Fitness and Mental Health

18/06/25, 16:45

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Fitness and mental health

We mostly think about fitness and mental health in the context of doing exercise in order to make you feel better. Whilst this is one of the best reasons to exercise, what is not talked about enough is when people chronically use exercise as a crutch to push away problems in their life. This is not to say that many people's problems couldn't be solved by going to the gym. There are so many people who are depressed, have low energy, who are overweight and could solve a whole host of their problems just by going to the gym and having a solid routine they could actually solve a lot of the problems that they have outside of the of the gym but for some people and some problems that is just not the case at all there are some problems that can't be solved by just being more healthy and more confident and stronger . I think that it's a bad coping mechanism to fill your entire life outside of work with training

I see it all the time at the gym. People who are miserable outside of the gym, lacking purpose and meaning in their lives and so they try to fill a hole with exercise and to be honest this is not the most unhealthy thing you can do the majority of people who suffer from a lack of meaning and a lack of purpose and a lack of fulfillment in their life will often turn to much worse crutches than exercise I'm talking about drugs and alcohol and abusing food I think that the two most common ones that people go down and sort of rabbit hole and whilst exercises vastly better than being addicted to substances or abusing food it's still not healthy guys and often it is often this unhealthy obsession with exercise is applauded by our Society you know if someone if someone tells you that they're going to the gym six or seven days a week you're like yeah great amazing stuff you crack on good but when someone tells me that they're going to the gym seven days a week as a personal trainer I have some questions.

I try not to probe too deeply into it because I know that there has to be a motivating reason for you to get in the gym. Generally speaking you're not a normal well-adjusted person you know who's happy with their life he's fulfilled in their relationships and their career. I feel like going to the gym it rarely ever happens guys sometimes yet people feel like they have an obligation to go to the gym and they get into it but generally the gym is where you find the Misfits and the Fuck Ups and the people with more difficulty in their life and more mental health issues. This is not a hard and fast rule but it is more common that the top athletes in history and the world have often had some really awful pasts and that they can use that trauma from their past in order to motivate them to an extremely high level right now in the context of athleticism and maximal human performance.

We say you know crack on like okay you're a bit messed up but we we love you you know you're doing your best but in the context of every day gymgoers is this really a healthy thing guys if you go to the gym seven days a week and you have to go to the gym you must go because you know you can't deal with life without that endorphin here are you really any better than a drug addict who takes drugs daily I would say in some ways no no you're not you're just stimulating a drug a substance release by using your body rather than taking the drugs exogenously rather than putting the drugs into your body your generating substances endogenously through your own systems in order to make your brain feel okay one of the you know this addiction like I said is lauded by our Society guys absolutely lauded everyone's like well fucking darn you're amazing you looking great shape that really whilst this person might be in in good physical shape are they in good mental shape you know I would argue that if you have to train every single day and you have to spend as much time as possible outside of your job in the gym I would say that something is is a bit wrong with you mentally I think the tendency with this is to just push it further and further and further and you know to just bury your head into the gym and to neglect all of the issues outside of the gym because dealing with them just gives you pain and suffering and makes you miserable having to confront these issues head on makes you miserable so you would much rather bury your head in the sand or you know the gym as the case may be but as much as I like using exercise as a way to make myself feel better I've got to say to these people and I probably include myself in this the gym won't solve all of your problems okay you need to identify what it is in your life that you're not happy with and come up with some strategies to be able to improve that aspect of your life rather than just neglecting it and filling it with something else think about some positive strategies that can help you get to where you want to be whether that is enjoying your job day to day and your career enjoying your relationships so whether that be finding a girlfriend or boyfriend or you know perhaps breaking up with your girlfriend or boyfriend that and you know thinking about being by yourself for a little while or finding another partner because you're not getting fulfillment from your relationships you know if you are abusing food if you're abusing drugs think about what you know why that is and what the root cause of that is and don't just try and use something else don't try and replace one addiction with another is what I'm saying guys in this you know I am I'm my own I'm my own harshest critic with this because I have a very addictive personality and there have been times where I am now I think is a good good time to mention I've been getting stuck in a cycle of negative behavior simply because I don't have anything else for filling in my life you know I have filled up my life with work and just endlessly trying to distract myself from the fact that but don't have a partner and that I'm broke basically I think those would be the two main factors that are causing me a great deal of depression so what I've tried to do is to just fill my life with with work constantly and that's helped distract me for a little while but now that I've become a little bit more stable I've decided that I'm just gonna do PT full-time now and not you know waste time on you know my previous career which is in hospitality I've had to confront myself and my issues and deal with them head on and I think this is a very natural and a very healthy way to do things guys it's painful it's not pleasant and I've had a lot of I've fallen down quite a lot and had to try and get back up and brush myself off but it it's a process that you have to engage in really you really do you can't use exercise as a band aid for a gaping wound right it's wonderful it's a wonderful thing that boosts your mood improves your mental health makes you feel so much better I could list the health benefits and the mental health benefits for the rest of the day but what's not spoken about is the the detriment I think to your mental health the using it as a crutch using it chronically as a crutch to ignore the rest of your life and pretend that it doesn't happen and well you know thinking well it is long as my life in the gym is going well and the training is going well then it doesn't really matter and I'm not really bothered and that is it's just a recipe for misery guys it's just a mess recipe for misery you need to.