Ep #113: What You Get from Exercise (Besides Fitness)

This is the Strong Is a Mindset podcast, Episode #113. You know exercise is good for your body, but let me tell you what else exercise will do for you. This is the Strong Is a Mindset podcast, where you’ll learn how to build both a strong body and a strong mind by eating, moving, and thinking. I’m your host Physician, Personal Trainer, Certified Health Coach and Certified Life Coach, Carrie Holland.

Hey, how are you? What’s new, what’s good? So, what’s good here, well, I’m going a little off the cuff today. I want to talk with you about exercise, but it’s not exactly what you think. So I’m not going to sit here and tell you about CDC recommendations, or how many minutes of cardio you should do per week and why, or how much HIIT or lifts you should be doing, or how to make sure you’re getting enough Zone 2 training.

All of that stuff is great, but that is not where we’re going today. Instead, I want to offer you why, from my own personal experience and from coaching so many clients about this, why I truly believe that every person on this earth should move her body.

I know I’m not supposed to say the word “should”, but I’m going to. I’m going to be bold and make a claim that pretty much every person on earth should move his or her body.

Beyond that, I’m going to explain what you actually get from exercise. And this goes far above and beyond the cardiovascular and other health benefits that you already have heard me talk about in the past. Okay?

Part of this is scientific. We know already, through loads of research around psychology, motivation, and physical activity, that the benefit of health or being able to run around with your grandkids, or the idea of being free of chronic disease like hypertension or heart disease when you’re 80, we know already that those are not good enough sources of motivation to get you moving.

So while it sounds crazy, the motivation of ‘I want to get healthy,’ yeah, it sounds good in theory, but it’s actually a pretty poor motivator for you to get up and start exercise. And that’s because health is a long-term goal. Playing tag with your grandkids when you’re 80 – long-term goal. Not having heart disease, also a long-term goal.

And based on how your brain works, which is largely motivated by instant short-term gratification, we know that you need more than the promise of health when you’re old and grey to get you up and moving. So that’s what I’m going to speak about today.

I want you to walk away understanding the pure raw power that exercise can have over you. I want you to see the power and strength that exercise can give to you. I want to help you see why exercise really is like a dress rehearsal for other parts of your life because of these very qualities. And I want you to understand why exercise is more than a way to look good or look strong or look like you work out. Okay?

Exercise is so much more than movement. It is so much more than health and being strong when you’re 80. I believe that to my core, and I want to help you see it too. This podcast is coming off a week where I just completed my third ever triathlon. It was right at the end of July. It was the culmination of a 20-week training plan that my husband and I followed together. While

I’m proud of having done the race, and it feels good to have that race finished and under my belt, what I realized in reflecting back on it is that two things are true. So one, it’s just a race. It is a short blip in time. Just as soon as the race starts, it’s over and you get back to your regular life. It’s really not a big deal. And two, it is so much more than a race. It’s a lot more than that. I know I just conflicted myself there, but I think you’ll understand what I mean by all of this as we talk more.

And my purpose today, let me be clear, is to not talk about the race. I’m not here to tell you to sign up for a couch-to-5k, or triathlon or anything like that. I am not here to convince you to do a competition. I don’t care if you compete. I don’t care if you run. I don’t care if you Zumba or swim or bowl. It doesn’t matter what you choose to do.

But what I care about very much is that you start moving your body. I’m not promoting that you move more in order to get thinner or smaller, because you know how I feel about using exercise to lose weight; that is setting you up for disappointment and resentment when exercise does not deliver on your weight loss goals. I stand firm on that and will stand on that hill until forever.

Instead, I care about you moving your body because I have experienced firsthand the transformative power that exercise has, and I think every human should be able to experience that. I have felt the transformation myself.

I have seen and felt what exercise can do for you. Not just from a physical, but also from a mental and emotional perspective. And I’ve also seen the massive transformation that can happen for clients when they establish the habit of exercise. I have seen what exercise does for them. I have seen their confidence grow. I have seen their willingness to take risks increase. I have seen their life satisfaction improve.

And to be perfectly honest, I want every single person to have that too. So here it is. I’m going to try to put into words exactly what exercise can do for you beyond the obvious physical benefit. I’ll explain the benefit you get from exercise that happens just about as soon as you do it, you don’t have to wait a few decades for these benefits. Okay?

I’m sharing what I’ve gathered from my own experience and from coaching clients who have put the habit of exercise in place. And when it comes to exercise, I want you to understand why two things are true: That it’s no big deal, but it’s also a very big deal. And how exercise and fitness translate to other parts of your life. Again, this will make more sense in just a few minutes.

So here are your reasons to exercise that have absolutely nothing to do with fitting into your pants or losing weight. These are the things that exercise will do for you, and you don’t have to wait to see these benefits. Okay? This is the nearly immediate power that exercise can have on you.

All right, so let’s go. First, exercise can be your place of peace. I honestly do not know how else to describe it, so I’m going to stick with that. I know it sounds trite to say that exercise can be your happy place, but I will be cliche here and state it.

