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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Episode Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:00):
Hey friends, it's Stephanie here with Giving your
Best Life Podcast and my friend.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Zach Lloyd, Sustainable Anti-Diet Coach.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Awesome.
So today I want to put like apreface warning label whatever
it is on this.
We're going to talk aboutmental health and movement, but
I just want to say that if youneed to speak to a counselor, a
doctor, if you're on meds, ifyou need med like we're not
experts in this area go speak.

(00:27):
But what we've seen of in ourown lives with friends, and what
you've seen in what you do ofsome things that help, and so I
just want to put that caveat itis is stick on the path that
you're on um, or if you arehaving suicidal thoughts or you
feel like you need help, go gethelp again this is just us

(00:50):
adding our two cents.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, exactly so.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Zach and I were talking a couple weeks ago.
I had a friend that talkedabout how they just like she's
like I just have down in thedump 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 likedepression down the dump moods.
I start getting anxious themore I said.

(01:14):
And she said one day I justtold myself, get up and go walk.
And she's like it was amazingbecause when I went up and got
moving, I, the anxiety went awayand like how I was feeling, my
depression went out.
So she said, is she found thatshe just started consistently
doing it instead of what Ialways feel like the easier

(01:36):
thing to do is go sit down, isshe makes herself move.
So go outside to her gardenpick weeds, you know, go go work
on a project or whatever, butjust get moving.
And you, you were like, yeah,there's actually like science
and research behind like mentalhealth and movement.
And I've even known for myselfis some days where I'm just like

(01:58):
I get overwhelmed and then whenI get overwhelmed, then I do
kind of slink into a depressedmode.
Yeah, and if I I never liked theword force, but if I'll force
myself to like go do the dishesor get moving, I can snap out of
something pretty quickly.
So your thoughts?

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Yeah, there there's a lot of evidence to say that
just exercise or activity, noteven putting an exercise blanket
on top of it, just activity ingeneral, can be massively
helpful to rebounding your mood.
And I pulled up a couple ofthings so overwhelmingly kind of
in the scientific literature,meta-analyses are great.
And then you have systemicreview of meta-analysis.
Meta-analysis basically is justlike a whole bunch of studies

(02:44):
around the topic that areanalyzed and then put together
which is basically saying okay,there's more compounding
evidence to say that theconclusions or the summaries
we're coming to here, there'sall these studies, whether it's
10, 20, or 100 or more studiesare kind of agreeing in the same
area.
So we can say with more ofbeyond a reasonable doubt, it's

(03:05):
probably there's something here,versus you can find a study
saying anything.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Right, like one study that aligns you to whatever you
want to believe?

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Or 10 studies say meat's bad for you, but I could
find 100 studies saying theopposite.
Like what is the meta analysisof that?
So just real quick, a couple ofsummaries from that.
I think to change people'sminds you have to have facts,
right, right.
And so go check this outyourselves.
But I'll just give you a coupleof summaries of some of the
bigger ones that I found.

(03:40):
Physical activity appears to bea promising and acceptable
intervention for adolescents andyoung adults experiencing
depression.
Exercise has a large andsignificant antidepressant
effect in people with depression.
Separate study, another onethat I really thought was
interesting was aerobicresistance and mind body
exercise demonstrate equivalenceto mitigate symptoms of
depression in older adults aged65 years.
So we have a lot of studiestalking about adolescents.

(04:00):
We have a lot of studiestalking about middle-aged people
.
All of them were kind ofpointing to the same conclusion
that this movement and then thisone I liked a lot because it
really said not just aerobics,so not just walking or running
or gardening, but alsoresistance training, right
possible, and then also mindbody exercise equivalents as

(04:20):
well, which could be meditation,prayer, stuff like that all
kind of incorporated into thismovement category.
So it's like, if you like tolift weights, great, but if you
don't, don't feel like you can'tget the benefit right.
And then there's a lot of uh,more recent in the last couple
years, uh which I couldn't findthis one off the top of my head.
But 10 minutes of vigorousactivity Vigorous activity is

