One of my big goals on this website is to shed light on the mental health side of “health and wellness”. As someone with a background in strength and conditioning, the physical side has always been second nature to me. Working hard on the physical side of my wellbeing has never been an issue. I have always been able to push for “one extra rep” or “go the extra mile”. I had always thought that by pushing my training hard, eating right, and getting good sleep I was “healthy”.  This, I learned, proved to be a shortsighted view on health.

This “Mental Health Series” is going to highlight how I have worked to improve my mental health (especially as it pertains to struggles with my physical health). Strength and conditioning coaches love to talk about “work/life balance” and “taking care of our mental health”. But I’ve never actually heard anyone share information on how to improve these aspects of health other than “get a therapist” or “go and train”. Again, this is the purpose of this “Mental Health Series” – to show others ways how I have addressed my mental health (with strategies other than just physically exhausting myself). I am NOT a therapist and am not qualified to actually help you – I am simply using this space to share some strategies that have helped me (none of which may help you or all of which may help you). In this Series, the four strategies I will touch on are: Physical Exercise, Having Creative Outlets, Breathing Techniques and Meditation, and Talking with Others.

Part 1 of this series is going to highlight the aspect of taking care of your mental health that most strength coaches (and probably most people in general) can relate to: Physical Exercise.

Growing up I was an athlete. I was constantly either practicing or playing something (and if I wasn’t I was in the gym or at the track training for something). I (like many others) learned the value of using physical activity to improve my overall wellbeing. I (also like many others) learned to use physical activity to cope with stress, anxiety, and any other uncomfortable or negative thoughts and feelings. When I had a bad game at the plate, I would go home and take swings until my hands would bleed. When I had a bad game on the ice, I would go to the track and run to “get my frustrations out”. Overall this helped me to “blow off steam” and to “clear my head” (coincidentally it also helped me to be in great physical shape). We have all heard the benefits of exercise for physical and mental health. But what happens when this becomes your only form of coping? Is compiling additional physical stress on top of mental duress really beneficial (especially when you aren’t addressing the actual issue that is causing you anxiety in the first place)?

What happens if you use running to “clear your head” but you have a sprained ankle? What happens if you bench press to “blow off steam” but you tear your labrum playing softball with your friends? What happens if the gym is your “sanctuary” but you hurt your back at work and can’t get out of bed? I found this lesson out the hard way when I was told not to physically exert myself after an unfortunate health event in November of 2022.

This was the starting point for my journey into ACTUALLY improving my mental health. I was always going for a hard run or a difficult training session to clear my mind. But what I was really doing was detaching from reality, pushing myself to exhaustion, and ignoring my actual problems (and subsequently causing more stress for myself). When the ability to physically exert myself was taken away from me, I did not know how to deal with the negative thoughts in my head. I couldn’t detach from myself, and I didn’t have a way to exert my energy (which led to me not being able to rest and ultimately sent me down a deep path of sleep deprivation and depression). My inability to cope with my ongoing anxiety (both from a restless mind and uncertainty around my physical health issues) created a vicious cycle of overthinking and mental health issues for me (ultimately leading me to make one very poor choice).

There are a lot of people who will be confused to find out what I did and to hear that I have been struggling with my mental health. On the outside it would appear I had a great life – a loving and supportive wife and family, a high-paying job in the field that I got my degrees in, being at the “top of my game”, etc. But this is what makes mental health struggles so difficult – you never know what someone is actually going through. Under the surface I was really struggling (again a lot of it centered around uncertainty with my physical health and an inability to deal with stress through my previous coping strategy of physical exercise). Even once I was cleared to exercise again, I had such a fear around exerting myself that training the way I had previously done became very difficult for me. I couldn’t lift weights or run hard without feeling complete uncertainty about what may happen to me (in short I was “gun shy”). I had been knocked out by Mike Tyson and was scared to get back in the ring. I also had even more anxiety to deal with because I had not trained in months and my body was starting to feel unhealthier. So what did I do?

This is what you came to this article for – the applicable aspects. I did two things: 1) I learned to address the anxiety and mental health issues with other coping strategies (talking, creativity, meditation – the topics that will be discussed in the remainder of this Series) and 2) I changed my perception of “exercise”. Being a strength and conditioning coach I always took my exercise very serious (in fact I did not call it exercise – it was always “training”). However, I could not train the way I had done prior to November (lifting heavy weights, running shuttles, etc.). Instead I found other ways to exercise. My wife and I joined a rock climbing gym (which we immediately fell in love with). They had a small strength training area which was perfect to “put a governor” on my training (barbell and plates up to 345 or so and dumbbells up to 50). We started to lift weights, climb the rock walls, and then run some sprints or hit the rower after. I would go on long walks multiple times a day (almost always making sure to get one first thing in the morning). I would go on distance runs with my wife or run random shuttles or rollerblade or do yoga or find bodyweight workouts on YouTube or go kayaking. In essence I was just trying to move my body and deal with the anxiety of exercise. There were times where it was really difficult (and still is really difficult), but allowing myself to reframe my thinking about exercise and not make it an “all or nothing” thing (aka if I’m not training my hardest I’m not getting anything out of it) really allowed me one way (but not the only way) to deal with my mental health (while getting some physical health benefits as well). Although I am not as “big” or as “muscular” or as “in-shape” as I was prior to November, I believe I have a much healthier relationship with exercise (and can honestly still do a lot of things physically that many others can not).

In summary, if you are to take nothing else from this article, please note the following highlights:

-Reframe your relationship with exercise to help improve mental health

-Have additional outlets for stress other than physical exertion in case something happens that prevents you from being able to exercise the way you like to do

-Try new ways to move your body. You may be surprised at what you actually enjoy doing (and the more you enjoy the exercise you are doing the more likely you are to do more of it and the healthier you will feel/become)