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Hey, so I want to talk about Probably the most underrated yet. I in my opinion most profound and important effect of proper exercise I want to talk about the mental and psychological effects of exercise in particular the effects that it has on Two of the most common. I guess mental issues or disorders anxiety and depression Yeah, do you think like this? This isn't talked about very much because we are either just learning about a lot of the science around it Or do you think it's because of the dramatic rise in the last decade or two in this kind of climate? We're facing right now. Yeah, or is it both? I think it's that and also You know because sex sells what tends to sell fitness is the look Yeah, and the physical effects, but I'm gonna be very honest here as a trainer You know I trained lots of people for over two decades I trained people and I definitely saw people's bodies changed. I saw people lose weight I saw people get stronger improve their mobility and their performance But nothing was as impactful or as profound as those Emotional mental effects that people you know felt that's what people commented on the most It was you know if people love the physical effects, but what people always commented on the most was how it made them feel Mentally well veteran trainers and coaches get this and I mean I got this later on right past ten years into my career Quickly figured out like I if I could help my clients connect the dots to that I could control that because they're coming to see me and if I could if I could exercise and train them three times a week What I can't control is what they put in their mouth Yeah, they follow their macros and they did there they follow their meal plan I couldn't control that so as far as body composition as great as a coach as I could be as far as trying to Teach them I couldn't control that but I could control their exercise and training which directly impacted this So if I could get them to make the connection to how much that was improving I always kept that client I could always keep them and maybe eventually get them to change behaviors around nutrition and change the body composition But I started to learn like oh wow This is so powerful and I can control some of this as a coach because I'm training them if I could get them to see Yeah, to understand it and see the value in it this person could be well It's always a tangible metric for really like being able to see personal growth in somebody So, you know, you know be able to take them through Fitness and have them work on themselves on their body You know, that's that in turn then translates into their mental state and their well-being and really accepting the fact that they're improving Well, also, I mean, let's be very clear here How much does anxiety mild anxiety mild depression or mental kind of issues Contribute to obesity. Oh, yeah contribute to not taking care of yourself So there they're it's all intricately connected and we also forget by the way We forget that the we know that exercise improves our physical bodies, but we forget that the brain is Is your body that is your physical body and a healthier brain just like a healthier back or abs Or biceps operates better. It just works better. So the and again, this is literally I'm I'm I'm being quite honest The mental effects that proper exercise can really produce in a person I think overshadow the physical effects That's how profound it is and what you said Adam is so true because you have to let people know because they often come Into, you know, hiring a coach or a trainer wanting to work out with no idea that that's even gonna affect that Yeah, and then they do notice improvements in how they feel, but they always connected to it's because I look better It's not necessarily because that in fact you cannot change how you look Yeah, and you'll still get these profound, you know, mental effects I'm trying to actually right now recall if I ever had anybody come to me and go Hey, I want to hire you for training because I have anxiety or depression or I want to never I meant no I don't think I ever it's always almost meant it's always Body composition that they're they're seeking out or some performance health issue or something Yeah, so yeah, doctor said something related to health, which is body composition or health performance like that realm But ironically, this is the thing that I think really kept or turned someone into a lifer Like if you were somebody who wasn't really into working out exactly as this was what if I could make this connection And then we're like because they're like, you know, and I'm gonna be good and bad about eating my whole life There's gonna be streaks where I'm dieting well and getting ready in his shape And I might be leaner this year than last year or whatever But if I start to make the connections that oh my god when I am exercising like I'm a better person I might I don't have depression. I don't have anxiety. I'm more fun to be around. I'm happier I sleep better even temperament Yeah, they start connecting all that stuff and they start to realize like oh shit like I can't stop this In my life, this needs to become a part of my life We need to emphasize that you talk to anybody who's been exercising consistently For years and years and years and you ask them what's the number one reason why you're consistent training? I mean, I've been working out since I was 14 years old So we're talking, you know well over 25 years. I've been doing this consistently. It's not for the physical body comp Results. I like that. That's great. That's not what keeps me