“Going in one more round when you don’t think you can. That’s what makes the difference in your life.” - rocky balboa
CHALLENGE OF THE WEEK
CHALLENGE OF THE WEEK! PUSH-UPS. AS. MANY. AS. YOU. CAN!
Just once a day, do as many push-ups as you can. This is a great, full body workout with a ton of benefits listed below. If you can only give me ten, it’s okay. I am asking you to try every single day to increase your reps. Anything is something!! You are capable of more than you think - I will remind you of this always.
10 Benefits of Push-ups
1. Increase Functional Strength via Full Body Activation
As you lower your body to the floor and the familiar “burn” begins to encompass your muscles the last thing you’re thinking about is the number of muscles you’re using. However, this is one of the top benefits of pushups. As you engage in this exercise, literally every major muscle in your body is called upon to execute the movement.
Major muscle groups, such as your biceps, core muscles, triceps, anterior deltoids and lower body muscle groups are activated to support your body while stabilizing your movements. Classified a a compound exercise – meaning multiple muscle groups are called upon – you train the most important muscles throughout your body. Have you ever wondered by a standard bench press is so easy when compared to a standard push up? This is why.
2. Muscle Stretching for Health and Vitality
One of the most underrated benefits of doing push ups is the stretch it provides to your biceps and back muscles. As you lower yourself to the floor, your back muscles are effectively stretched, and as you push yourself to the starting position your biceps obtain a full stretch. This not only improves your flexibility, which helps prevent injuries, but a well-stretched muscle feature a solid and attractive appearance.
3. Enhance Your Cardiovascular System
As stated earlier, push ups are classified as a compound exercise as it calls upon multiple muscle groups. When you simultaneously engage large muscle groups, your heart must work harder to deliver oxygen-rich blood to muscle tissue. Ultimately, this activity results in an effective cardiovascular exercise, which supports heart health and promotes the reduction of stored body fat.
4. Increase Whole Body Muscle Definition – HGH Promotion
Throughout the movements of a push up, you recruit a wide array of primary and stabilizing muscles. The more muscle mass that’s utilized in a strength training exercise, the greater the production and release of a specialized hormone known as HGH, or human growth hormone.
As a young man or woman, your body pumped out large concentrations of this specialized hormone to support the natural growth of your entire body. However, as you age the natural release of HGH declines, which makes building muscle a challenging task for older adults.
By calling upon such a wide array of muscles, the production of HGH is triggered, which ultimately results in muscle hypertrophy – or muscle growth. To maximize push up benefits, you must incorporate this exercise into your regular strength training program.
5. Protect Your Shoulders from Injury
One of the most debilitating, and common, injuries for older individuals is a rotator cuff injury. While the severity of this injury is based upon a host of unique circumstances, protecting this delicate part of your body must become a priority.
The standard push up has been found to be among the most effective ways to safeguard your shoulder joints from injury; especially in older adults. Because push ups call upon stabilizing muscles, which surround the rotator cuff joint, this area of the body is strengthened and conditioned for dynamic movements.
By supporting the strength and health of primary and secondary shoulder muscles, the likelihood of debilitating injuries significantly lowers.
6. Improve Your Posture
Whether you sit at a computer all day or simply ignored the nagging recommendations from your mother or teachers, improper posture can destroy your health and comfort as you age. One of the most common reasons for a lack of proper posture is weak core muscles.
In order to properly hold your shoulders and back, your entire core must be strong enough to support its vertical positions. When push ups are properly executed, the muscles responsible for supporting posture are strengthened and fine-tuned. Moreover, as you regularly engage in push ups, your body will naturally lean toward proper posture. This is one of the most influential passive benefits of push ups.
7. Prevent Lower Back Injuries
There are few injuries as debilitating as a lower back injury. This essential part of your body supports practically every movement, so if it’s damaged or injured even the simplest of tasks can become excruciatingly painful. As mentioned earlier, pushups call upon your entire torso to stabilize its movements. By doing so, you strengthen this vulnerable part of the body.
By developing strength in this specific portion of your body, you cultivate muscles responsible for reducing lower back pressure, which is imperative to prevent and treat low back injuries.
8. Save Time While Cultivating a Strong Body
When surveys are conducted to determine why an individual does not exercise more the most common answer is a lack of time. We live increasingly busy lives, and while exercising is essential for a healthy body, it’s most commonly the first activity eliminated from a daily list of chores.
