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YHM 071 - Gym Anxiety 101
49 Plays2 years ago
Join us as we tackle "Gym Anxiety 101" with expert Jade Reynolds.
Discover the triggers and psychological aspects behind gym anxiety and how individuals overcome it.
Jade shares practical coping strategies and insights on creating a supportive gym environment.
Learn about setting realistic fitness goals and the profound connection between physical and mental well-being.
Don't miss out on these key insights! Thank you, Jade, for your valuable wisdom. Connect with her on social media for more inspiration!
Follow Jade:
@thefulfilmentproject
The Fulfilment Project
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Transcript
Introductions and Guest Appearance
00:00:12
Speaker
Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Your Health Minute, brought to you by Aqua Omega. I am your host, Vax Marion, and with me as always is my co-host and moderator, Calvin Morrow. Hello, everybody.
00:00:23
Speaker
And we've also got Alana joining us today. She's pretty excited because she thinks her fans definitely wanted to see her on this podcast today. Hey guys. And with us also is our very special guest, Jade
Jade's Background and Gym Anxiety Focus
00:00:35
Speaker
Reynolds. And today we are going to be talking something that I am very interested in and that is gym anxiety 101. And Jade, before we dive into this, I would love for you to tell our listeners a little more about yourself. Give us some background and how you started to specialize in this. Maybe like your,
00:00:52
Speaker
your interest in health overall and helping people. Yeah. Thank you so much. Very honored to be here. So thank you. So I am a occupational therapist and my expertise is in mental health. I'm also a personal trainer or a fitness coach. So I've been an OT now for almost eight years and a PT for five years. So yes, my approach as a personal trainer is very different to a normal personal trainer. I suppose you could say,
00:01:21
Speaker
So I kind of mix my background in OT and my passion for mental health with exercise. So my market's very niche. It is people who have anxiety, depression, bipolar, eating disorders, you know, those types of mental health conditions and using exercise as a modality to help them with their mental health.
00:01:44
Speaker
So it's something I'm very passionate about and really excited to talk about gym anxiety and how we can help people overcome that. So kind of the reason I got into it is it's funny because I'm actually a dancer.
Personal Experiences with Gym Anxiety
00:01:58
Speaker
And if you put me on a stage, I thrive. I love it. Watch me like I'm going to put on a show. But if you had put me in a gym,
00:02:09
Speaker
no way like I could not do it so which makes no sense probably for you guys like hold on but you like to dance but I feel I think when I danced I was very much in control and also I think I it's kind of like there was a character I was someone else I got to be someone else when I got to the gym I was quite vulnerable that's how how I kind of looked at it so I joined the gym
00:02:36
Speaker
no particular reason why I just wanted to join a gym back in the day, because you know, that's what you did. And I will never forget going to walk in, it was a Saturday, and just walking in and seeing all the people and just feeling this sense of dread and overwhelm and not being able to breathe. And I'd always had anxiety, but never
00:03:00
Speaker
Like, did I experience it going into a gym? And I just remember just kind of freaking out and I literally walked straight out, drove home, cried because I didn't understand why I was getting so emotional about a gym, like literally walking into a place and seeing all these people. So I kind of just left it for a while. Kind of started draining my bank account as it does because you're not using the gym, but you're paying for it. Yeah. So I ended up getting a personal trainer.
00:03:31
Speaker
which was one of the best decisions I'd ever made. And she really helped me to just become familiar with the gym. But I wanted to go a bit of a step more. I wanted to figure out why are we so scared of the gym? And then also when I became an OT, I worked in a mental health hospital and they had a gym in the hospital.
00:03:54
Speaker
The issue was that no one was qualified to run the gym. So here was this resource that could be used to help people with their mental health and it couldn't be utilized. So I went and got my PT qualification because in Australia you have to have that to run gyms. And I was able to see firsthand once that gym opened the effects it had on people's mental health and the changes
00:04:18
Speaker
in their depression and helping them emotionally regulate with their anxiety.
Hosts Reflect on Gym Experiences
00:04:23
Speaker
So this is why I'm a huge advocate for exercise and mental health and why we should be engaging in it more and trying to overcome that gym anxiety so we can actually do it.
00:04:36
Speaker
Interesting. So gym anxiety is like something you experienced, but then also you found it as like a barrier for a lot of these people preventing them from getting further help for their mental health. Very interesting story. Did you know you were going to have that anxiety? Like day one, when you went to walk into the gym, did you feel it as you were approaching? No way. You just walked in and it just rushed over you. Hit me. And again, I was confused. I was like, I'm a dancer. I dance in nightclubs, not a stripper, nothing wrong with being a stripper, but I'm like a go-go dancer.
00:05:06
Speaker
I'm like used to it but it was just it was just it was this horrible horrible feeling and yeah I think I was scared that people would think I was a phony because I'd never been in a gym before like just all these kind of thoughts were going in my mind like she's not gonna know what she's doing
00:05:24
Speaker
Also, I'm not like, especially back then, I wasn't a strong person. So why was this really skinny girl going to the gym, like if she won't be able to even lift a weight, and I remember I'd be having those type of thoughts as well. Interesting. So I think it's something that's built up. I think it's something that's built up in your own mind. Like we were talking before we jumped on the podcast, I, my entire life was
00:05:50
Speaker
built in sports, I did martial arts, I did hockey, I did baseball, you name the sport, I played it. And going to the gym was like really natural, but we were introduced to the gym through sport. But I never really understood that anxiety. So it's really interesting to hear from the other side because I think it's something that you really build up in your own mind before getting there.
00:06:12
Speaker
Because, you know, having been there and having, you know, just traditional gyms, CrossFit gyms, wherever, when you see someone new that was coming in and I've introduced a lot of people to the gym, pretty much everybody that works here at the office now goes to the gym, you know, with me at lunch.
