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April 8, 2025 • 14 mins

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Discover the revolutionary intersection of strength training and mental wellness with Dr. Sharon Gam, who brings 18 years of fitness industry expertise and a PhD in exercise physiology to this eye-opening conversation about transforming lives through mindful movement.

Dr. Gam reveals how the mainstream fitness industry's focus on physical appearance often misses the profound mental health benefits that properly designed strength training can provide. Drawing from her research on how exercise controls brain function and vice versa, she explains her unique approach that has helped over 300 clients build not just stronger bodies, but more resilient minds.

The concept of "mastery experiences" stands at the heart of her methodology - creating moments during workouts where clients overcome small challenges, gradually building deep confidence that transfers to all aspects of life. Through a moving client success story, Dr. Gam illustrates how a woman who once suffered from panic attacks transformed into someone who confidently handled a stressful situation that would have previously overwhelmed her with anxiety.

What separates this approach from conventional fitness is its sustainability. By focusing on mental wellbeing first, physical improvements naturally follow, but in a way that creates lasting change. Dr. Gam's advice for both fitness journeys and entrepreneurial pursuits reflects this philosophy: align your actions with your deeper values and self-identity to stay committed when facing obstacles.

Ready to experience how strength training can revolutionize your mental health? Visit drsharon.gam.com for free resources including over 115 blog articles, e-books, and a newsletter, or call 407-342-7613 to learn about Dr. Gam's specialty programs that might just change your relationship with fitness forever.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back everyone to the podcast, where we
uncover the stories behindthriving businesses and bring
you the expert insight straightfrom the source.
I'm your host, dda, and I'mexcited and delighted to
introduce you to Dr Sharon Gam.
She's the owner of Fitness,personal Training and Wellness.
Good morning, dr Gam.

(00:21):
How are you?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Good morning, I'm good, thank you.
How are you wellness?

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Good morning, dr Gale .
How are you?
Good morning, I'm good, thankyou.
How are you?
I am doing great.
So we're excited for you toshare your background, your
business, your services with ourlisteners.
But before we go into that,listeners from behind the scenes
experience to valuable advice.
This podcast is your go-toresource for learning about the
businesses that shape ourcommunities and discovering how

(00:45):
to make the most of theirservices.
And if you do like this contentand you want to see more of it,
please comment, subscribe andlike the video and the channel
as well.
So, with that being said, we'regoing to jump right into it and
kind of get to know Dr Gam alittle bit and Dr Gam kind of
share with our listeners alittle bit about your background

(01:05):
.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah, absolutely.
So I've kind of always beeninto health and fitness.
I've played sports as a kid.
I played basketball since I wasabout five or six.
I've been a runner since I wasabout eight years old and I
started strength training about20 years ago.
And professionally I've beenworking in the fitness industry
for about 18 years now.

(01:26):
So 18 years ago is when I gotmy first personal training
certification and I startedworking as a personal trainer.
And that was while I was doingmy bachelor's degree in sports
science.
And then I went on to do my PhDin exercise physiology, which
is the study of what happens inthe body and the brain before,
during and after exercise andhow you can use exercise to

(01:49):
address certain healthconditions and achieve certain
goals.
And after that I continuedworking as a personal trainer.
But I had a few different rolesin the fitness industry.
So I did some health coaching.
I've worked in employeewellness and corporate wellness
and health promotion, and thenalso health research.
So I've been in the industryfor a long time and I started my

(02:09):
business about four years agoand now I do one-on-one personal
training, both in person andonline, with a focus on using
fitness to improve mental healthand wellbeing mental health and
well-being.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
I love that and your experience is second to none.
I mean based 18 plus yearsdoing what you're doing and as
you were going through that roadof success, road of business
and defining what your missionwas, evidently you, kind of like
, focused and kept going thatpath which led to where you are
today Correct.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Correct yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
I also was looking at your website and I took
something out of what you saidon the website.
It says I know how to integrateit and that knowledge with
motivation, science andbehavioral psychology to help
you make lifestyle changes thatyou can actually stick with.
So you not only get the results, but you keep them forever, and

(03:10):
that's pretty powerful.
And not only that you havehelped over 300 clients when it
comes to motivation,accountability and support, so
kudos to you for that.
So, with that being said, let'stalk a little bit about getting
more specifics of your business, if you can maybe kind of
mention some things that reallyresonate with your um customers.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Absolutely so.
Again, I kind of focus on themental health piece.
So what I was kind of learningduring my PhD was how exercise
controls brain function and howthe brain controls exercise
performance, and then the otherway around, how exercise can
control brain function and howit can actually fundamentally

