Dad. As a parent, now, I deal with anxiety that some terrible event will once again come along and destroy the happy life I’ve built.
That’s fairly normal and understandable.
What’s less normal was the period where I experienced intrusive thoughts. Thoughts of terrible things that could happen that would hit me when I least expected it and leave me emotionally wrought. That would prevent me from fully enjoying days out. That would lead to illogical behaviour.
That is the first time I personally experienced a mental health issue and it gave me a much deeper understanding of what this is like for people. No, simply “exercising” doesn’t solve issues that could be related to past trauma, to unhealthy thought patterns, or to chemical imbalance.
I also have exploding head syndrome. Which is fun. That means I hear loud crashing noises randomly when I’m trying to go to sleep.
I’ve seen others close to me struggle with issues of their own.
Would exercise help? Yes. Or at least, it certainly wouldn’t hurt. But to tell people their mental health issues would be solved if only they would exercise shows a lack of empathy and understanding.
In this way, mental health is very similar to physical health. If I have serious back pain, there are lots of exercises I can do to address that problem. YouTube videos telling me “this one exercise WILL cure your back pain” are stupid and unhelpful, because there could be any number of things causing my back pain. From a tight psoas to weak glutes to a weak core to a slipped disk to a tumor. But videos titled “this exercise MIGHT help SOME of you” are just less clickable.
You might also have multiple issues at once: maybe you have an injury that has caused you to adopt a compensatory movement pattern, causing other muscles to become tighter, downstream.
Exercising can help in most cases. But not in all cases. And failure to see a doctor could result in you doing much more harm or missing the opportunity for a full recovery.
And it’s the same for depression. Exercise can help in most cases. But not in all. And you need to speak to a professional to ensure you are doing the best you can for your condition.
There is absolutely no shame in struggling with mental health, just as we all injure our bodies from time to time. The smartest thing you can do is to take every precaution and every step to ensure a positive outcome as soon as possible.
All this to say: if you are experiencing real depression then YES you should improve your health. You should also speak with a professional.
When Fitness Becomes Toxic
I’m going to get to the bit where I say that fitness is amazing for your mental health, I promise!
But I also want to take a moment to say that it can be very toxic.
If you are training out of a disdain for your own body or appearance. If you place too much importance on getting six pack abs or getting to a 500lb bench press… Or if you pin all your hopes and dreams on getting your ideal body… it can actually be bad for your mental health.
I always say on this channel that we should “train to live and not live to train.” This is important.
Getting ripped won’t win you the respect of the internet and your friends. It won’t cure low self-esteem or confidence (though it can help, sure). It won’t turn you into a babe magnet.
Honestly, the amount of respect you command has FAR more to do with emotional intelligence and confidence than it does with abs.
And people who need to be respected are honestly just extremely tiresome, anyway. You shouldn’t want to be that guy. Nobody likes that guy. We all talk about him behind his back.
People may have a knee-jerk reaction to the body positivity movement and think that it is “celebrating mediocrity,” or whatever. That it’s celebrating weakness, even.
But this completely misses the point. Having confidence in yourself and recognising how truly remarkable and unique every body is is a source of strength. Having your ego so dependent on how often you get to the gym makes you fragile and easily manipulated. What happens when you’re injured or ill and you lose that physique? What happens when you meet someone stronger? What if you just have crappy gains?
If you’re being told to grind and train harder to get that dream physique: that you should turn down nights out with friends, that you should never eat any junk food, that you should NEVER skip the gym…
That you should train when unwell or injured.
Never have a bottle of wine and box of chocolates with your wife on the sofa…
Is this still health and fitness? Or is it sacrificing your own happiness and missing out on the things that make life truly worth living? For an ultimately arbitrary set of goals?
And, at this point, can you not see that the person who is already happy with their own body is actually healthier, in a lot of ways? Their fitness is not actively detracting from their experiences, it’s not dominating their every thought or every waking moment.
I’m not saying someone out of shape shouldn’t work out. I’m saying that the people we hold up as the “healthiest” examples on the internet… they’re often deeply broken.
In the most extreme cases, this can lead to body dysmorphia. It can lead to eating disorders, bigorexia, steroid abuse, or other harmful practices.
If you take steroids, then you are literally destroying your health – risking death even – because you want to get more ripped or because you want to achieve some arbitrary goal at the gym that won’t benefit you outside of bragging rights on forums. This is NOT healthy.
Some – not all but some – of these same people then look down their noses at people who are a little overweight. Seriously?
I wholeheartedly reject the notion that “a little bit of testosterone is actually good for a lot of guys.” Firstly, if you’re not satisfied with what you can accomplish naturally, what makes you think you’re going to be satisfied with being a mediocre steroid user? “It’s just one cycle bro” is practically a meme at this point.
Secondly, what using even a small amount of steroids or exogenous testosterone does, is to alter the cycles of testosterone. It disrupts your hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. Your body releases testosterone in response to various cues and in tandem with other cycles, like your sleep-wake-cycle, your mood, eating, hunger, exercise. Endogenous testosterone flattens these natural peaks and troughs, which is why you might find yourself being angry at inappropriate times, struggling to sleep, and actually causing worse mental health issues and doing long-term damage.