00:06:26
Speaker
And I like it, you know, someone that's there, you see somebody that's having a hard time, and most people are like that, they're like, oh, let me show you how to do this, let me show you how to use this machine. And I think once people get past that initial anxiety, which I'm sure is really not easy to do, I think you'll find that most people are really welcoming. They're like, they wanna teach you, it feels good to teach them because someone's probably already done that for them in the past. And so I'm curious at how it builds up in your mind, and I'm also really curious to know
00:06:54
Speaker
your experience with exercise
Exercise and Mental Health Benefits
00:06:57
Speaker
and mental health. Because, you know, there's been all kinds of great studies that have shown the direct correlation with exercise. And these great little endorphins that are released from your muscles after you exercise, and that allow you to feel good. And not only feel good when you exercise, you sleep a lot better too, which has a direct impact on your mental health too. So I'm curious to hear about all of this. I think this is gonna be really fascinating. And I'm also interested to hear about your the
00:07:24
Speaker
Maybe some coping tools that you can offer or some insights that you can offer to people to help get past that initial anxiety. Because not everybody can find a gym buddy, right? Like not everybody can find that partner that's going to take them to the gym because maybe that's just not part of your current friend circle. But know that if you do get in there, you'll likely make a ton of new friends.
00:07:46
Speaker
I mean, sport and exercise brings people together. It just does. Like you go to, to like a functional fitness class and you see, like it's really cool. Like I remember Calvin initially. Maybe Calvin, you can tell your story when you started working with us because Calvin was not in the best place health wise, I think.
00:08:02
Speaker
And, uh, and, uh, it convinced him to get there and I would drag him to the gym. Oh yeah. I would be looking for excuses. I'd be like, Oh, I forgot my gym clothes. Max wouldn't say anything. He'd just go into his office, come out and just put like a pair of shorts and t-shirt on my desk and be like, let's go. And I'm like, Oh God. Okay. Cause I would have that gym anxiety, right? Like here I am out of shape. I haven't worked out. And.
00:08:23
Speaker
I don't know how long you know i used to be fit in high school but you know that was ten years ago and i just had a desk job eating eating lunch out every single day we're going to a crossfit gym and it's like you know i google crossfitters i just see the most ripped guys with like a six pack on their face.
00:08:40
Speaker
And I'm just like, Oh my God, they're just gonna laugh at me. I don't know how to do any of the movements. And then I walked in and I just saw like a bunch of like soccer moms. I'm like, Oh, you look like my aunt Debbie, you know, it's like, Oh, there's B from, you know, across the street. And I'm just like, Okay, I can do this. And it's like, they were learning it with me. And it didn't matter that I couldn't bench press 300 pounds because nobody there could. But
00:09:01
Speaker
And even if the people that had the experience were like really there to help you too. That was interesting. And the few guys who could bench press 300 pounds, they were like so welcoming and they're like, Hey, like I'm going to show you how to do the forum so you don't hurt yourself. Um, but maybe we can like bring it back a little bit for anyone who doesn't understand gym anxiety, uh,
Understanding Gym Anxiety
00:09:18
Speaker
Jayden. I just want to touch on that. I want to touch on that with you because you know, it was interesting to watch it from the other side. Like when Andre started to work here and you started taking to him.
00:09:26
Speaker
To the gym and you were on the other side of that, like helping him get into it and stuff like that because he had his own personal anxiety when it came to that. Um, and I think it was really interesting to watch it from the other side too, but yeah, go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. I was just hoping Jenna, I'd love for you to explain to our listeners who, um, who don't have an understanding of what Jim anxiety is. Maybe you can break it down and define it in a way that they can understand. Yeah. I guess the simplest way to define it is a generalized fear of the gym.
00:09:53
Speaker
It's all rooted in fear. And there are so many different kind of triggers that kind of present themselves.
00:10:04
Speaker
It's not like, oh, well, I like this one thing is what's going to cause it can be a whole array of different triggers. So I'll kind of, yeah. So very simple one is the, the gym itself in terms of the physical environment. So if you were someone that has never been to a gym before that is going to be a trigger or potentially you have been to a gym before and you've moved, you know, countries or you move someone somewhere else.
00:10:33
Speaker
and you're going to a new gym, that can potentially be a trigger for you because you don't know what the layouts like. You don't know where things are. There's a lot of change. And when
Pandemic's Impact on Gym Anxiety
00:10:45
Speaker
we experience anxiety, because I do obviously have anxiety, my trigger in general is change.
00:10:51
Speaker
So for a lot of people, we can actually. I could see that. I could see going to a new gym, not knowing the people that are there, not knowing where the equipment is. Yeah. How it works. Like, are you supposed to buzz in? You have to check in at the front desk, right? Like, do you have a card? Like, you have to bring your own towel, right? No one wants to look foolish, right? Like, that's like a trick. Like, I think you're like, Oh God, I just don't want to look like an asshole. Yeah. When I first, when I first moved here, what I did
00:11:15
Speaker
at the Planet Fitness here is I signed up for the membership and then I just took a walk around the gym just to familiarize myself because knowing where everything is brought me so much peace of mind. Yes. Did you have anxiety doing that? Did you feel anxious signing up and going in?
00:11:31
Speaker
No, because I was pretty consistent like when I lived in Kingston, going to Planet Fitness so I kind of knew like I liked Planet Fitness and I liked the environment there. But I knew that like I knew my gym and like I knew where everything was I didn't have to think about it was more muscle memory. And that actually brings me back like I
00:11:49
Speaker
did competitive dance growing up and everything in dance is muscle memory. You don't have to think, you just do. So like knowing where everything is and like knowing my old routine and kind of putting myself into this new gym just like gave me peace of mind basically.