Although you may not have time for a traditional strength training or cardiovascular workout, if you have five minutes you can achieve a full-body workout with push ups. Want to add variation to this swift and potent exercise movement? Delve into the many different hand and feet placements to target muscles from different angles, which supports rapid strength and size development.
9. No Cost for a Full Body Workout
Although you may have a desire to join a world-class gym, their monthly dues may not fit in your tight budget. Thankfully, you don’t need an expensive gym membership – or even any equipment – to obtain an effective and thorough full body workout.
By engaging in push up exercises, you effectively fatigue major and minor muscle groups, which provide the same benefits as a traditional full body exercise performed at the gym on expensive and cumbersome equipment.
10. Increase Testosterone and Reduce Osteoporosis Development
As men and women age, the concentration of various hormones begin to dwindle. For men, the most prominent loss is the reduction of circulating testosterone. While preliminary evidence requires further investigation, several studies suggest the simple movements within a standard push up promotes testosterone production, which is essential for a healthy body in both men and women.
Moreover, weight bearing exercises, such as the standard push up, supports stronger, more dense bones. This increase in bone density may ward off debilitating skeletal system disorders, such as osteoporosis.
TIP OF THE WEEK
TIP OF THE WEEK!
Hear me out team. I know home cooked meals are no easy feat. I get it. Work. Kids. Life. It is so much easier grabbing breakfast, lunch and dinner at a restaurant, whether it's takeout or sit down dining. This is my experience - when you are not cooking your own meals, you have no idea what ingredients are being included, what the salt content is, the type of oil used, as well as all the preservatives included in the meal you purchase. Food is fuel for your body. I have several blog posts at this point - steal some of my meal and snack ideas. If you are not sure what to make, contact me. I am always here to help. We are working on a 30 day meal plan with a dietician to help support your every day meals. When you give your body what it needs, your body thanks you. Give it one week. No take out. Tell me how you feel. YOU GOT THIS!
MEAL + snack ideas
BALSAMIC BRAISED CHICKEN
Ingredients:
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 small-medium purple onion, sliced
1 can diced tomatoes
1 cup balsamic vinegar
Salt + Pepper
Dried oregano
Olive oil
Coat your chicken with salt + pepper.
Pour olive oil into a pan over medium heat and add your chicken and onions. Cook both sides until browned & onions become see through.
Add your can of diced tomatoes. Mix and let cook for 5 minutes.
Add the balsamic vinegar to the pan. Sprinkle some oregano, lower the heat to low, and cook for another 5-7 minutes.
The mixture will become a little thick. Serve over a bed of couscous & enjoy!
FRESH MEDITERRANEAN BEAN SALAD
Ingredients:
1 15-oz can kidney beans drained and rinsed
1 15- oz can cannellini beans drained and rinsed
1 15- oz can garbanzo beans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 green bell pepper cored and chopped
1 red bell pepper cored and chopped
1/2 English cucumber diced
1 cup chopped red onions
1 1/2 tbsp capers
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
10-15 fresh mint leaves torn or gently chopped
10-15 fresh basil leaves torn or gently chopped
Garlic Dijon Vinaigrette:
1-2 garlic cloves minced
1/2 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp sugar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and black pepper
In a large mixing bowl, combine the beans, chopped peppers, onions, capers and fresh herbs. Mix using a wooden spoon.
In a small bowl, add the vinaigrette ingredients. Whisk vigorously to combine.
Add the vinaigrette to the salad bowl. Toss to coat.
For best results, cover and refrigerate for a bit before serving so that beans soak up the vinaigrette flavors. Give the salad another quick toss before serving.
COLORFUL TACO BOWLS
Ingredients:
1 pound ground turkey
2 cups rice, cooked
Taco seasoning (a packet will do)
1 can black beans
1 bell pepper, stripped (I like orange or red)
Cojita cheese, crumbled
Avocado, sliced
Pickled onion
Limes
Cilantro
Hot sauce (optional)
Olive oil
Cook your rice on the stove or in a rice cooker, set aside.
Heat a pan with olive oil over medium heat.
Cook your ground turkey until browned.
Add your bell pepper strips & black beans to the pan .
Season all of it using the taco seasoning pouch, add 1/3 cup of water and let simmer on low heat.