This is why I said recently that steroids are BAD for performance. Not performance enhancing at all. Something that some angry viewers didn’t understand.
This is my point: if your natural cycles are completely disrupted, how are you now performing better? Because you can lift a bit more on an arbitrary lift? I mean… great? I don’t get it.
And this is how an obsession with strength and fitness can actually be very negative for your mental health if you approach it wrong.
And, unfortunately, our constant exposure to enhanced physiques and angry people telling us that benching three plates is “average” or whatever… it’s just not helping. Especially when those same people blame any mental health issues you might be experiencing on not being in that club – and imply that you are somehow weak or lesser for not doing the same to yourself.
Again, I should take this moment to say that I am not saying exogenous testosterone has no place for anyone. But before buying it from dodgy Joe because some guy with a red face on YouTube told you to do it… you should consult with your doctor. Hormone replacement therapy is a useful treatment for certain people but should be considered a last resort and considered very carefully by a professional.
Exercise is Wonderful for Your Mental Health
But all these same points can be turned on their head and they help to explain WHY exercise is so miraculous for our mental health when approached in the right way.
Exercise, for example, DOES increase testosterone. But it does so in an endogenous way: meaning that your body’s cycles are enhanced, not disrupted. And this can reduce symptoms of depression in some cases.
Exercise also helps you to sleep better, improving your mood and your body’s natural rhythms in that way, too. And it encourages other positive health practices: like a better diet and rest and recovery.
Exercises also increases dopamine. And seeing yourself progress at something you’ve stuck to is great for giving you a sense of purpose and structure.
In the short term, exercise also boosts endorphins – this is what we call the runner’s high. This can cause an acute improvement in mood. It also rapidly increases serotonin production, possibly due to the increase in tryptophan. It also lowers stress hormones, like cortisol.
Remember how I said that inflammation, gut health, and brain plasticity may also play roles in depression? Well, exercise has been shown to improve all those things. Exercise is particularly good for brain plasticity, for example.
AND exercise will give you a better physique, indirectly improving your confidence. You’ll have more energy to do the things you want to do. Reduce chronic pain.
But, like all things, it works best in moderation. And when you remove the insane pressure to measure up to internet weirdos.
(Benching three plates is incredible impressive, statistically. Being at 6% body fat is a cause for concern, not an achievement.)
Exercise works best for mental health when you make sure it is fun. When it is regular but not so taxing as you leave you exhausted and overtrained. When you are doing it for you and enjoying the progress – but not to the point where you make ridiculous sacrifices.
You can get even more from it from a mental health perspective if you keep trying new things and keep it varied. If you exercise with friends or play sports. If you get outside and if you use all your senses in the context of an open skill.
Exercise is amazing for your mental health… but be normal about it.
And it is also not the be all and end all. It’s one part of a puzzle, where professional help is crucial if necessary, and where things like meditation, good sleep, nutrition, self-care, and a balanced lifestyle all play important roles.
A very well-considered, and well-written piece!! Great work Adam 🙂
Hey Bioneer, it makes sense that exercise is an important component in everyone’s daily life, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it can solve all ones problems or be the only thing that matters over everything else in your life; a person’s mental health plays an important role, too. One should consider the variables behind such circumstances and problems they are having than to only narrow down on a “one solution solves everything” because someone told them that’s what it is (when what they claim or say isn’t applicable to anybody or simply doesn’t make sense). There are other components in life to consider and value than going to the gym to aim for big physical gains. As you stated, self-care, nutrition, good sleep (at least try to get decent sleep), balanced lifestyle, and more. From seeing those click-bait fitness or videos that simply claim this “idea” will solve all your issues are really coming from people who spend more effort “TELLING” than learning/listening about variety of circumstances people go through, especially with their mental health and other struggles in their life. It may work for them, but how do they know it will work for everyone else? Or is it simply nonsense as you pointed out? Not everyone thinks that way, but those individuals can be a headache to spot, sometimes. Mental health sure is a misunderstood topic and there’s complexity to it. No shame in seeking professional help if you truly need it. And finding other reasonable (not nonsense crap from fitness influencers or anyone else spreading bs) solutions to assist with your mental health is okay, too. As long as it works for you and there’s stable progress, that’s the plus for you.
An interesting idea I had that could be its own video is how can you get a swimmer’s physique when you don’t have access anywhere to swim? This includes having a lean, toned body with very developed shoulders, large lats, defined arms and abs/midsection, strong legs and the mobility and flexibility that comes along with it. Could you grow and strengthen all the same muscles that swimming does, while still being lean and not bulky, using a gym or a home workout? You could focus on whether weight training or calisthenics is better for getting a swimmer’s physique without any swimming and create a workout plan that focuses equally on muscle growth as it does functional strength. Please share your thoughts and your answer to this question.