Exercise really can be your happy place when it’s just you and the barbell and plates. Or it’s just you on the trail, or just you alone, walking around your neighborhood at your own pace, not having to stop every 10 feet for your dog to sniff or piddle. There’s total peace in that. I acknowledge that some of you may not be there yet. Maybe you have young children, and you’re trying to balance exercise between naps and feeding and life and work. Maybe it’s not as peaceful yet. I know, I’ve been there and it’s hard.

But if you are past that phase, or if you are able to go and carve out just a little chunk of time and space for yourself, where it’s just you, you know what I’m talking about? Exercise is your time. It’s your protected space. It’s your fitness bubble. And I don’t know about you, but the more I exercise, the more I find that there’s almost a meditative quality about it.

When you get into that rhythm or get into a flow and whatever movement that is, exercise can be super calming. Even if it’s running or swimming or hitting a heavy set of deadlifts with your dumbbells, the very act of just moving your body through the motions in order to make it stronger, there’s something about that. It’s peaceful. I’ve not found anything else that brings me peace in that same way.

Whatever exercise you choose, when you tap in and get into a flow, there’s a calm that eventually washes over you. I know that sounds crazy, because you may be sweating your tail off or running or jumping or breathing super hard and fast. So while on the outside, it seems like your body is in overdrive, inside you’re in a quiet, calm, peaceful place.

And that’s just it. Do you see the contrast here? It’s so cool. Your body is going and going, you’re busting out reps on the bench press, you’re pounding out miles on the pavement running or walking, you’re doing an AMRAP… or as many reps as possible… set in your exercise class, you’re cranking out laps in the pool.

Your body is working. You feel it physically. Anyone can look at you and know you’re working. But despite that work, despite what’s going on outside, inside you create a space of calm. It’s so interesting. I love it. And it’s what I chase every time I start my workout. So you too, chase that calm, chase that peace. It’s a really great space to be in. Okay?

That leads me to another really awesome reason to exercise, and that is to practice getting control of your mind when you are freaking out. Let me explain what I mean by this. I’m going to go back to the triathlon for just a second here.

So triathlons start with a swim. And when the official says “Go,” there is a mass stampede into the water. And for this particular race, as much as I thought I was prepared for that stampede, I wasn’t. If you have ever done an open water swim race, you know that it tends to be a little chaotic at the start. This was no exception.

As my son put it so eloquently, when he did his first triathlon, “All I could see was green water and feet.” I have to hand it to him, because that pretty much is a spot on description. So as I was floundering in a sea of green water and feet, I totally panicked. People were swimming practically on top of me. Someone grabbed my foot. I got kicked in the cheek. I even stopped swimming for a bit and treaded water.

For a brief minute, I questioned if I should just swim to the shore and watch Adam race and maybe try again next year. It was a total, complete, full-on wig out, total panic. And here’s the thing, there was no one in that water to say, “Hey, Carrie, get a hold of yourself. You’ve got this. You’ve done all the work; you know what to do.”

No, my brain was absolutely out of control. In that brief moment, it was just me and I had to decide, am I in or am I out? I went back to the three words that had essentially become my mantra, both in my life and in my training over the last few months. And those words were Calm, Control, Release.

Those three words were the ones that I landed on over the course of the last few months leading up to the race. In full transparency, those words had nothing to do with exercise. When I first landed on them, those words were to help me deal with the anxiety and stress of other parts of my life.

I will admit that I am an anxious person. I tend to worry and that worry wakes me up in the middle of the night. Sometimes it keeps me awake, and I got tired of that. I have been there; I have done that. I got tired of keeping myself awake at night, anxious. So I found a mantra and started repeating those three words to myself over and over again.

And it made a difference. I eventually even stopped holding my breath as I said them too. That was a big step for me to be able to just say those words to myself and actually breathe, even though I felt chaotic just lying there in my bed.

So I want to be a calmer person. I want to be more peaceful, not just when I exercise, but all the time. I don’t want to be that person who permeates anxiety. I have a lot of good things in my life. I have so much to be grateful for. And I feel safe enough in myself to take care of myself no matter what happens.

While I just said all that, sometimes I forget. Maybe you do too. Maybe sometimes you forget just how strong you are and how much you can handle. And maybe it leads you to doubt yourself and worry. If that’s you, you can borrow that word, “calm”.

“Calm” is a good place to start for a mantra. And “Control” is another key word in my mantra, because it’s a reminder that I have a choice; because it’s true. If you have been here at all, you know what I tell you frequently, “You always have a choice.” And to me, that’s what control is.

Remember, we don’t always get to control what happens to us, but we always get to control how to respond. I choose how I respond, that is control. And when I think that way, I feel empowered. And that’s what I want to feel in all parts of my life. I want to feel that I am in control.

And last is “Release”. For me, release means letting go. Not in a throw-your-hands-up-in-the-air kind of way, but in a peaceful way. In a way that means acceptance, peace.

So it was through a combination of exercise, therapy, and coaching that I realized that I like to have a firm, really tight grip on pretty much everything in my life. Maybe this is true for you too. I want everything to be neat and tidy. I want to understand the “why” behind things. I want to control and be in control, and sometimes it’s to a fault. I want to hold on so tightly to everything in my life and have that control, but sometimes it’s not in the healthiest way. And now I get it.