Layer a large bowl with rice, ground turkey / black beans / bell peppers, cojita cheese, pickled onion, avocado, cilantro, and squeeze fresh limes over everything.
*Tip: You could very easily swap the bell pepper for zucchini, broccoli, or cauliflower. Any veggie works really!
INDUSTRY NEWS
Being fit & losing weight is a powerful force against COVID-19, but cities have to do more
By: Jayne O’Donnell for USA TODAY
The annual ranking of the fittest U.S. cities, out Tuesday, tracks with some of the cities that weathered COVID-19 better – but the reverse is also often true.
The ranking underscores how cities can help or hinder residents' opportunities to be physically active, lose weight and avoid chronic conditions including diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, which increase the risk of serious illness and death from COVID-19.
The COVID-19 death rate for Arlington, Virginia, the nation's fittest city for the third year in a row, is 56 per 100,000 population. Like most of the other Washington suburbs, Arlington had more cases per capita than more rural parts of the state. Indiana's Marion County, which includes 94th-ranked Indianapolis, has the highest number of cases and deaths in the state.
“We know from research that physical activity can build a healthier immune system and overall wellness, which help minimize harmful effects of illness and disease," said Barbara Ainsworth, chair of the American Fitness Index Advisory Board. "This pandemic shows the need to have local parks, trails and connected sidewalks in all neighborhoods that allow people to exercise safely."
The index, co-sponsored by the American College of Sports Medicine and the Anthem Foundation, uses 33 health behaviors, chronic diseases and community infrastructure indicators to come up with scores that rank the health of communities and those who live in them.
City leaders and planners need to enact policies and target funding to promote physical activity, better health and stronger communities, experts said.
That's especially true in cities with high populations of Blacks and Hispanics, who have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19, said NiCole Keith, ACSM's new president.
"COVID's negative health outcomes come from diseases that are positively impacted by physical activity," Keith said. "If you give people a place to be active, the likelihood they will do it is higher."
Sedentary lifestyles across the country cost more than $117 billion a year in health costs, Ainsworth said. The Fitness Index is a "prescription for communities to bring about positive change."
Only one in four Americans meet national physical activity guidelines and more than 30 million have heart disease, Ainsworth said, noting it should be of "national concern."
Though there were many bright spots in the findings, researchers found only 22% of adults in the 100 largest cities met the guidelines for both aerobic and strength activities. Adults need 150 minutes per week of moderately intense activity, or roughly 22 minutes per day, for substantial health benefits.
On more positive notes:
All cities: In all 100 cities, residents exercised and biked more, fewer smoked and there were more parks within a 10-minute walk this year compared with last.
Big jumps: Some cities improved by at least 15 spots from 2019: Buffalo, New York (No. 25); Toledo, Ohio (No. 81); and Anchorage, Alaska (No. 37).
Charlotte, North Carolina: Even though the city ranks 67th, ACSM credits the work business and community leaders have done since 2013 to prioritize healthy eating, physical activity and reducing tobacco use, all three Fitness Index indicators. The Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation Department's chronic disease prevention efforts, which target physical activity, obesity, tobacco use, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, were also cited.
New Orleans: Mayor Mitch Landrieu set a goal for the city to be one of the 10 fittest in the USA. The Fit NOLA strategic plan targets healthy eating, physical activity and tobacco use, among others. The city is ranked 50th.
Nearly 40 percent of U.S. adults are obese. A comparison of 100 of the largest U.S. metro areas across 19 key indicators of weight-related problems.
The index, in its 13th year, ranks cities instead of entire metropolitan areas to better capture the health disparities in urban areas. The health challenges facing low-income people in cities were getting offset by the healthier suburbs, Keith said.
Indianapolis, where Keith lives, expanded trails, added green spaces and increased the number of farmers markets.
It's easier for people to make healthy choices, Keith said, when the community has parks and other recreational facilities. She exercises every day at 3 p.m. at a university.
Natasha Burke, an assistant professor of psychology at Fordham University who specializes in obesity and eating disorders, said community leaders need to work with underserved residents to determine the health solutions that will make people more active.
“Instead of us saying, ‘We think you need this,’ asking, ‘What do you need?’ ” Burke said.