00:12:04
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. I was going to say, you know, you're playing with the beeper, like the buzzer thing that is actually so anxiety provoking for so many people, even like myself, when I first started at my gym, I got it wrong and I got stuck in the turn thing. I was like, crap, crap, crap. And it's so many of my clients that signed up with me. They would actually run up to me in their first session, like almost like, you know, shaking and freaking out. I'm like, what's wrong? And they're like, I did the buzzer wrong. And I got stuck in the turntable thing. I'm like, it's okay. It happens to all of us.
00:12:36
Speaker
It's so funny man, the little tiny things that people just like build up in their head to be the worst case scenario, you know, there's a lineup behind you, you're stressing it, you think everyone's just... The funny thing about that is like, even if it happens, nobody cares. Most people are just like, oh yeah, fuck that sucks when that happens.
00:12:58
Speaker
Yeah, so obviously the physical gym environment, specific exercises and machines. So not knowing how to do the exercises or how to, this is a big one, is how to adjust the machine. I get it a lot. So some people, it's very easy to look on YouTube how to do the exercise, but it's like, Jade, how the hell do I adjust the seat? I can't do it. Or I'm not strong enough to get that little like lever out and it gets jammed and I can't move it.
00:13:24
Speaker
So that's actually a massive trigger. And again, it's that rooted in that fear, fear of judgment, fear of everyone's looking at you and talking about you, fear of uncertainty, fear of the unknown. So I mean, I don't know if you guys have ever had that issue with gym equipment, kind of trying to. I think even just like, but if you're in that case, I think just ask people are happy to help for the most part, you know, they are. But then there's also, I think also, I think also the government, like people don't want to
00:13:54
Speaker
like feel intrusive. So I think like unless you ask people are kind of on the sidelines, we're like, should I, should I help? Or are they going to, you know,
00:14:02
Speaker
Yeah, you try to be like a nice, helpful person. You're like, hey, do you need a hand with this? And they're just like, no, like they get upset. Excuse me.
Coping Strategies for Gym Anxiety
00:14:10
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. But that's the thing with anxiety, though, is, of course, if we don't experience anxiety, it's quite rational to ask someone for help. But when you are in that kind of mode and you're kind of freaking out, it's really hard to ask for help because your brain starts telling you not to do it because of this, this, this, this, this.
00:14:29
Speaker
So completely great people want to help but when you're like I don't know very well first hand you kind of go in that tunnel vision and you're like I don't want to attract any more attention to me because it's going to prove the fact that I don't know what I'm doing and I'm a failure and these people are going to reject me even more. So are there like strategies that someone who's when they're feeling that way like
00:14:53
Speaker
so they can cope with the situation and move out of it feeling okay? You know, what I'm also curious from your perspective, how much did and like, not to bring COVID up, but like, like two years of on and off shutdowns, and people kind of being out of the gym for a certain amount of time, was there a lot of anxiety, but people just going back that had already been there? It was like, like, right?
00:15:16
Speaker
Yeah, it put and it pushed people further back into their anxious states. So there were people that had, you know, finally been able to get over there or not going to manage their anxiety and get into the gym. But once COVID hit, especially if people have health anxiety, they were so afraid to leave the house, not just for anxiety for the gym, but scared to get COVID. What if I go to the gym and I now get COVID? There's a whole other layer of anxiety, another antecedent I now need to worry about.
00:15:46
Speaker
Which was way worse for their overall health and mental health than to, you know, well, maybe not in all cases, but to catch COVID, right? And it takes a long time to recover from that. I feel like there's been so much more anxiety. We actually did it. I was just at the Canadian college of naturopathic medicine yesterday and we collaborated on a study with them on the impact of diet, nutrition, and high potency omega-3s.
00:16:15
Speaker
and the peer review's coming out next week. But it was really interesting through that whole process to see this crazy growth curve of anxiety and depression. I think it's like, just in Canada, it's up like over 60% since 2012. Year over year, yeah. But it's been going, yeah, but since 2000, since COVID, since 2020, I think it's up, 20% year over year. It's crazy how fast that grew. And I think it was just like restricting people from exercise.
00:16:44
Speaker
um, people being shuttered. And I think, you know, if you, if you don't use it, you lose it kind of thing. So I think like, there's like this social aspect to your, your brain. And if you, you don't do that, and if you have anxiety or you're an anxious person to begin with, and you're not exercising that muscle, you, you'll shut, like shutter, you'll shutter completely back in, you'll revert back to what it, like the issues you had, or maybe even worse. And so I'm wondering like now post COVID, like, like,
00:17:12
Speaker
Are people getting back to those regular routines? Or like, what's your experience? Have you seen a lot more of this anxiety from your perspective? Like from just getting into the gym in the first place?
00:17:24
Speaker
I think, yeah, we haven't, well, I know here where I am definitely have seen anxiety around it. Um, yeah, as I said before, because there is a, the health kind of aspect of it, even though obviously COVID, you know, has died down, um, people do still worry about that. And yeah, it is, it's just hard for them to, to get back to back in. So I did definitely see an increase in that. But it's like a lingering effect, right? Like it's like, it's, if,
00:17:52
Speaker
If you had it, maybe it got worse or maybe it started like people that never had anxiety now having anxiety post, post two years of like on and off shutdowns. Right. So it's, it's really interesting and getting into the gym or finding some type of activity or sport is like, you know, actually, you know what, Calvin, I remember the, the, um, I do.
00:18:15
Speaker
I do. I did experience something like, like, remember I told you, I started playing hockey on Thursday mornings with a new group of guys and I knew nobody. They just get, they just called me and I was like, they're like, come play with us. And I was like, I don't know these guys. And I hadn't played hockey in like forever. And I was playing a different position. Like I used to be a goalie at a pretty high level and I'm like, my knees can't handle that anymore. And I was like, okay, I'm going to go play defense.