(04:43):
kind of like in that 80 to 95%of maximum heart rate Just 10
minutes of doing that is enoughto significantly transform all
of these biomarkers that arerelated to feeling down,
depressed whatever we want tolabel these things, as I think
they're broad categories, butoverwhelmingly so to bring your

(05:05):
mood elevated, and then you canpotentially make better
decisions.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, I don't know if this goes into like the 10
minutes that you were talkingabout but, I bought one of those
little trampolines.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
Oh, and the tony robbins tramp, yes exactly, I
love that thing yes, like that'sa perfect example.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
I well, because I was reading and we won't get into
this about, like all thebenefits, your lymphatic system,
but it's in my basement and Ihave 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 50jumps or whatever.
If we're watching TV, I'm onthere jumping.
I am amazed at just how muchbetter I feel like just doing

(05:48):
that and then setting like alittle goal.
So it's like okay, I'm going togo to 50 or I'm going to go to.
You know, my calves arestarting to burn, and so again
it just seems like if I'mjumping, if I'm moving, and it's
a little bit harder than justlike going out for a walk.
It's using a lot of differentmuscles, so that might even be

(06:12):
something to like fun, differenthave in your house.
You can do it pretty quicklyand you start to see the results
at 10 minutes.
They say so.
Anyways, I want to throw thatin.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah, I make fun of Tony Robbins for it, but it's
actually brilliant because overtime you see trends evolved with
like gurus not I don't whateveryou want to call tony robbins
but ultimately they were reallyright about certain things that
the science didn't back up yetright and now it's actually
shown that's exactly what'shappening with the trampoline
effect essentially is thatyou're getting in that vigorous
activity in a very short windowof time, right, you're getting

(06:40):
your heart rate up, and thenyou're essentially just flushing
your body, if you will not atechnical term, but that's what
a lot of people will kind ofrelate it to.
It's almost like a computer,where, if a computer gets
overloaded with information likethink of your brain.
It'll heat up and heat up andit'll get too hot and then it'll
literally shut off.
Yeah, and so that's kind ofwhat I like correlate our brains

(07:02):
to.
It's like we don't actually.
Well, some of us will shut off.
We'll take a nap right, likeliterally.
I just said I started gettingoverwhelmed and whatever, and
I'll shut down.
So using this exercise ormovement or whatever it is to
think of, like flushing thatheat which it's more than heat.
But I think it's a goodillustration Right.
And then you can kind of justerase all of that stuff and then

(07:25):
all of a sudden start from thatbetter place and then all of a
sudden you're feeling better andyou make better decisions and
kind of snowball down that wayI've also found too.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
Is like if I'm jumping 10 minutes or more just
because I know it is affectingthe 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 ohyeah, I mean is.
I just started seeing like acouple of videos and then I like
googled it.
So that's the other thing is Ido is if I start to see a trend

(07:53):
or whatever yeah I'll go do someresearch and it was like, and I
noticed like you're working alot of different muscles um,
when you're on the trampoline,so that's just like a fun thing
for movement anything else youwant to add.

Speaker 1 (08:06):
With, yeah, I.
And movement, yeah, I would saythat 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 todo a push-up on the floor.
You can do a push-up on yourkitchen counter, whatever it is
I like doing, limit it, yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
Or on stairs, yeah like you know, just get on a
stair and I'll keep that on myphone.
Zach got to see today.
On my phone is I have this liketo-do list for during the day,
but a lot of it is like littlemental health things.
So it is prayer, it isgratitude.
I'll have 10 push-ups on there.
Yeah, I might only do 10push-ups that day, but I feel
like, okay, I've got a littlebit out there.
I have like just some postureexercises that don't take me,

(08:49):
but it's that constantlymovement.
Or if I want to go get a snackor whatever it is that I'm.
If I'm trying to procrastinatewhich I've talked about that
before it's like go move, Go dosomething healthy, Go do
something for your mind or yourbody and then go.
Okay, when I come back is startworking on whatever you're
procrastinating on, Dr.

(09:09):
Yeah, that's a great lesson.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
Yeah, I love it Cool.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
Well, friends, zach and Stephanie, here with just
another hopefully couple of tipsto help you get to giving your
best life.