consistent week over week year over year decade over decade It's the mental and emotional effects. It is so profound for me I've identified that which is why I'll always do it which is why I'll do it when I lose strength as I get older Inevitably as I get older, I'm not gonna perform as well. I'm not gonna look as good It's not gonna matter to me because of those other effects and you talk to anybody who's been doing a long time I know people listening right now who've been exercising for years and years and years They're probably shaking their head in the green That's why they continue to do it if they've made that connection because some people have been training for years And they're still stuck in the it's all about how I look and like you said because I look that I feel good Because that's a mess. That's just they don't understand that yes that helps, but it's also directly affecting Yeah, because there's still some people in the trap of of trying to fix something about themselves and going into it with like I'm you know I'm Insufficient because like I don't look this way or whatever like it's a very much of a punishing sort of mentality Which they haven't been able to transition into you know Why this is actually going to be benefiting me and improving me one to Sal's point that he made earlier is it that's just Reinforced by all the marketing. Yeah all the marketing is around sex and you know how you look and you know Be this way in 30 days or 60 days like nobody's talking about like hey sign up for this year-long program and be mentally healthy That's not sexy to sell that and so so yeah So you already have these these conditions that people already are in and then they're it's being reinforced with the marketing So it really takes I think a really good coach or a self-aware person that's doing the work themselves to figure this out You know now if you look at just anxiety and depression You're looking at and this is people who are reported who actually gone to the doctor and reported it So this the numbers are actually higher than this because I'm sure there's a large percentage of people that suffer from Mile to moderate anxiety or mild to moderate depression that never report it largely men But even some women don't report it, but these are the numbers that that we know of right? So 20% of Americans suffer from anxiety and 36% of those people never actually get treatment Okay, so although 20% report it 36 36% of that 20 still don't even do anything for it about 7 to 10 percent of Americans Suffer from depression. These are again people that report it. So I'm sure that numbers much higher. Yeah, and in these days I'm sure it's even skyrocketed in terms of numbers they haven't yet taken to account. So absolutely So you're talking about you know, tens of millions of people that we know of but probably twice as many That we don't know of now studies have been done on proper exercise and mild to moderate anxiety and mild to moderate depression and studies clearly show now that exercise proper exercise is As good at least as good as medications for treating those cells those things and many studies suggest that exercise is actually Superior especially when you look at the the long term as this as they continue going you start to see even more of a benefit With exercise. How recent is that literature? Is it relatively new? I mean what's we're looking at the last 20 years, but the last 10 years a lot Yeah of stuff's coming out and to the point now where they're considering Proper exercise as a first-line treatment. So you go to a Psychiatrist or to your doctor. I suffer from anxiety stuff in the past I would say go outside try and move but now they're they're talking about being more Deliberate with it. Like we want you to exercise this many days a week. Here's what you're going to do I've even heard talk of incorporating like fitness facilities as part of the treatment You come here you meet with somebody who can exercise with you because it's it's so damn effective Do you think that yeah if it's moving this direction and when we're seeing this much movement the last decade that we'll get to a place where? Insurance will start to cover like personal training. Oh If they're attached, yeah, yeah kind of treatment. I'm sure because I mean here's a thing here's the truth to me I mean absolutely. I just I don't ever see it going fully that way unless it is unless there's money to be made Because right now the doctors make money to prescribe that stuff. That's just how it's work, right? That with the with all the foreign insurance companies would be for it because it would actually save insurance companies money an insurance company paying for exercise Think of all of the side effects of that that would save them money. They would spend probably less money on Cholesterol medication for the for the patient They'd spend less money on surgeries less money down the road for other medications because of all the Incredible benefits that exercise provides aside from yeah the improvement in their anxiety I feel like insurance would have to accept it and doctors would have to get some sort of a kickback for it to actually work Yeah, that's how the relationship works in the pharmaceutical world right now. Yeah, that's insurance except it's except it and doctors get kickbacks So as long as that's in place I feel like that will no matter how much great studies come out to support what you're saying right now Until we move in that direction. I don't know if it'll ever be here's the good news of all that the good news of all That is it's very accessible to most people right so unlike a medication that