Episode 117: Transforming Mental Health Through Movement: Practical Strategies and Inspiring Stories

Imagine the transformative power of movement on mental health. Join us on this enlightening episode of Giving Your Best Life Podcast, where Stephanie and Zach Lloyd delve into the profound connection between physical activity and mental wellness. Hear Stephanie’s touching story about a friend's triumph over depression and anxiety through consistent exercise. Supported by Zach’s detailed scientific insights, discover how even a 10-minute burst of vigorous activity can significantly improve your mood. From aerobics to resistance training and mind-body exercises, learn about the various forms of movement that act as natural antidepressants.

But that’s not all—we’re also bringing you practical, everyday strategies to incorporate these beneficial habits into your life seamlessly. They share a personal to-do list system that includes prayer, gratitude, and simple exercises like 10 push-ups to keep procrastination at bay. Stephanie highlights the importance of small, manageable actions, including her own routine of using a trampoline to elevate her mood. Together, they provide a roadmap for integrating movement and mental health practices into your daily routine, empowering you to give your best life every day. Don't miss this episode filled with actionable advice and inspiring stories!

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Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:00

Hey friends, it's Stephanie here with Giving your Best Life Podcast and my friend.

Speaker 1: 0:05

Zach Lloyd, Sustainable Anti-Diet Coach.

Speaker 2: 0:07

Awesome. So today I want to put like a preface warning label whatever it is on this. We're going to talk about mental health and movement, but I just want to say that if you need to speak to a counselor, a doctor, if you're on meds, if you need med like we're not experts in this area go speak.

Speaker 2: 0:27

But what we've seen of in our own lives with friends, and what you've seen in what you do of some things that help, and so I just want to put that caveat it is is stick on the path that you're on um, or if you are having suicidal thoughts or you feel like you need help, go get help again this is just us adding our two cents.

Speaker 1: 0:51

Yeah, exactly so.

Speaker 2: 0:53

Zach and I were talking a couple weeks ago. I had a friend that talked about how they just like she's like I just have down in the dump days and then what I do, I go sit on the couch, I watch TV, I scroll through my phone and then I start getting anxious. So now I have this like depression down the dump moods. I start getting anxious the more I said. And she said one day I just told myself, get up and go walk. And she's like it was amazing because when I went up and got moving, I, the anxiety went away and like how I was feeling, my depression went out.

Speaker 2: 1:30

So she said, is she found that she just started consistently doing it instead of what I always feel like the easier thing to do is go sit down, is she makes herself move. So go outside to her garden pick weeds, you know, go go work on a project or whatever, but just get moving. And you, you were like, yeah, there's actually like science and research behind like mental health and movement. And I've even known for myself is some days where I'm just like I get overwhelmed and then when I get overwhelmed, then I do kind of slink into a depressed mode.

Speaker 2: 2:05

Yeah, and if I I never liked the word force, but if I'll force myself to like go do the dishes or get moving, I can snap out of something pretty quickly. So your thoughts?

Speaker 1: 2:21

Yeah, there there's a lot of evidence to say that just exercise or activity, not even putting an exercise blanket on top of it, just activity in general, can be massively helpful to rebounding your mood. And I pulled up a couple of things so overwhelmingly kind of in the scientific literature, meta-analyses are great. And then you have systemic review of meta-analysis. Meta-analysis basically is just like a whole bunch of studies around the topic that are analyzed and then put together which is basically saying okay, there's more compounding evidence to say that the conclusions or the summaries we're coming to here, there's all these studies, whether it's 10, 20, or 100 or more studies are kind of agreeing in the same area. So we can say with more of beyond a reasonable doubt, it's probably there's something here, versus you can find a study saying anything.

Speaker 2: 3:10

Right, like one study that aligns you to whatever you want to believe?

Speaker 1: 3:13

Or 10 studies say meat's bad for you, but I could find 100 studies saying the opposite. Like what is the meta analysis of that? So just real quick, a couple of summaries from that. I think to change people's minds you have to have facts, right, right. And so go check this out yourselves. But I'll just give you a couple of summaries of some of the bigger ones that I found.

Speaker 1: 3:40

Physical activity appears to be a promising and acceptable intervention for adolescents and young adults experiencing depression. Exercise has a large and significant antidepressant effect in people with depression. Separate study, another one that I really thought was interesting was aerobic resistance and mind body exercise demonstrate equivalence to mitigate symptoms of depression in older adults aged 65 years. So we have a lot of studies talking about adolescents. We have a lot of studies talking about middle-aged people. All of them were kind of pointing to the same conclusion that this movement and then this one I liked a lot because it really said not just aerobics, so not just walking or running or gardening, but also resistance training, right possible, and then also mind body exercise equivalents as well, which could be meditation, prayer, stuff like that all kind of incorporated into this movement category.