HEALTH & WELLNESS
The exercise effect
By Kirsten Weir
Evidence is mounting for the benefits of exercise, yet psychologists don’t often use exercise as part of their treatment arsenal. Here’s more research on why they should
When Jennifer Carter, PhD, counsels patients, she often suggests they walk as they talk. "I work on a beautiful wooded campus," says the counseling and sport psychologist at the Center for Balanced Living in Ohio.
Strolling through a therapy session often helps patients relax and open up, she finds. But that's not the only benefit. As immediate past president of APA's Div. 47 (Exercise and Sport Psychology), she's well aware of the mental health benefits of moving your muscles. "I often recommend exercise for my psychotherapy clients, particularly for those who are anxious or depressed," she says.
Unfortunately, graduate training programs rarely teach students how to help patients modify their exercise behavior, Carter says, and many psychologists aren't taking the reins on their own. "I think clinical and counseling psychologists could do a better job of incorporating exercise into treatment," she says.
"Exercise is something that psychologists have been very slow to attend to," agrees Michael Otto, PhD, a professor of psychology at Boston University. "People know that exercise helps physical outcomes. There is much less awareness of mental health outcomes — and much, much less ability to translate this awareness into exercise action."
Researchers are still working out the details of that action: how much exercise is needed, what mechanisms are behind the boost exercise brings, and why — despite all the benefits of physical activity — it's so hard to go for that morning jog. But as evidence piles up, the exercise-mental health connection is becoming impossible to ignore.
Mood enhancement
If you've ever gone for a run after a stressful day, chances are you felt better afterward. "The link between exercise and mood is pretty strong," Otto says. "Usually within five minutes after moderate exercise you get a mood-enhancement effect."
But the effects of physical activity extend beyond the short-term. Research shows that exercise can also help alleviate long-term depression.
Some of the evidence for that comes from broad, population-based correlation studies. "There's good epidemiological data to suggest that active people are less depressed than inactive people. And people who were active and stopped tend to be more depressed than those who maintain or initiate an exercise program," says James Blumenthal, PhD, a clinical psychologist at Duke University.
The evidence comes from experimental studies as well. Blumenthal has explored the mood-exercise connection through a series of randomized controlled trials. In one such study, he and his colleagues assigned sedentary adults with major depressive disorder to one of four groups: supervised exercise, home-based exercise, antidepressant therapy or a placebo pill. After four months of treatment, Blumenthal found, patients in the exercise and antidepressant groups had higher rates of remission than did the patients on the placebo. Exercise, he concluded, was generally comparable to antidepressants for patients with major depressive disorder (Psychosomatic Medicine, 2007).
Blumenthal followed up with the patients one year later. The type of treatment they received during the four-month trial didn't predict remission a year later, he found. However, subjects who reported regular exercise at the one-year follow-up had lower depression scores than did their less active counterparts (Psychosomatic Medicine, 2010). "Exercise seems not only important for treating depression, but also in preventing relapse," he says.
Certainly, there are methodological challenges to researching the effects of exercise, from the identification of appropriate comparison groups to the limitations of self-reporting. Despite these challenges, a compelling body of evidence has emerged. In 2006, Otto and colleagues reviewed 11 studies investigating the effects of exercise on mental health. They determined that exercise could be a powerful intervention for clinical depression (Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 2006). Based on those findings, they concluded, clinicians should consider adding exercise to the treatment plans for their depressed patients.
Mary de Groot, PhD, a psychologist in the department of medicine at Indiana University, is taking the research one step further, investigating the role exercise can play in a particular subset of depressed patients: those with diabetes. It's a significant problem, she says. "Rates of clinically significant depressive symptoms and diagnoses of major depressive disorder are higher among adults with diabetes than in the general population," she says. And among diabetics, she adds, depression is often harder to treat and more likely to recur. The association runs both ways. People with diabetes are more likely to develop depression, and people with depression are also more likely to develop diabetes. "A number of studies show people with both disorders are at greater risk for mortality than are people with either disorder alone," she says.
Since diabetes and obesity go hand-in-hand, it seemed logical to de Groot that exercise could effectively treat both conditions. When she reviewed the literature, she was surprised to find the topic hadn't been researched. So, she launched a pilot project in which adults with diabetes and depression undertook a 12-week exercise and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) intervention program (Diabetes, 2009). Immediately following the program, the participants who exercised showed improvements both in depression and in levels of A1C, a blood marker that reflects blood-sugar control, compared with those in a control group. She's now undertaking a larger study to further explore exercise and CBT, both alone and in combination, for treating diabetes-related depression.