you might not be able to get your hands on unless you get a prescription Or if you don't have insurance is just way too expensive Exercise proper exercise you could do with zero equipment We have programs designed around zero equipment or you could get minimal equipment like resistance bands and a physio ball We're even a pair of dumbbells and it's very very accessible to most people so it doesn't it's not nearly as inaccessible as Prescription drugs and we're gonna go through all the ways that are proven as to why Exercise is so effective for these things that's been proven in studies and also just our experience as coaches Now here's the first one and this one is very interesting So what do medications do to help with anxiety and depression? Well, we know some of what they do some of the stuff that they do we we're not quite sure of but we do know that They alter your brain and body chemistry, right? This we know that you take a medication It'll alter brain chemistry or the chemistry in your body that and that will lead to a change in how you feel It could reduce the physical effects of anxiety Or it can lift your mood and make the lows not as low and make you feel like you're not so depressed Well, guess what exercise does it actually does that as well. It actually changes the chemicals in the brain I wrote some stuff down here because actually wanted to make sure I looked up exactly what's happening in the body So exercise is associated with lower sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis Reactivity, okay, so what does that mean? Those are the parts of the body that react that when you're like fight-or-flight, right that that initial signal of oh my god I'm anxious Exercise makes them less hyper reactive, right? So because it kind of normalizes it because you get some of that in your training that stress I think and it's not so foreign is that probably because you're making that system healthier You're making it react more appropriately. So here's an analogy. I'm gonna make sense It's just like if you were take the hot cold plunge. Yes, you know trains the your immune system, right? Or strengthens your immune system because it gets you adapted to be able to go extreme I'll use another analogy that I think makes sense children that grow up on farms Around lots of animals and go outside a lot tend to have less allergies and less auto-immune issues and the theory is because they're exposed to Animal dander and you know, they're outside playing That they're in that their immune systems just they're not hyper reactive You raise a kid in this hyper clean environment without that stuff Their tendency to have allergies much higher because and what's an allergy? It's your it's your immune system being hyper Right, so exercise Improves the health of that kind of reactivity and it's been shown again in in studies exercise increases Sarah Sarah to turnergic and nor adrenette excuse me nor Adrenergic, I hope I'm saying that levels in the brain similar to the effects of antidepressants. Okay, so serotonin nor adrenaline other chemicals in the brain Chemical these drugs that you take to change those to improve how you feel Exercise the similar things to those in the brain improve serotonin Gives you healthier levels of other chemicals in the brain. We've we've already observed this in studies It increases serotonin synthesis metabolism and release has been noted following exercise What does that mean? There's an acute effect from exercise that's similar to some of these drugs now long-term If this stuff actually starts to get better you also get so trip off this it exercise increases endogenous opioid Opioid activity in the central and peripheral nervous system make you feel happy like you're taking opiates Yeah, so now your body's producing more opiates because you're exercising properly And that's what gives you that kind of euphoric feeling and reduces pain now here trip off this Scientists observe this in studies and said, okay let's give a drug that blocks the effects of Opioids in the body just to see if exercise then loses its effect on this and they did they gave were to called opioid antagonists To animals or to people have them exercise and although the opioid results or effects were blunted There still was a positive effect on mood. So what does that tell you? There's a lot more more to the story There's a lot more that we don't understand now brain-derived neurotropic factor is Something that encourages Neurogenesis and brain cell growth and you know basically improving the connections that the brain makes Increases that it's like they call it like miracle grow or fertilizer for the brain So now you get this Neurogenic effect actually it's like okay you build your muscles when you exercise you also build your brain When you exercise, so you you're creating this in this environment where the chemicals in your body Move towards this kind of happier less depressed less anxious Type of state that we try to mimic with drugs Yeah, you know we try to mimic this with medications, but this is happening naturally and this is all without anything to do with nutrition Just purely exercise like what you're in a surplus deficit in maintenance doesn't matter Exercise by itself does all these pauses all speaks to you know the bodies built to move You know at the end of the day all of our systems need to be expressed and need to be moving in and generating Some kind of energy because if we don't use it a lot of times Like this is where like all of all of our problems start to come out of that and we're trying to find out You know different chemical Ways to induce a lot of these systems