Speaker 1: 4:27

So it's like, if you like to lift weights, great, but if you don't, don't feel like you can't get the benefit right. And then there's a lot of uh, more recent in the last couple years, uh which I couldn't find this one off the top of my head. But 10 minutes of vigorous activity Vigorous activity is kind of like in that 80 to 95% of maximum heart rate Just 10 minutes of doing that is enough to significantly transform all of these biomarkers that are related to feeling down, depressed whatever we want to label these things, as I think they're broad categories, but overwhelmingly so to bring your mood elevated, and then you can potentially make better decisions.

Speaker 2: 5:10

Yeah, I don't know if this goes into like the 10 minutes that you were talking about but, I bought one of those little trampolines.

Speaker 1: 5:17

Oh, and the tony robbins tramp, yes exactly, I love that thing yes, like that's a perfect example.

Speaker 2: 5:25

I well, because I was reading and we won't get into this about, like all the benefits, your lymphatic system, but it's in my basement and I have where I store, like all my books, so if I have to go, get a, book order, whatever I'll just make myself do 100 jumps or 50 jumps or whatever. If we're watching TV, I'm on there jumping.

Speaker 2: 5:44

I am amazed at just how much better I feel like just doing that and then setting like a little goal. So it's like okay, I'm going to go to 50 or I'm going to go to. You know, my calves are starting to burn, and so again it just seems like if I'm jumping, if I'm moving, and it's a little bit harder than just like going out for a walk.

Speaker 2: 6:03

It's using a lot of different muscles, so that might even be something to like fun, different have in your house. You can do it pretty quickly and you start to see the results at 10 minutes. They say so. Anyways, I want to throw that in.

Speaker 1: 6:18

Yeah, I make fun of Tony Robbins for it, but it's actually brilliant because over time you see trends evolved with like gurus not I don't whatever you want to call tony robbins but ultimately they were really right about certain things that the science didn't back up yet right and now it's actually shown that's exactly what's happening with the trampoline effect essentially is that you're getting in that vigorous activity in a very short window of time, right, you're getting your heart rate up, and then you're essentially just flushing your body, if you will not a technical term, but that's what a lot of people will kind of relate it to.

Speaker 1: 6:48

It's almost like a computer, where, if a computer gets overloaded with information like think of your brain.

Speaker 1: 6:53

It'll heat up and heat up and it'll get too hot and then it'll literally shut off. Yeah, and so that's kind of what I like correlate our brains to. It's like we don't actually. Well, some of us will shut off. We'll take a nap right, like literally. I just said I started getting overwhelmed and whatever, and I'll shut down. So using this exercise or movement or whatever it is to think of, like flushing that heat which it's more than heat.

Speaker 1: 7:18

But I think it's a good illustration Right. And then you can kind of just erase all of that stuff and then all of a sudden start from that better place and then all of a sudden you're feeling better and you make better decisions and kind of snowball down that way I've also found too.

Speaker 2: 7:32

Is like if I'm jumping 10 minutes or more just because I know it is affecting the lymphatic is like make sure I'm drinking a lot of water, because a lot of times you know that's getting off topic but, um, I didn't even know that tony robbins thinks, so that's oh yeah, I mean is. I just started seeing like a couple of videos and then I like googled it.

Speaker 2: 7:51

So that's the other thing is I do is if I start to see a trend or whatever yeah I'll go do some research and it was like, and I noticed like you're working a lot of different muscles um, when you're on the trampoline, so that's just like a fun thing for movement anything else you want to add.

Speaker 1: 8:06

With, yeah, I. And movement, yeah, I would say that people are like, well, I don't have a little trampoline, like don't worry about it, just like squat to a chair, yeah, 10, 20, 30 times, really fast, as fast as you can Do a push-up. Same thing Again, not have to do a push-up on the floor. You can do a push-up on your kitchen counter, whatever it is I like doing, limit it, yeah.

Speaker 2: 8:26

Or on stairs, yeah like you know, just get on a stair and I'll keep that on my phone. Zach got to see today. On my phone is I have this like to-do list for during the day, but a lot of it is like little mental health things. So it is prayer, it is gratitude. I'll have 10 push-ups on there. Yeah, I might only do 10 push-ups that day, but I feel like, okay, I've got a little bit out there.

Speaker 2: 8:45

I have like just some posture exercises that don't take me, but it's that constantly movement. Or if I want to go get a snack or whatever it is that I'm. If I'm trying to procrastinate which I've talked about that before it's like go move, Go do something healthy, Go do something for your mind or your body and then go. Okay, when I come back is start working on whatever you're procrastinating on, Dr. Yeah, that's a great lesson.

Speaker 1: 9:10

Yeah, I love it Cool.

Speaker 2: 9:12

Well, friends, zach and Stephanie, here with just another hopefully couple of tips to help you get to giving your best life.