00:18:37
Speaker
Um, and I remember feeling that until I got out and I was like, Oh, okay. I can do this. Like these guys, you just have to like push through that, that initial, but I walked, I walked youth, you through that when I was like, okay, we need some, we need some more guys. And you were, you were super anxious to go out and do it. Well, for sure. I was. Cause it's like, I'm terrible. I had knee surgery a year and a half ago, right? To the point where I like was practicing in between. So that way my anxiety would go down. Cause I'd be more confident in myself playing with them for sure.
00:19:04
Speaker
So what are some of the tips and tricks? Walk us through someone that shows up and says, hey, I really think I need to get to the gym, but I just can't walk through the doors. Yeah. So I always say we need to work on our breathing. Breathing is number one. And the reason I say that is
00:19:28
Speaker
If you think kind of, you know, you've got the top down approach or your bottom up approach. Top down being at the top is those cognitive kind of strategies where we talk to ourselves, we try and reframe our mind and change how we're thinking of things. And then down the bottom, you've got your more your somatic.
00:19:45
Speaker
sensory type of strategies, which is your breathing, your progressive muscle relaxation, tapping, all those type of things. So when you are really quite anxious, it is really hard to do the top approach, top strategies, because your cognition is gone. It's shut down. You're in fight and flight. And because most people, they're in fight and flight. As soon as they walk to that door, their heart is racing. They can't breathe. Well, they're breathing really fast. They're shaking.
00:20:15
Speaker
so they can't think straight. So we need to go to breathing. Okay, so we just need to breathe in and out. I always like to tell my clients to do box breathing, which is the four breaths in, four breaths out, four breaths in, four breaths out, hold it like that, continue to do that. Regulate a bit, get that fight and flight, you know, your sympathetic nervous system, calm that down, turn on the parasympathetic nervous system. And it really is, I always tell people walk in and go straight to the treadmill.
00:20:43
Speaker
because the treadmills face the wall you can't see anybody and walking is really easy we are just walking and then that's basically it so this is with my clients so then obviously I will go and you're just warming up right it's all good and you can take a
00:21:02
Speaker
Even if you're facing the wall, you can take a look around and assess the situation and start getting comfortable. It's a very simple first step that everyone can do. I like that. Another one I do say as well for some clients that are really dysregulated and really do need a bit of a shock to the system. I say, as soon as you go in, you walk to the toilets and you put water on your face, get water on your face, get a bit of a shock to kind of calm yourself down.
00:21:26
Speaker
Take some deep breaths in the toilet so that people aren't watching you. If you're worried people are watching you, regulate, then go out on the treadmill. And what if something happens like midway through, like you were talking about fidgeting with the lever or let's just say you go and you're walking on the treadmill and someone comes up to you and says, Hey, like, did you reserve this treadmill at this time?
00:21:50
Speaker
Right, so again, they're anxiety reserve you can reserve I've definitely gone on to play soccer to soccer field and a group of guys came up be like hey We reserved this time like you you and your friends got to get out of here and I was on an outdoor field No, it was indoor right, but it was You got a reserve
00:22:14
Speaker
Right. But either way, if you end up in one of these anxiety situations, what are coping situations someone can do in that moment?
Using Trainers and Orientations
00:22:23
Speaker
You know, you're trying to log in using your little key card. It's it's buzzing. There's a lineup behind you. What can you do in that moment to help cope with the situation?
00:22:31
Speaker
All right, so again, as I said, we want to breathe. If we're struggling with that, I always say to do some grounding strategies, which is trying to find like, you know, three things in the room that's blue, two things that are red, one thing that's yellow. Just try and ground yourself in the moment, because again, you're not going to be able to think straight. In terms of, let's say someone is trying to change a piece of equipment,
00:22:59
Speaker
and they're worrying that everyone is watching. Again, you are allowed to stop and move away. You're allowed to have a break. You're allowed to take yourself away from the situation. However, I always say you can take yourself away from that situation, but do not leave the gym because when you leave the gym, your anxiety wins.
00:23:22
Speaker
I like that. What you want to try and do is we're trying to desensitize yourself. And so in order to do that, you need to put yourself in the environment that does cause that anxiety. And if you were to leave your brain, the part of your brain like the amygdala that's going threat, threat, danger, danger, as soon as you leave, it's like, oh, this is amazing.
00:23:44
Speaker
I feel great now. I'm calm. We're good. Let's go. I win. But then you go home and you start thinking about it and you go, oh crap.
00:23:54
Speaker
Why did I leave? I'm a failure. I feel guilty. And then we start to think not the best. Compounds that anxiety. Exactly. And so then you don't want to go back or let's say you go back again and you try again and then you're like, Oh, no, no, no, it's going off the threat, threat, threat. I need to leave. And then you start to kind of train yourself.
00:24:15
Speaker
in that kind of pattern. So you're not being desensitized, you're being, you're sensitized. So I always say to the people, you're allowed to like, you know, move, go to the toilet, do what you need to do, but do not leave the gym straight away. I like that. I realize it can be cost prohibitive, but it sounds like in a lot of cases, it might be really beneficial to just get like a trainer for, you know, a short amount of time.