Fight-or-flight
Researchers have also explored exercise as a tool for treating — and perhaps preventing — anxiety. When we're spooked or threatened, our nervous systems jump into action, setting off a cascade of reactions such as sweating, dizziness, and a racing heart. People with heightened sensitivity to anxiety respond to those sensations with fear. They're also more likely to develop panic disorder down the road, says Jasper Smits, PhD, Co-Director of the Anxiety Research and Treatment Program at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and co-author, with Otto, of the 2011 book "Exercise for Mood and Anxiety: Proven Strategies for Overcoming Depression and Enhancing Well-being."
Smits and Otto reasoned that regular workouts might help people prone to anxiety become less likely to panic when they experience those fight-or-flight sensations. After all, the body produces many of the same physical reactions — heavy perspiration, increased heart rate — in response to exercise. They tested their theory among 60 volunteers with heightened sensitivity to anxiety. Subjects who participated in a two-week exercise program showed significant improvements in anxiety sensitivity compared with a control group (Depression and Anxiety, 2008). "Exercise in many ways is like exposure treatment," says Smits. "People learn to associate the symptoms with safety instead of danger."
In another study, Smits and his colleagues asked volunteers with varying levels of anxiety sensitivity to undergo a carbon-dioxide challenge test, in which they breathed CO2-enriched air. The test often triggers the same symptoms one might experience during a panic attack: increased heart and respiratory rates, dry mouth and dizziness. Unsurprisingly, people with high anxiety sensitivity were more likely to panic in response to the test. But Smits discovered that people with high anxiety sensitivity who also reported high activity levels were less likely to panic than subjects who exercised infrequently (Psychosomatic Medicine, 2011). The findings suggest that physical exercise could help to ward off panic attacks. "Activity may be especially important for people at risk of developing anxiety disorder," he says.
Smits is now investigating exercise for smoking cessation. The work builds on previous research by Bess Marcus, PhD, a psychology researcher now at the University of California San Diego, who found that vigorous exercise helped women quit smoking when it was combined with cognitive-behavioral therapy (Archives of Internal Medicine, 1999). However, a more recent study by Marcus found that the effect on smoking cessation was more limited when women engaged in only moderate exercise (Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 2005).
Therein lies the problem with prescribing exercise for mental health. Researchers don't yet have a handle on which types of exercise are most effective, how much is necessary, or even whether exercise works best in conjunction with other therapies.
"Mental health professionals might think exercise may be a good complement [to other therapies], and that may be true," says Blumenthal. "But there's very limited data that suggests combining exercise with another treatment is better than the treatment or the exercise alone."
Researchers are starting to address this question, however. Recently, Madhukar Trivedi, MD, a psychiatrist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical College, and colleagues studied exercise as a secondary treatment for patients with major depressive disorder who hadn't achieved remission through drugs alone. They evaluated two exercise doses: One group of patients burned four kilocalories per kilogram each week, while another burned 16 kilocalories per kilogram weekly. They found both exercise protocols led to significant improvements, though the higher-dose exercise program was more effective for most patients (Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 2011).
The study also raised some intriguing questions, however. In men and women without family history of mental illness, as well as men with family history of mental illness, the higher-dose exercise treatment proved more effective. But among women with a family history of mental illness, the lower exercise dose actually appeared more beneficial. Family history and gender are moderating factors that need to be further explored, the researchers concluded.
Questions also remain about which type of exercise is most helpful. Most studies have focused on aerobic exercise, though some research suggests weight training might also be effective, Smits says. Then there's the realm of mind-body exercises like yoga, which have been practiced for centuries but have yet to be thoroughly studied. "There's potential there, but it's too early to get excited," he says.
Buffering the brain
It's also unclear exactly how moving your muscles can have such a significant effect on mental health. "Biochemically, there are many things that can impact mood. There are so many good, open questions about which mechanisms contribute the most to changes in depression," says de Groot.
Some researchers suspect exercise alleviates chronic depression by increasing serotonin (the neurotransmitter targeted by antidepressants) or brain-derived neurotrophic factor (which supports the growth of neurons). Another theory suggests exercise helps by normalizing sleep, which is known to have protective effects on the brain.