that we already have that reward us For moving and so this also shits on my philosophy as a kid when I was a young trainer or I was on or off You know I used to have this attitude of you know, it's not worth it It's not worth it. Yeah, I used to be like you know if I diet is so important because I was so driven by body composition You know body my diet is so important that if I'm not doing that then I'm not gonna fuck around work out And then if I'm gonna work out I'm gonna die like I'm gonna sort of do it I'm gonna do it all or none and so this totally shits on that because of still get those benefits Yeah, because there's incredible benefits outside of where you're at nutritionally that it's something that you should keep in your routine Regardless of what your body composition goals are now There's a second part to the physical effects that exercise has that then affect your mental health, which is your hormonal health, right? So I'll ask you Adam because you experienced Very low testosterone levels after coming off anabolic steroids from competing and you felt low testosterone levels all other things being equal Had a low testosterone alone make you feel Oh, yeah terrible and awful And the only thing that I noticed that that when I was doing all the different stuff Right, and I was taking all the herbs and paying attention to sleep and I mean we tried everything as far as the natural protocols to Help love it was doing the Juve line was doing all kinds of things to try and support it Nothing I felt made a bigger difference than when I would just heavy strength rain and just moderate amount too I I recognized really early that it wasn't about Intensity and how often I was doing it like I needed to do it every day It was that two to three times a week if I was strength training Nothing was making my hormone levels my testosterone levels feel the best than that out of all the other things that I was messing with Yeah, so and here's what exercise has been shown to do especially resistance training in particular It raises the feel-good hormones It lowers the feel bad hormones and it balances things out. So in men you see a Consistent raise in testosterone, whether it's low or even if you have moderate or high testosterone You see it go up it up regulates the receptors that testosterone attaches to it increases growth hormone, which they call the youth hormone Cortisol is much more appropriate. So it lowers it if it's too high in women You see a balancing of estrogen and progesterone. I mean people get hormone therapy because how incredible it makes them feel Exercise promotes these youthful levels of hormones, especially when you do a Pro positive tissue form of exercise like resistance training because because resistance training is telling your body to build Muscle your body then up increases the build muscle hormones and lowers the break muscle down hormones What are the build muscle hormones? These are the feel-good youthful hormones the ones that you had when you were younger and all those tear-down Hormones those ones that make you not feel so good Well those lower because your body is trying to build muscle so exercise proper exercise and in particular resistance training encourages this hormone profile that is healthy and your hormones Definitely have an effect definitely have an effect on your mental state We know this for an absolute fact and you talk to anybody who's ever had to Take thyroid hormone because they were not producing enough thyroid or someone with low testosterone or a woman who had to Take other hormones you ask them how they felt afterwards when things got balanced out like I feel like a completely different person So those are the two kind of physical types of or ways that exercise can affect the body now The rest are most of them are psychological and here's I think where the real magic is is the psychological effects of exercise These are the harder ones to get people to connect to they are it's easier to tell show somebody physically who they can say oh wow I definitely feel better today Yeah, but having them connect to the psychological stuff is a little bit more challenging right so the first one is that in encourages proper exercise encourages being present Being present look spiritual practices. I think all spiritual practices all major ones I can think of talk about being present as a way to calm yourself and define peace, right? What does that mean? Well, if I'm always thinking of the past Tends to be filled with regret and shame if I'm thinking about the future tends to be filled with anxiety What's gonna happen? I don't know but right this second right like for example right now sitting in this room with you guys Doing this podcast. There is no fear. There is no shame. There is no because we're here. I'm here right now You're in the moment. I'm in the moment and by the way being in the moment I mean you can experience just doing lots of things like if you're a daredevil and you like to skydive Why do you like it so much? Yeah, you are in the moment Why people love roller coasters? Yes, that's why everybody yeah that that's such appeal because It really forces you to acknowledge what's right in front of you and sometimes you don't have to go extreme like that That's what the beautiful thing about exercises it does Require a lot of attention it requires a lot of systems of the body to react and and Appropriately deal with you know this this level of stress and takes all your focus and You know presses it right into that direction. So it is one of those great Tools that we have available to just get us in the right mindset right now in this moment