00:24:42
Speaker
just to walk you through like the gym and kind of like have someone almost holding your hand to get you through those initial anxious states. I think I think I don't remember I haven't kind of been to a traditional gym in a really long time. But I think they have like when you do sign up for a membership, I think you can opt in for like some type of orientations in a lot of cases where they will where they will walk you through like, you know, the initial kind of machines. I think they like people are so much more understanding than I think
00:25:13
Speaker
maybe in some cases what we build up in our heads. And I think that applies to like a lot of different areas of life. I think generally people are good. Yeah, are there some assholes out there? 100%. But I think for the most part, people are pretty good and they do want to be helpful. But in this specific case, I think if you want, and maybe I'm speaking from a place of ignorance because I've never experienced it to that degree, but I think if you really want to, I think there are
00:25:42
Speaker
there are ways to do it. I think there are definitely ways to do it, whether it's like an orientation, make an investment in your health, get yourself a fitness trainer, let them walk you through it until you're in the place. Because, you know, anybody I know that's kind of being, I have a friend that was a recovering alcoholic and his recovery was through fitness. And he had like, he had a tremendous amount of anxiety, just getting back into the gym because, you know, when he was a younger guy, he was really fit. And then through,
00:26:12
Speaker
through his disease with alcohol, he, I mean, got really unhealthy. And now, I mean, we've had him on the podcast before to tell the story. Yeah, he's talking about his exact story. But he went from like almost 300 pounds to 150, 60 pounds. And he's like super fit and the happiest he's ever been in his life, you know, post in recovery and hasn't touched a drink ever since. But like all that to say that once you do get moving and you do get into the gym,
00:26:39
Speaker
It can become quite addictive, like in a really good way, right? Because you start chasing that, that endorphin high, that runner's higher, that fitness high, post-exercise. Like you said, you know, you have a choice, you go in the gym, you have a really bright workout, you go home, you feel fantastic, or you let your anxiety win and you go home and you feel awful.
00:27:00
Speaker
You know, and you beat yourself up about it, you know, and even, even if that does happen, I think you really can't let it discourage you from, from trying again. Cause you know, it's like, it's like anything you might not, you might not win the first time, but you have to be willing to get back up and do it again and again until, until you do start winning, like persistence will always beat resistance.
00:27:19
Speaker
Exactly. But I like what you're saying as well that there is always a way and there is always a way. And anyone listening to this, if you do experience gym anxiety, I completely understand that the voice inside of your head that is your anxiety is going, no, no, there is not because that just essentially remember anxiety. It comes from a place of fear, but it comes from a place of protection. It is your brain is trying to protect yourself. So it is
00:27:47
Speaker
normal. That's why you get that like, Oh, I got to get out of here. Exactly. And it's to protect you. But the issue is, is when it's on overdrive and all the time and it affects your ability to function. That is where the issue lies. And this is what tends to happen with that gym anxiety. It's affecting your ability to function because you're not able to engage in an occupation because exercise for me is an occupation. You're not able to engage in that, which is going to have
00:28:14
Speaker
detrimental effects on your health, on your physical health, on your mental health, potentially on your relationships, on your social skills. It's a plethora of things that it can affect. I was curious, the gym that you opened up in that mental health institute.
Fitness in Mental Health Settings
00:28:31
Speaker
How much did fitness have an impact on the people that were taking the time to use it on their overall mental health? Huge, huge impact. You were literally seeing people that wouldn't get out of bed, get out of their room just to go to the gym. They wouldn't even go to our coping skill site classes.
00:28:50
Speaker
But they would literally be ready for the gym and then they would also make complaints because obviously there was only certain times of the day myself and there was another man, a gentleman that could work it. So they were making complaints like, can you have it open up earlier in the morning?
00:29:05
Speaker
Get some exercise in and feel good, right? But how much did it really help along their progress, like overall to like their recovery, mental health? This hospital was a very acute hospital, so the stay wasn't very long. So I don't know long term, but we definitely just saw improvements, I suppose in, like I said, getting out of bed, which for us is a huge, huge thing. Yeah. That's very cool. That's amazing.
00:29:32
Speaker
Especially if you can carry that forward, like maybe someone was there, they had some anxiety from getting into the gym. I know diet and nutrition has a huge amount of impact as well that's there, but fitness is huge. Like we're designed to be mobile creatures, right? Except we've developed these super sedentary lifestyles where we sit at a desk all day or you drive in your car all day.
00:29:57
Speaker
And then you wonder why you get home and and you know you get home you don't even do anything at home you get on Netflix on amazon prime that's so many streaming things that are designed to just keep you better couch right now eat the food that you got from the seat of your car cuz you just roll up through the drive through. You didn't have to make it yourself so sedentary right and so but were designed.
00:30:20
Speaker
to be mobile. Like we're hunter-gatherers, right? Like you're supposed to be moving like almost all the time and we don't. And I think if you get too comfortable not moving, of course anxiety and depression is going to creep up in your life. Like even if you're not
00:30:38
Speaker
feeling it right away, it will rear its head in some parts of your life because your sleep will be impacted. Obviously, if you're not eating well, your body's not functioning properly, your hormones are off. We've seen this time and time again, or even disease starts to creep in because of all these, if you're moving your body, you're creating good inflammation and you're reducing some of that bad chronic inflammation. And I think, you know, if you think about that inflammation, it's always, every time we do a podcast, Calvin, about some type of health conditions, it's always at the root cause of whatever is
00:31:08
Speaker
causing that chronic health condition, you need to move your body. You need to move your body, you need to eat well. It always comes down to that, move your body, eat well, and sleep well. But even adding to what you're saying there about the sedentary lifestyle, I've also had clients that come to me and they have anxiety and one of the issues is because of their posture.
00:31:30
Speaker
You know, if you think about how we all, you know, around computers, our mobile phones, where it's sitting like this, that, you know, they don't care about losing weight. They've literally said to me, I don't care about that. Just I need to work on my posture because I know that affects my confidence because I worry how people look at me and I know I'm like this.
00:31:52
Speaker
So is that, that's like your like auxiliary type muscles that you're not using or that you're overcompensating a certain way. Cause like you see people, what's that hump? I saw that thing where like young kids are developing like this hunchback thing because they're always kind of, right? That's the thing, right? Like this is literally how we are instead of, you know, being upright. Whenever I see people on their phones, I'm like, put it up, put it up in front of your face because that's going to help open up at least a bit instead of you looking down.