There are psychological explanations, too. Exercise may boost a depressed person's outlook by helping him return to meaningful activity and providing a sense of accomplishment. Then there's the fact that a person's responsiveness to stress is moderated by activity. "Exercise may be a way of biologically toughening up the brain so stress has less of a central impact," Otto says.
It's likely that multiple factors are at play. "Exercise has such broad effects that my guess is that there are going to be multiple mechanisms at multiple levels," Smits says.
So far, little work has been done to unravel those mechanisms. Michael Lehmann, PhD, a research fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health, is taking a stab at the problem by studying mice — animals that, like humans, are vulnerable to social stress.
Lehmann and his colleagues subjected some of their animals to "social defeat" by pairing small, submissive mice with larger, more aggressive mice. The alpha mice regularly tried to intimidate the submissive rodents through the clear partition that separated them. And when the partition was removed for a few minutes each day, the bully mice had to be restrained from harming the submissive mice. After two weeks of regular social defeat, the smaller mice explored less, hid in the shadows, and otherwise exhibited symptoms of depression and anxiety.
One group of mice, however, proved resilient to the stress. For three weeks before the social defeat treatment, all of the mice were subjected to two dramatically different living conditions. Some were confined to spartan cages, while others were treated to enriched environments with running wheels and tubes to explore. Unlike the mice in the bare-bones cages, bullied mice that had been housed in enriched environments showed no signs of rodent depression or anxiety after social defeat (Journal of Neuroscience, 2011). "Exercise and mental enrichment are buffering how the brain is going to respond to future stressors," Lehmann says.
Lehmann can't say how much of the effect was due to exercise and how much stemmed from other aspects of the stimulating environment. But the mice ran a lot — close to 10 kilometers a night. And other experiments hint that running may be the most integral part of the enriched environment, he says.
Looking deeper, Lehmann and his colleagues examined the mice's brains. In the stimulated mice, they found evidence of increased activity in a region called the infralimbic cortex, part of the brain's emotional processing circuit. Bullied mice that had been housed in spartan conditions had much less activity in that region. The infralimbic cortex appears to be a crucial component of the exercise effect. When Lehmann surgically cut off the region from the rest of the brain, the protective effects of exercise disappeared. Without a functioning infralimbic cortex, the environmentally enriched mice showed brain patterns and behavior similar to those of the mice who had been living in barebones cages.
Humans don't have an infralimbic cortex, but we do have a homologous region, known as cingulate area 25 or Brodmann area 25. And in fact, this region has been previously implicated in depression. Helen Mayberg, MD, a neurologist at Emory University, and colleagues successfully alleviated depression in several treatment-resistant patients by using deep-brain stimulation to send steady, low-voltage current into their area 25 regions (Neuron, 2005). Lehmann's studies hint that exercise may ease depression by acting on this same bit of brain.
Getting the payoff
Of all the questions that remain to be answered, perhaps the most perplexing is this: If exercise makes us feel so good, why is it so hard to do it? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2008 (the most recent year for which data are available), some 25 percent of the U.S. population reported zero leisure-time physical activity.
Starting out too hard in a new exercise program may be one of the reasons people disdain physical activity. When people exercise above their respiratory threshold — that is, above the point when it gets hard to talk — they postpone exercise's immediate mood boost by about 30 minutes, Otto says. For novices, that delay could turn them off of the treadmill for good. Given that, he recommends that workout neophytes start slowly, with a moderate exercise plan.
Otto also blames an emphasis on the physical effects of exercise for our national apathy to activity. Physicians frequently tell patients to work out to lose weight, lower cholesterol or prevent diabetes. Unfortunately, it takes months before any physical results of your hard work in the gym are apparent. "Attending to the outcomes of fitness is a recipe for failure," he says.
The exercise mood boost, on the other hand, offers near-instant gratification. Therapists would do well to encourage their patients to tune into their mental state after exercise, Otto says — especially when they're feeling down.
"Many people skip the workout at the very time it has the greatest payoff. That prevents you from noticing just how much better you feel when you exercise," he says. "Failing to exercise when you feel bad is like explicitly not taking an aspirin when your head hurts. That's the time you get the payoff."
It may take a longer course of exercise to alleviate mood disorders such as anxiety or depression, Smits adds. But the immediate effects are tangible — and psychologists are in a unique position to help people get moving. "We're experts in behavior change," he says. "We can help people become motivated to exercise."
