Why The Gym is No Substitute For Therapy

And therapy is no substitute for exercise. 

I wanted to talk about something a bit heavier today. Something that is close to my heart because it’s something I struggled with for so long. 

In all honesty, I still struggle with it to this day. I still fall for the trap that the solution to mental health struggles is at the finish line of a fat loss goal that will get me shredded. 

That the sadness I may be feeling is all due to superficial issues such as body composition. Don’t get me wrong, having body comp goals is not an issue. And improving your body composition may actually improve both your mental and your physical health. I just don’t believe it’s the main solution. 

So today, I want to talk about our health and it’s interdependent relationship between the physical and mental aspects of it.

See instagram post — https://www.instagram.com/p/CXbJTxXrzcY/

I think it can be too easy to factor these two components in a dependant or an independent way.

A dependant way is to think that say: “losing weight will fix my health.”

Or that: “going to therapy will fix my health.”

The idea that solely working on one aspect of your health (either physical or mental) will deliver the holistic result of great overall health, that you may be looking for.

Or even that one of these components will actually “reach across the aisle” and heal the other.

That improving your mental health will independently improve your physical health.

Or that improving your physical health will independently improve your mental health.

Now, don’t get me wrong. They both will have large impacts on each other. They just aren’t substitutes. Rather, they’re teammates.

Hence, why I say they have an interdependent relationship.

Lifting weights, going for a run, building muscle or losing body fat will not heal your unresolved pyschological traumas.

While going to therapy, working through unresolved traumas, repatterning your behaviour and working on your mental heath in general, will not make your joints, tendons, or muscles stronger and more resilient, increase your aerobic capacity or reduce your cholesterol levels.

Side note: Yes, improving mental health can have profound impacts on your physical health (especially from stress management), but the point is, this doesn’t mean it should replace the physical components of your health

This is why I think it’s so valuable to factor in the rule of specificity when it comes to your health pursuits.

You can’t replace vital components of your health with other activities, that yes, are “healthy”, but don’t address the specific issue or goal.

I personally have been working through some of my unresolved issues. The easy thing for me to do, is centralize that effort into my fitness. It’s a pattern I’ve done for as long as I can remember. The idea that everything will be okay once I lose “X” amount of pounds. Or gain “Y” amount of muscle. 

Yet, when I achieved these goals, the same underlying problems persisted. Having a fitness outlet definitely helped. Achieveing goals is always great for our mental health. These goals just didn’t directly work on the issues I was and still am facing. 

Communication with my partner, my support systems and my therapist do though — with time and a lot of resistance. 

If you’re struggling with your mental health, exercise should definitely be a part of your lifestyle.

It just shouldn’t take precedent over actually working through whatever problems you may be facing. 

Whether thats with your partner, your family, a therapist, community or with your overall support system.

Exercise is a supplement in aiding your mental health. Not the main focus. 

If you’re struggling with your physical health, working on your mental health should definitely be part of your approach. It just should not replace exercise, or your nutrition/sleep habits.

Our overall health is complex and multifactorial.

This means your approach should also be multifactorial.

It should be comprised of:

-physical aspects (exercise, nutrition, sleep)

-psychological aspects (communication, self reflection, general mental health hygiene)

-sociological aspects (community, support, family, bonding)

These three components all work with each other. Not independent of each other. They all impact your overall health.

Sometimes the fitness industry markets in a way that would lead you to think all of your problems are purely a result of biology/physiology.

Whether it’s all about your weight, an area of pain or even your energy levels.

Personally, I don’t believe in this biological reductionism.

Removing gluten from your diet, gettin’ shredded 🤘🏽 and rolling your back on a fancy roller will not fix all of your shit.

It’s far more complicated than that.

But within that, a simpler framework can be used.

One where you generally check in on these areas.

Such as:

“How are my activity levels? Have I been exercising or been active for multiple hours per week?”

Or

“How is my mental health? Have I been reflecting on it at all? Have I tried to be present? How am I truly feeling?”

Or lastly,

“How are my social needs being met? Am I feeling lonely? Am I feeling connected to my loved ones?”

I tend to believe a lot of our solutions probably lie within a mix of these three general components.

Rather than in some new fancy diet, some “transformative” supplement or some other extreme approach that promises to fix it all at once.

The beauty of these interdependent relationships is that they feed off of each other.

Getting the ball rolling on one may help get you moving on an another.

The confidence you build in the gym may propel you reach out to some loved ones you’ve been missing.

The breakthroughs you make with your mental health may help you build up the confidence to finally step into a gym and get into an exercise routine.

Regardless, they all work with one another.

Not independent of each other.

Which I believe needs to be reminded to us more often.

Cheers,
Coach Dylan🍻

Resources that have helped me through my mental health journey:

The Body Keeps the Score — Dr. Bessel van der Kolk

Atlas of the Heart — Brene Brown

How To Do The Work — Dr. Nicole Lepera

Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents — Lindsay C. Gibson