00:32:20
Speaker
probably force you to stay off of it too. Cause I don't suspect that this super comfortable. I'll tell you, right. But think about any time you go and even just go, uh, go to a grocery store or go anywhere where there's a lineup and queue, no one's standing up straight. Everybody's got their head down looking at their phone and that's all day. Get home through the TV on.
00:32:41
Speaker
TV's playing in the background. Still people don't, you know, it's like, that's right. It's just a thing. And it's, I can imagine that it's having a dramatic impact on people's posture and just getting to the gym and just exercising for half hour, 45 minutes, an hour a day will have such a huge impact on your health, but also your posture. Yep. So what kind of environmental changes can we do to like help create like a good,
Inclusive Gym Environments
00:33:09
Speaker
kind of environment that will support us going to the gym and exercising more. In terms of the gyms, how they can be a bit more inclusive? Sure, yeah. Or even your immediate environment, whether it's the people you're hanging out with.
00:33:24
Speaker
Yeah so first I'll just kind of start with gyms because I think there is a lot of work that can actually be done that they can do even people that own little boutique studios. Obviously first is having staff that are trained in mental health and actually have an understanding of what anxiety looks like, what depression looks like because here where I'm from it's
00:33:50
Speaker
It doesn't happen. And you can see how people interact, how trainers and how staff can interact with people. And me being a therapist, I can see very clearly this person is anxious. Very obvious, yeah. Yeah. And how we talk to people, how we talk to staff, it's different. So having them actually trained, having gyms where there are areas where there are no mirrors is actually really important because a lot of people with anxiety, they don't want to see themselves.
00:34:20
Speaker
in the mirror because they will overly critique what they're doing. And also if we start thinking about eating disorders, body image, body dysmorphia, that's a massive thing as well if they can see themselves in the mirror.
00:34:31
Speaker
That just sets off alarm bells for them. Um, so I actually, I wasn't, I wasn't laughing at what you were saying, just cause I'm laughing. I was laughing at Calvin. Tell us the story. What's the story? I saw Max was cracking up right when she mentioned mirrors and I'm trying to figure out what is he laughing at? It's cause I know it's about me. It's cause, it's cause Calvin loves the mirror. Love. That was at any time it was a mirror.
00:35:00
Speaker
that it triggered me. It's just, it just makes me laugh. Cause anytime there's a, we have mirrors like in our hallways here at the office and stuff like that. And anytime Calvin walks by a mirror, he does this specific face.
00:35:11
Speaker
He does like this little, and it, yeah, look, Alan just did it. And everybody, it's so funny. You ask anybody who sees him around a mirror, do the Calvin mirror face him. Okay. For those who are just listening, it's just mixing my hair. And if he's wearing, no. And if he's wearing a toque, he's like fluffing his little thing here. I like to make sure I have the right amount of hair sticking out of my toque. All that to say that Calvin loves the mirrors.
00:35:36
Speaker
Oh my gosh, that was a little laugh. But yeah, I'll go back to what we were saying. So obviously not having mirrors. So I have found that a potential trigger that I didn't mention before, but I've actually had a lot of neurodiverse and people with autism come through and they get a lot of gym anxiety because of the gym environment, because it's very high stim.
00:36:04
Speaker
Lots of noise, lights, lots of colors, and it can be quite overwhelming. So something I think gyms could really implement, which could be so beneficial, is having just like an hour where there's no music, the lights are dimmed down low, and even, you know, max amount of people that could be allowed so that it gives an opportunity
00:36:27
Speaker
for people who are neurodiverse and even people are anxious because that stuff can be really overwhelming to be able to go in and just work out and not be worried about that kind of stuff. That's fascinating. Have you heard of the Lunk alarm? I'd like to get your opinion on that.
00:36:45
Speaker
No. Okay. So that's, I know you're in Australia, but there's a place, I think it's LA fitness and they call it the lunk alarm. And essentially like if, you know, if someone goes in and they're like dropping weights and they're kind of just like really broing out, like, yeah, there's an alarm that'll go off. And it's essentially to shame these guys for like throwing weights around to be like, Hey, like don't do that at this gym. And I wonder, is that because this gym is like, Hey, like we've realized a lot of people have anxiety when they walk into a gym and there's just a bunch of guys like,
00:37:15
Speaker
really pumping iron like to it okay so she's shaking her head yes like that it probably could potentially be that i mean look we all have the rules in the gyms like don't throw your equipment down and a lot of the reason is because like my gym they're worried that it's going to affect the mirrors and the mirrors are going to break but we got to also think people have PTSD
00:37:36
Speaker
And when they go to the gym, they may want to go to, you know, as a release. And when there are loud noises, that is a massive trigger. And same for people who are neurodivergent. Even me, I'm, like I said, I get anxiety. And sometimes even still, if I hear these big loud, like I've seen it, like
00:37:54
Speaker
I was a guy the other day that you're recording himself just throwing like it wasn't even heavy but just throwing the bar down and even I was like jumping and I was watching other people and I could see other people were feeling a bit uncomfortable so
00:38:09
Speaker
It makes sense why they probably have. Gym etiquette's important. I think they need to get rid of the phone recordings in gyms. I see a lot where it's like there'll be a whole montage of people doing workouts wrong and it's like to make fun of them and it's hilarious. It's like, oh wow, look at this guy trying to use this machine but he's doing it wrong.
Role of Influencers and Social Media
00:38:30
Speaker
I hate that. I guess if you see that, yeah, instead of making fun of them, go help them out. Just help them out. Yeah, exactly. Don't just film it. Yeah, I think they should get rid of the phones and the gyms, honestly. Yeah. Or even like there's private rooms. Imagine if you could just build private rooms or if you want to feel yourself, you go into that room, take your equipment, take your camera. There you go. Do whatever you want in there.