(03:57):
change the brain in ways thathave these like huge effects
throughout people's lives so wecan improve mood and energy, we
can build self-confidence inlike a really deep way that
honestly has nothing to do withthe way that people look, but
it's a confidence in theirabilities.
We can also manage stressthrough exercise and all of

(04:17):
these things that I was findingpeople were really wanting from
their fitness experience butthat they were kind of having
trouble finding in themainstream fitness industry.
So the mainstream fitnessindustry is still very much
about the physical rightPhysical health, physical
appearance, physical performance.
The way that you train for thosethings is not necessarily the

(04:40):
best way to train for mentalhealth and for mental well-being
.
And so I had a lot of peoplethat were having these
experiences where they kind ofknew what to do, or they knew
what they should do, they wereexercising the way they thought
they should exercise and theyjust it wasn't helping them feel
better and it wasn'tsustainable for them.
So I started to try to integratethe mental health piece and

(05:03):
finding different ways toapproach fitness that were more
supportive, more sustainable andreally looking at the
psychology of motivation and howdo we get people to do what
they know that they should doand maintain that over time and
maybe doing it in ways thatthey're that they haven't really
tried before from a fitnessperspective?

(05:25):
So a lot of the training that Ido is is very much focused on
strength training, on teachingpeople how to lift weights, but
I integrate all of these otheraspects in terms of of
motivation, in terms of havingthings like mastery experiences,
where you're building on smallskills, in terms of creating

(05:45):
these small progressions wherepeople can really see and feel
themselves improving, and kindof layering that stuff on top of
a standard workout to getbetter results from a mental
health standpoint, a motivationstandpoint, and then, as a bonus
, people also improve theirphysical health and get all
those other physical benefits aswell.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
I like that and I took a couple of things that I
wrote down.
You said maintain it over time,because I guess what you'll
find is, once we get to a pointwhere we feel good, it can
always come back if we don'tcontinue to maintain the
progress correct.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
And then another thing you said you talked about
mastery experience.
What does that look like?

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah, that's a big part of what I do.
So a mastery experience isachieving a small goal or
building a small skill in themoment.
So it's the difference between,like, a long term goal somebody
says I want to be able to benchpress my body weight right,
that's a long term goal thattakes months and months to to
achieve, depending on wherethey're starting with.

(06:52):
A mastery experience issomething where, in the moment,
somebody can look at a weightthat they think, oh, this is,
I'm not gonna be able to liftthis, this is too heavy for me.
And then they pick up thatweight and they successfully do
it and they have this experiencewhere, all of a sudden, they
feel not just know, but theyfeel like they're strong and
capable and they're able toovercome challenges.

(07:13):
And so I think that's a hugekey in terms of approaching
fitness from the kind of mentalhealth and motivation side is to
set people up to have as manyof those experiences during a
workout as possible where theythey really feel themselves
improving and there's ways tostructure, you know,
progressions and things likethat, where you can make sure

(07:34):
that somebody is having a lot ofthose experiences.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
So overcoming those challenges actually focuses more
, not so much on the physical,but more of the mental.
Is that what you're kind ofsaying?

Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, absolutely so.
When you stack a lot of thosechallenges, a lot of those wins
on top of each other, over time,you'll get the physical results
.
But each and every one of thosechallenges that you overcome,
or those small skills that youbuild, is in itself, a what we
call a mastery experience andsomething that really boosts

(08:08):
mental health and starts tochange the brain.
And something that I've foundreally amazing as I work with
people is that it it starts toactually change the way that
they see and think aboutthemselves, so they start to see
themselves as somebody who'sstrong and capable.
And when you feel that kind ofdeep confidence, it really
spreads throughout people'sentire lives and really helps

(08:29):
them to just do the things thatthey need to do and feel good
about themselves.
It's pretty amazing.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
That's well said.
I like that.
So let's talk about a story.
I don't need to know theperson's name, please don't
share that but let's talk abouta story that really resonates,
that can resonate with ourlisteners, about who you helped.
Is there one that stands out?

Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah, I had a client recently and I can tell you a
couple of stories about herclient recently and I can tell
you a couple of stories abouther.
So she came to me because sheher therapist had advised that
she started doing some fitness.
She was having panic attacksPreviously.
I worked with her for about twoyears and over time we worked
on heavy strength training andbasically just like what I

(09:15):
described in incorporating thoselittle mastery experiences over
time and doing thoseprogressions.
And as she got physicallystronger she started to feel
mentally stronger and moreresilient as well.
So she started to notice thatthings that maybe in the past
would have felt reallyoverwhelming for her and
difficult and anxiety inducingfor her, she suddenly started to

(09:36):
feel them as not such a bigdeal.
So one example she went on atrip with her mom and they ended
up at an airport with a cartfull of really heavy luggage and
it was just the two of them andthey had to get up this long
ramp to get to where they neededto go and her mom started to
get anxious and look around forhelp and didn't know how they

(09:56):
were going to be able to getfrom point A to point B and my
client kind of described to methat, you know, a couple of
years ago I would have been thesame.
I wouldn't have known what todo, I would have started to feel
anxious, but instead she tookthat cart and she just pushed it
up that ramp by herself and shebasically said you know, I knew
that I could do it.
It was basically just a sledpush and we do those all the
time right and so, as she wasdescribing it to me afterwards,

(10:20):
I just could see this, thispride in her face of just the
knowledge that she was able totake this challenge, which again
a while ago would have beenreally difficult for her and
made her feel bad about herself.
And now she was, she was able toovercome it and feel successful
and feel good about herself.
And it's just those kind oflittle things that add up and

(10:44):
can help people to really startto lead their lives differently,
to take different actions, tomaybe put themselves out there
when previously they wouldn't,or to apply for a job that they
thought they couldn't get, orthings that maybe they would
have shied away from before.
Now they're able to do them andget the benefits of that, and
that is, I think what the realvalue of strength training can

(11:05):
be.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
I love the way you said that, and how does that
make you feel?

Speaker 2 (11:09):
Yeah it's.
I mean it's wonderful.
That's why I do what I do.
I personally have experiencedthese benefits.
I mean I do what I do because Ipersonally have experience with
depression and anxiety, and itwas really weightlifting that
started to pull me out of that,and so when I can see other
people having those experiences,it just it kind of makes it all
worth it, you know.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
Yeah, kudos for you for doing what you do.
It's awesome and that is suchan inspiring story as well.
So, as we wrap up, you knowthere are our listeners here
that are aspiring to beentrepreneurs.
Maybe they are business ownersand they're trying to get over
that hump.
Any advice?
What say you about trying togive them some tips?

Speaker 2 (11:54):
I think I would probably answer that in the same
way that I would advise someonewho's trying to achieve a
health and fitness goal which isto aligns with your values and
your self identity.
That can be really powerful,Because when you're really clear
on that kind of deep motivation, it's so much easier to

(12:26):
navigate obstacles and staycommitted to taking actions.
It's kind of the same idea, Iguess, as the motivation piece
of fitness.
People kind of know what theyshould do, but it's actually
taking action and putting onefoot in front of the other every
day.
That's the hard part, and whenyou can draw on that really deep
motivation, I think it makesall the difference.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
Great advice and, as we wrap up here, could you
provide your phone number aswell as your website for
listeners that may want to get ahold of you?

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Absolutely so.
Phone number is 407-342-7613.
And my website iswwwdrsharinghamcom.
So D-R-S-H-A-R-O-N-G-A-Mcom,and on my website I have a lot
of free resources because Ireally do just want to spread

(13:16):
the word of how powerfulstrength training can be from a
mental well-being perspective.
So I've written I think 115-ishmaybe blog articles at this
point about different health andfitness topics, including
specific things about strengthtraining for mental health.
I have some free e-books onthere and a free newsletter, and
that's also where people canlearn more about the specialty

(13:36):
strength training for mentalhealth programs that I do more
about the specialty strengthtraining for mental health
programs that I do.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
Well, dr Gam, it has been such a pleasure for you to
be able to express and shareyour business with our listeners
about what you do and theservices that you provide, and
definitely thank you so much forbeing a guest and we wish you
much success.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
Thank you.
Thank you for the opportunity.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
You're very welcome.
Thank you for tuning in toFirst Media Consulting Podcast.
If you enjoyed the podcast,subscribe today To nominate a
business you would like torecommend to be on our show.
Go to firstmediaconsultingcomor call.
Thank you for listening.
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