I can't help but think about the rock talking about this Are you guys familiar with like his thing that he says whenever he trains? No, what do you say? Oh, we've never seen that. Oh, he yells at focus focus focus That's like his thing like he's always talking about and it is it's around being present in the moment when you're lifting and being So focused on what you're doing, but there's so much truth to that like when you and anybody who's ever Squatted with three or four hundred pounds on their back or pulled four or five hundred pounds up off the ground like can't be thinking You can't be thinking about yesterday or what's tomorrow? You 100% this is one of my favorite parts about lifting him is it requires that I can go through a pumping workout and kind of light, you know going through the motions I could do my mobility thing and be kind of thinking about other things now when I'm training heavy and getting after it I have to be in the moment. There's just too much risk involved There's too much potential injury if I'm not paying fully attention to my body and how I'm moving and there's tremendous Benefit in training that muscle there is in high skill forms of exercise are better at this It was just I think why resistance training is one of the best ones because you're doing so many different movements You have to focus on what you're doing you're thinking about the lift while you're doing it And so you have Lots of opportunities where you're being present right now not thinking about anything else The what you're doing and this has been proven time and time again This is a meditation. This is what what meditation does meditation is about being present if I were to generalize it, right? And it has profound effects on your I'm calming your body Making you feel Different and better and it gives you a break It gives you a break for me an hour workout is a break from stress Because in that hour workout, I'm in that workout. I'm not thinking about anything else But here's the thing like idle minds like what do they call that? What's that quote is the devil devil's playground, right? So it's really hard and challenging for people to be able to Sit still and then meditate and focus on just one thing and like lock everything else out Which I think is a great thing to pursue. I think that's tons of value there But you know, why not do something right away that will get you there When your entire body is devoted and focused on one objective and it has that same effect to that Which then you can kind of build off of that and realize okay I can also do this by slowing down and and you know clearing my mind of everything else except for one thing Well, it's a skill. Yeah, it's like anything else. You have to develop it And some people and I mean how many times that we've got messages about that like I've tried to meditate I can't I can't do it, you know, yeah, it's a skill that you have to develop Some people can go right into it Some people can sit down cross their legs turn the lights off and be in the moment, but some people can't that's why training and exercising It's great because it kind of forces that yeah, so if you're somebody who doesn't you're doing something that requires Yeah, go do like I said go do some heavy-loaded back squats or plyometrics for that like something That's proprioceptive like that I think would also encourage you to be very present right if you're doing jump boxes or ice skaters or a Movement that's skill driven like that go do an exercise like that and tell me you're not thinking about Just that and nothing else and you're just training that muscle You're training that muscle that part of the brain to know how to do that You'll have a much easier time when you have to learn how to apply that in real life when stress or drama hits you You switch over to that and you can do that But if you never train that you never exercise and then you're you're expected to do that when stress hits you and Really tough to do now talk about skills that help you with the rest of life proper exercise is very empowering Because when you're working out and here's the beauty of proper exercise if you do it right The level of intensity and challenge It meets your current fitness level or at least it slightly exceeds it right so You need the way you train if you want your body to improve and all that stuff It needs to be hard right, but what does that mean hard? Well that means Somebody who's never worked out before that could be you know five sets of body weight Squats or five reps I should say of body weight squats. That's hard for them If you're advanced, it's obviously much more than that. Now. Why is how does this encourage empowerment? Well, because you do something hard You get better at it and then you improve the intensity or you increase the weight or you do it again And you continue to challenge yourself and what does it do? This is by the way This is how you empower children The way you empower children is you allow them to overcome challenges and you allow them to overcome harder challenges As they get better and better and it makes you feel confident. I can handle things I can do things Not to mention and I heard this a lot from women Especially from women the feeling of being physically strong Is a very empowering feeling for somebody who's never really felt that before I'll never forget the client the female client that I had that used to travel all the time for business Come back from a business trip after training with me for a few months And she was almost in tears and she goes for the first time in years I lifted my bag and put it in the overhead compartment. She