00:38:52
Speaker
Cause some people too, like some of the gym influencers that I follow, like Whitney Simmons comes to mind. She's like so inclusive and she like shows everyone like, okay, this is like how you're going to beat your gym anxiety. And this is how you do an RDL and this is that right. And like, she's like, like super like informative for people. And it makes me feel more comfortable going to the gym. Cause like I have kind of a video to watch, right? So it would be sad like if phones were banned, but I really liked the idea and like having a specific room, like that'd be really cool. Hmm.
00:39:18
Speaker
It's like an influencer room. Go film. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I don't think like, you know, influencers, they got to do their thing. They got to make their money. Or as we said, if you're filming, like even I film myself explaining progress or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. But I think when we're filming to pull the piss out of people, that's where it's a big issue. Like that's not okay because if that person sees the video,
00:39:45
Speaker
Then just even other people watching it being like, fuck, that could have been me. Like, I feel like just call them out. Like, Hey, don't do that. You're being a dick. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. An issue there, but that's what I definitely think gyms can do. But in terms of you personally, I always think if you are nervous, go get some earphones, put your favorite.
00:40:09
Speaker
I was just going to say that, like if you just get some noise canceling headphones, throw some good tunes on and just kind of zone out. Right. Like if you can, like that's got to, that's got to help. If you've got some bad anxiety, get some, like they got great headphones. Some of them are not even that expensive anymore, but get some like good noise canceling headphones, throw them in and just do your thing. Right. And that's going to help easier said than done. But even if you have like sensory type issues or like the loud noise or like the, you know, just block it all out.
00:40:39
Speaker
You got tools that you can use to do that. Absolutely. Headphones is a big one. Another one that I always say is avoid if you can going at peak times because that's great. Yeah. That's good. I remember even when I was going through my gym anxiety, even though I had the PT, the days that I didn't have her, I used to go at 2 a.m.
00:41:00
Speaker
Yep. I've done that. Holy shit. I've done that. I worked my way back. So I'd go at two. Once I got comfortable, then I'd go at one. Once I got comfortable, I'd go at midnight and I worked my way back to where there'd be, you know, people, more and more people to the point where I felt comfortable. I can't work out past like nine o'clock. It's also really fun going to the gym that late too, because like there's no one there. So you could just like do like your own thing and like you don't have to wait for machines. And especially when you're new to the gym, like
00:41:28
Speaker
If you have a 24-hour gym and you're a night owl, I would go, honestly. It's so fun. Yeah, but good luck sleeping. I can't work out past 9 o'clock. Like, as cortisol levels through the roof, like, forget it, like, you go to bed at 2, you better, you go to work out at, if I work out at 2 or 3, I better be ready to stay up for the whole rest of the day. That's, that's for sure. I was like, to be fair, this was when I was at uni, so, you know, the next day, you cannot really do it now, but yeah. But it worked.
00:41:58
Speaker
I like how you kind of set up like this goal, like, Hey, my goal is maybe not 2am, but I'm going to slowly work towards it. I know you have a program on goal setting. I'd love to hear maybe a little bit more
Setting Realistic Fitness Goals
00:42:09
Speaker
about that. Like what are some realistic fitness goals that people should have and what are the best ways they can kind of reach them? So I always say you got to start with it being meaningful to you.
00:42:19
Speaker
It can't be a goal based off what your friend wants or what your partner wants because that is what I see happens all the time. My friend's doing this at the gym, so I want to do this at the gym. It can't work like that. It needs to really be about you. Again, I'm very different to a personal trainer in the sense I'm not weight focused because I'm function, form, and mental health.
00:42:42
Speaker
I get my clients to not make goals around weight because I think as well, if we become so focused on losing the weight, we start to do all these other things just to get to that point. And my motto is kind of, we're not going to look at the numbers going down on the scale. We want the numbers to go up on the weights.
00:43:02
Speaker
Sorry. Yeah. So we try and set goals around weight or function. So a lot of my clients, it'll be, you know, I want to be able to do a pull up unassisted, one pull up unassisted by a certain time. So that's, you know, something we can work towards. If we take it back a layer as well with my clients that have really bad anxiety, exercise isn't even the goal as in terms of we need to lift this much.
00:43:25
Speaker
And you may have heard of the analogy of the golden apple on the tree, I don't know if you've heard that one, where it's this really big goal and it's all the way at the top of the tree, this golden apple. And so you climb up the ladder to try and reach the apple, reach that goal, but you just can't reach it because it's not low enough. So you jump to try and grab it and you miss it. And jumping's quite drastic, right? So let's say if your goal was to lose, I don't know, 20 kilos,
00:43:55
Speaker
And you jump so that could look like cutting your calories down to a thousand calories a day doing the six week quick transformation challenges all these kind of things but every time you do it you keep failing you keep missing.
00:44:10
Speaker
that golden apple so you start feeling shit about yourself and you're like, why am I even trying? Why do I keep trying all these things where I can't even reach it? So what I say to people is we're not going for the golden apple. We're going for the pink apple, which is down here. Mine won't be as appealing as the golden apple, but that's okay because you can actually reach this apple.
00:44:32
Speaker
For my clients, a lot of the time that Apple is coming to the gym twice a week. That is the goal. That's all we have to do. Come to the gym twice a week, 45 minutes. I don't care what we do. We just want you in this environment so you are feeling comfortable and your anxiety isn't winning and telling you to leave. So once they can do that, they feel better. They're like, holy crap, I achieved this.
00:44:59
Speaker
I can't believe this. Imagine if I set this golden apple goal of you need to come six times a week and do an hour. Oh, forget it. That's not gonna happen. Don't you find that maybe it also snowballs and compounds? I think it's kind of like,
00:45:17
Speaker
You know, Oh, like as soon as you hit like one little goal, it's like, okay, well I want the next one because that felt really good. And then those, and then to get that next one, you're going to, instead of being forced to make these lifestyle change, like maybe going to bed earlier, maybe not eating a dozen pizza pockets before bed. And you know, you'll start to.
00:45:38
Speaker
That was directly where I know it. Maybe you start making, I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it with you, Calvin. I've seen it with Andre. As soon as you started to get healthier and fitter and you started accomplishing things, it's like your gym gear. It's like you show up with what you've got. And then next thing you know, it's like, okay, I'm going to invest in a little bit of nicer pair of shoes or some nicer, some different things. Same thing's going to happen to your diet. It's like, okay, I'm going to cut back on my sugar. I'm going to
00:46:05
Speaker
start eating more fruits and vegetables. I mean, maybe I'm going to cut out some some some simple carbohydrates. Maybe I'm not going to binge on Netflix, I'm going to go to bed at 10 o'clock, you know, at a reasonable time because
00:46:16
Speaker
Because when I'm trying to achieve that goal, the next time I'm there, I want to feel like I'm capable to do that. And I'm going to start arming myself with the tools to do that. So I'm sure you've seen through your approach, which I very much like, that you're going to naturally see the snowball. And I think, no, everybody likes guidance, but nobody likes to be forced into it. You know what I'm saying? And I think if it's a much more gentle, smooth type approach,
00:46:42
Speaker
You're going to get there anyway. It's just going to be a less, a much less rocky road with a lot less disappointment. Yeah. And it takes time. And this is something I explained to my clients and the ones that stick with me for a while. They understand like I have clients that have been with me for a year and some of them they've overcome their gym anxiety, but they just like training with me and they like the habits that they've created.
Overcoming Gym Anxiety: Persistence and Habits
00:47:03
Speaker
But if I just did a quick six week thing, which, you know, and I've said no to clients cause I've had clients
00:47:09
Speaker
give me these unrealistic goals. And I'm like, I can't facilitate that. And morally, I don't want to like, I think it's so wrong that you want to lose all this weight. And there are other PTs that will do it, but I just can't do it. But
00:47:22
Speaker
It's a lifestyle change, which means it takes time. It's little bites of that apple. And as you were saying, you know, imagine if you had all these different goals, you're not going to be able to achieve them and it's going to snowball in the opposite way. Right. A bad way. It's going to go down the other way and then you're never going to exercise again. And I'm going to give you an example because we're in January right now. New Year's resolutions.
00:47:51
Speaker
second week of January, my gym was packed. I mean, my clients couldn't even get on a piece of equipment when I was trying to help them. Now we're in about the fourth week and it's died down. Now- Calvin, what was the date you're telling me? That it was like the most depressing date because people realized- The third Monday of January. Yeah. Because that's the-
00:48:13
Speaker
the week that people, at least here in Canada, it's very cold. And then they realized that they failed on their New Year's resolutions.
Managing Resolutions and Burnout
00:48:19
Speaker
They went week two, but week three, they didn't go. And they're like, oh, wow, now I'm just wasting money at a gym that I'm not going to because I'm too anxious to walk through the door. Yeah. And here's the issue is that people are kind of fed to set these New Year resolutions, but you're set up to fail because you're all setting the same thing around fitness and gym. So you all go at the same time.
00:48:39
Speaker
And if you have gym anxiety, you're just like, well, f this, there's too many. Get on the gym equipment I want to get on. So then you, but then the issue is that those people then in their brain start telling themselves, well, I suck. Like, why did I even bother? Why did I even try? Like, I knew I couldn't do it. It's not that they couldn't do it. It's just they started at the wrong time.
00:49:02
Speaker
How often do you see people go too hard, too fast? Because that's like where I was going with, I was thinking that when it's like, I'm going to go to the gym. And then you see, I remember seeing some funny means people bust like a two hour workout and then they can't walk for a week. And it's like, well, I don't want to do that. Yeah. You're not really inclined to go back to the gym, you know, the next day.
00:49:22
Speaker
Start building that health even two days later because you still can't move you you just did way too much too fast you know it's not it sounds like the difference between the pink apple and the gold apple right there right just gradual right like you're going for that gold apple right away but now you can't you can't.
00:49:38
Speaker
even sit down. You can't roll out of bed because you're in so much pain because you tried to go from zero to 100 and you didn't oil the machine. I think it's all about building sustainable, healthy habits that you're going to stick with and going slow at first and then making it part of your routine.
Jade's Unique Training Approach and Resources
00:49:55
Speaker
100%. And, and like I said, a lot of the clients that come to me, they're at that point where they've tried all these things, they've gone too hard. And they're like, Jade, you're someone different. We've never heard of a PT that does mental health. Tell me like, if this is resonating with some of our listeners and I know it is, what is the best way for them to get ahold of you and maybe talk to you about your, your program?
00:50:20
Speaker
Yeah. So, um, Instagram at the fulfillment project with one L, not two L's. Um, otherwise I have a website, which is www.thefulfillmentproject.com. And obviously I've got all my services there. I also do have my gym anxiety Queens course, which obviously
00:50:38
Speaker
touches on some of the things we've discussed today, but it also looks in a lot of depth at our thoughts and how they influence us. There's lots of resources and worksheets that people can actually work on. So I always think, and I have had some clients of mine do this first, because if they are scared to come to the gym, how about you do some theory? Let's do a bit of that, bit of cycling, and then we can kind of progress from there.
00:51:03
Speaker
I love that. I will have all the links to your programs and website and Instagram on our description. So if you just want to click it and you don't want to remember it, that's the best way to do it.
Closing Remarks and Gratitude
00:51:12
Speaker
Jade, I want to thank you again so much for being on our show. It was such a pleasure talking with you. I feel like I learned so much. Thank you. And for all our listeners, yeah, lots of passion. I just want to encourage you all to like and share this podcast, share it with your friends if you learned something. Thanks again, Jade. It was such a wonderful treat to have you on the show. Thank you. I really enjoyed it.