was a real small petite lady I always had to ask some dude on the plane. I did it myself She goes you have no idea how empowering that feels that I know I don't need somebody to help me carry my bags. I can do it myself Feeling physically strong is a very empowering feeling and you don't need to be you know, hercules You just need to feel solid and strong in your body. I think there's more to that right like I think like let's let's take somebody who's Not getting didn't get stronger that just lost a hundred pounds The the mental discipline and consistency that it takes because that's a long journey I don't give a shit. That's a challenge. It's a challenge It's a journey It was something that you had to make a lot of sacrifice and or do and you did it So if even if even if it's not a strength because you're right for sure that is empowering and shit But it can be extremely empowering to just get through that journey of pursuing Weight loss and getting all the way down to that and that ends up empowering you another place like because you start to connect like Oh, shit like it's it's not meant to be easy And it was hard and I had to make lots of sacrifices to get there And I had to be consistent with it and it didn't happen overnight and it took a long time And you start to learn how to go. Oh, wow these other things in my life That feel so hard and challenging. Oh, shit. I did that 100 pounds. I lost it took me two years and stuff like that this whole thing This real estate license I got a study for for six months all of a sudden these things They seem so much more attainable because you've done something like that inside the gym So there's there's such an empowering piece to that too, even if it's not a Translating into like being stronger in the world just that hey, I did something really fucking hard that took a long time That not a lot of people can do that's right. It's it's a daily challenge It's hard and you grow and you get better That's what exercise in in fitness is And it does it does make other challenges seem more attainable or at least you can handle them And so when you're empowered in life, you're less fearful You you feel less of that out of control feeling like I can't handle things That's a scary kind of feeling to be in in fact That's probably one of the number one reasons why people feel anxious Is that they feel like they're not they don't have the control or they can't accept You know the challenges. Oh my god. That's too hard. I can't do it Well, this is why we hate the messaging around the genetics thing so much, right? Because even though genetics play a massive role in all of our body types, right You can't control it Yeah giving those giving that messaging out to the average person gives them an excuse to go Oh, well, I was born to be this way. So I'm not going to do anything about it And it's not the only card in your deck, right? And it's and it's a terrible message because then it turns a lot of people off from even Pursuing this and giving them the opportunity to empower themselves So I think that's one of the biggest things that we hate about that messaging Is that did you know that that like physical fitness Is perceived to be more challenging than becoming super wealthy? Yeah, the abs thing Remember we shared that study. There's a study that says that it's it's more people It's more people are millionaires than have six packs Yeah, or you know visible abs or whatever not saying that that's like some goal You need to attain who cares but People perceive it to be more challenging than Achieving lots of wealth Because it's it is it's a very challenging thing now We know as coaches like you just if you follow the steps and you're consistent Everybody can achieve a great deal of fitness. Well, I can get someone six pack abs a lot faster I get somebody a million dollars But if and that's why it's so empowering because you perceive it to be so like impossible And then you do it like how many times have you had clients that you train especially older clients, right? People in their fifties Who after they're consistent and they train with you for a year or two and they come to you and they go I I I feel better now than I felt in my 20s I am in better shape now that it was I can't believe What a difference and they're 50, right? They have all their genetics and age is working against them now And yet they feel better than they did when they were in their 20s. So that empowering part can't be overstated Here's something that's really cool. And this is again. This is also backed by studies Let's let's talk about the physical feelings of a hard workout And I and trust me this is all going to connect to, you know, kind of anxiety in particular, right? You're working out hard. What happens you sweat your palms sweat your body sweats You feel pain things burn Muscles hurt your heart is beating really fast. You know what that also sounds like anxiety anxiety attack It sounds a lot. In fact, the physical effects of hard exercise are very closely I mean they almost mirror the physical effects of anxiety. So why is it important? If you train your body regularly and you're exercising on your own or in the gym And you're getting these physical feelings of anxiety But you're connecting them to something that's positive, right? Something that feels good something that's empowering This is improving my fitness. I think I enjoy this. This is cool You develop a you change your relationship to the physical feelings of anxiety fear And pain especially pain Yeah, when I work out I've been doing this for years. I feel no less pain than a beginner I feel the same pain that they feel when we work out I might take I have to might have to do more weight and train harder But I feel the same pain But that pain Doesn't bother me like it may a beginner because I have a different relationship to it I actually like or enjoy that it still hurts So when I say enjoy it, it's not like this pleasurable type feeling but rather I have a different relationship to it Well, I love that association because also they've they've talked about that as being When you get excited, it's a very similar pathway to You know in parallel to that having anxiety. It's just What you attach to that either being negative or positively associated towards that and so You know to think about that is going through an exercise you do You know have those same you generate the heart rate you generate Uh, you know your your body temperature can kind of come up a bit like you get all these same Fees physical feelings behind it It's just that now if we relate that more in a positive direction you can fuel that Towards a better outcome. Well, it also just gets you comfortable being in that position I mean, how many times have you guys had somebody with severe anxiety talk about That part of what creates the severe anxiety is just that bit of anxiousness to become anxious about being anxious The fear of it. Yes, totally And then it's like they get a little because we all get a little bit of anxiety or angst, right But a lot of times when you feel that you calm it down You control it or you're you're at your ease in it still Where somebody who's not used to that feeling and this is foreign They get they sort of get anxiety and anxious and then they it compounds because then they're anxious about being anxious And then it turns into this complete nervous breakdown or they have a different relationship to it to where They maybe had a panic attack one time Which is which is terrifying right now They feel the beginnings of a panic attack in their mind. It's the beginnings of a panic. Maybe it's just mild anxiety But because now they fear the panic attack. They actually start to fuel it's a it's a it's a positive feedback loop It's no different than when you take a a microphone and a speaker and you put the microphone of the speaker And it makes that loud noise That's what's called a positive feedback loop right the noise from the mic goes to the speaker But then the speaker feeds the mic and it goes louder and louder and louder This is part of the reason why Anxiety can be so bad the same thing with pain, you know If you you look you talk about people who have been under severe physical trauma And they have a poor relationship with physical pain Because it reminds them of the trauma well when you're exercising and you're causing physical pain to yourself But you're under control of it. You i'm doing the reps myself. I can stop when I want But also i'm getting more fit. I feel better. I'm stronger It really does change your relationship to that pain. This is again one of those things that you can't I think uh overstate Here's a huge positive with exercise that you cannot say about medications medications tend to develop people tend to develop a tolerance to them It's not uncommon where you take a medication and it works But then over time you need more of it and then over time you need more of it And then you got to go to the doctor and say It's not working for any me anymore and they change you to a different medication That maybe is a little stronger or works at or all like it in all of those. They all they all lead to higher doses That's right. Here's the beauty of exercise. You don't develop a quote-unquote Tolerance to it. It's not like you do it and then you do in the sense that you get more fit But the tolerance you develop from exercise is actually a great thing Getting more fit is not the same thing As your body not responding to medication like it used to because as you up the dose of medications So you up the potential side effects and the you know the fact that you're dependent on them Exercises and like that the beauty of as you up the dose of exercise You continue to up the dose of benefits you get and and lower the effect the negative side effects. Yes, exactly It's it's a it's a beautiful. This is why studies Suggest that exercise is a long term better For things like mild to moderate depression because when they do these long studies, they show that initially it's about as good But then as they go longer and longer they go well looks like it might actually start out performing Because and here's the next part It gets better over time And it always gets better over time. This is the beauty. I've been working out for 20 over 25 years And my workouts are better now than they were before not because i'm stronger not because i'm more fit I was stronger in my 30s. I was you know all that stuff not because of that But just all the other benefits of exercise are even better for me now You meet somebody in their 70s or 80s who's been exercising consistently for decades And they love the exercise more now than they did when they were you know in their youth It just gets better over time You get better at what you do you get you start to recognize the the movements and the the types of workouts that That benefits you the most you also it's like putting money away as an investment We've talked about this recently with you've done 10 years of building muscle like it gets easier It does gets easier to sustain. I mean you shared that study recently It takes one ninth of the the effort and workout to maintain What it took to get to that place. So it's you know, you do all this hard work to get this to this place I don't have to do as much to maintain that the muscle memory effects Yes, you're able to kind of get right back in to receive the benefits a little more You know like like soon in terms of like I can jump back in after like being out for a while because I put All of that work in over time That's a bank that I've been building that I can now I can just receive the benefits from it Yeah, you know one component too of kind of working through Uh, you know anxiety and oppression I think for a lot of people is there's there tends to be a there's a component of acceptance That once they achieve a certain level acceptance things tend to get better. So maybe you're anxious or depressed because you lost a loved one Or your job isn't what you thought or you know something right and you're just it just bothers you and at some point Hopefully you get to the point of acceptance And then a lot of that pain kind kind of goes away Or maybe you just accept the fact that you're just not as happy as most people I mean there are different baselines for individuals and you may just accept that and that takes the edge off of it because you're no longer judging How you feel so acceptance is a big part of that. Well, here's the beauty of exercise in the long term It is a wonderful acceptance teacher. Here's how okay Initially when people first start working out they have some kind of aesthetic or physical goal I want to look like the cover of the I want to look like the girl on the cover of the magazine Or I want to look that like that super rip dude on Baywatch or the bodybuilder or whatever And they train train train train train and at some point they realize I'll never look like that person because not only does that person work out a lot and you know, whatever Maybe they do things that are unhealthy But they also have like these crazy like look good genetics that I just don't have or they're 6 3 and I'm 5 10 Yeah, or you know, whatever. I'm a little thicker. They're a little thinner He's got really wide shoulders minor narrow her hips look differently the mind But you continue the exercise. You know what ends up happening. You accept yourself I'm never going to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I don't care. I really don't care. I accept My body and I'm continuing to train it that acceptance goes a long way I mean you talk to people who've been working out for decades And more often than not when you talk to somebody working out for two months You get a lot of Non-acceptance. No, I want to look this way. I don't like my body talks Someone's working out for 30 40 years. They accept their body. They accept themselves Like yeah, this is how I look and this is who I am. I'm comfortable with it And you get that more often than not I also think that training for a long period of time like that it starts to teach you to Train because you love yourself, you know, you talk about this a lot on the show about, you know, learning to do that to To exercise because because you love yourself not because you hate the way you look or the way you are And that's there's a bit of a learning curve there. It's not an overnight thing It's not like somebody who comes in who doesn't like who they are Doesn't like the way they look trains a week and then all of a sudden they're like, oh now I'm doing it because I love myself But over time this is what you get That's the part of the acceptance that I see here is that when you've been training for a long period of time You start to make the connections to all the other things that we're talking about And you start a better person when I'm doing this consistently Yeah, and you transition away from being this person who was so focused on the original goal that brought you into fitness And now you're doing it for other reasons. That's part of that acceptance I'm not doing this because I want to look like that cover anymore regardless if I can or can't who cares It doesn't even matter anymore now I'm here because I love myself because I want to take care of take care of myself and I deserve to be healthier I deserve to be better. I deserve to be a better version of myself. So that's why I'm doing it I think that has a lot to do with the how it teaches acceptance Totally and again if you look at studies on people who exercise For long term on a regular basis They tend to do better in almost every aspect of life. They tend to be happier in the relationships Of course, they tend to be healthier physically. That's that's a given But they also tend to be more successful in business. They tend to be happier in the relationships They tend to suffer less From these low bouts of depression that all of us can go through the lows are not as low They tend to have less, you know bouts of anxiety It's just it helps everything it is it almost like and I it minus the spiritual aspect I don't I don't want to call it a spiritual practice, but in many ways it's got some of the benefits Of spiritual practices. Um, so there you have it, uh, you know You may be working out because you want to look better and you want to get stronger build muscle and burn body fat Which is great But what you may not realize is the most profound Effects of exercise are the mental and psychological ones. Look if you like our information head over to mind pump media Excuse me mind pump free dot com at mind pump free dot com We have lots of guides that can help you train your body improve your health change how you look Make yourself more fit and more healthy again mind pump free dot com You can also find all of us on instagram. So justin is at mind pump justin I'm at mind pump salin adam is at mind pump adam