Now, I get that you can’t live your life with a vice grip on everything and everyone in your life. It’s not a way to live. You have to release. So I practice that every stinking day. I practice controlling what I can and releasing the rest. And it feels a whole lot better than trying to micromanage everything and everybody in my life.

So there’s the mantra, “Calm, control, release.” I don’t even know if that’s really a mantra, but while it has been mine as of late, I found that it came in really handy for my workouts. Maybe it can help you too.

So I have very clear snapshots in my brain of being out on the trails running, just looking at the trees and the grass and feeling anxious. I would repeat those words to myself, “calm, control, release.” and it made a difference.

I did it in the pool when I thought I was hyperventilating because the water was so stinking cold. It became my mantra for all the parts of my life. So when I got in that water and started my swim on race day and proceeded to have a full-on freak out, to the point I was considering hanging up, I went back to those words and I kept going.

I practiced controlling both my brain and my body. And it worked, I kept going. Again, this is nothing more than a 750m swim I’m talking about, okay? This is not solving for world peace. This is not curing cancer. I did a swim in the open water; this is not a big deal.

But the bigger deal here is that exercise, in whatever form you choose, is an opportunity to practice controlling your brain when you’re freaking out. It’s an opportunity to create calm. It’s a practice in controlling what you can control and releasing what you can’t, right?

You can’t control what happens. You can’t control what anyone else is doing. You can only control yourself and how you show up when you exercise. Some days you will feel awesome. Other days you will feel like a mess. And it doesn’t matter, you practice being calm. You practice being in control of yourself and nothing else.

And you release. You let go. And that skill most definitely applies to so much more than your workout, okay? Here’s the other thing to know. I touched on it already, but I want to point it out explicitly. Exercise, it’s low stakes. It is a low-stakes environment to practice taking risks.

I said it already, but this is just a triathlon. It’s a race. At the end of the day, it’s really not a big deal. Or if you don’t race, fine. Workouts themselves, they are not a big deal, right? It’s not that deep. And that is exactly why exercise is so awesome. It’s a very low stakes way of practicing, controlling your mind, controlling your thoughts, and controlling your response to your environment.

I read somewhere on social media that for every five workouts you do, one will be awesome, one will stink, and the other three will be so-so. I would agree. Not every workout is going to be awesome, and that’s okay because it’s exercise. It’s not a big deal. And because it’s not a big deal, the stakes are low and you can challenge yourself to try something.

Do something you might never have considered before. Take a risk. What is the worst that happens if you take a risk and try something new related to exercise? Short of getting injured, which I hope does not happen, the worst that could happen is you try something and it’s a bust. You may learn that HIIT is not for you. You may learn that weight classes are not your thing. Or you could learn that you love running or you love being in the weight room squatting under a barbell. Who knows?

It’s exercise and the stakes are low. So take a risk. I did. I had a brief few years of natural bodybuilding. That was a risk, straight up. I used to laugh at the idea of bodybuilding, but maybe it was a factor of turning 40, maybe it was the need to stretch myself, whatever it was, I went all in. I did it. I did all the work. I got that shiny, sparkly outfit. I did the spray tan and the makeup. I did the whole nine yards. And it was low stakes.

If I totally bombed and stunk on stage, it didn’t matter. It’s not that deep. But it was still a serious stretch outside my comfort zone. And by doing that, I proved to myself I could do scary stuff. I could try new things even at 40 and it wasn’t such a big deal. Honestly, that was the start.

It was learning about building muscle and natural bodybuilding. That was the start of my whole process and transition to becoming a personal trainer, then a nutrition coach, and ultimately a life coach. It all started with a local bodybuilding show.

It was a low stakes way of stretching myself that led me to stretch myself in other, bigger ways. I’ve seen clients do the same thing. I’ve had clients establish the habit of exercise and do their first pull-up ever and become regular gym goers. I’ve had other clients start running and sign up for road races. I’ve had clients do open water swim races spontaneously while on vacation.

But it’s about so much more than the exercise. Those workouts and races and physical feats, they’re all awesome, but it’s the ripple effect of their exercise that is even cooler.

One client told me she walked a little taller in her meetings after becoming a regular exerciser because of the confidence it gave her. Another client started writing a screenplay after she got her exercise in order. Another decided to cut back at her physician job to start a yoga studio because she was just that passionate about it.

So it’s not so much about the exercise, but what the exercise can do for you. It’s a low stakes dry run for the other important parts of your life. It’s a low stakes way to show yourself what you can do. Okay?

Another thing exercise will give you is practice and willful discomfort. I don’t know how else to describe it other than to say “willful discomfort”. So I can explain. Think of what you do when you exercise. You are choosing to stress your body, right?

Think of most any exercise, walking, swimming, running, rowing, lifting weights, whatever it is, what’s going on there? You’re putting a lot of stress on your body. Your heart rate goes up. You sweat a little, maybe a lot. You get out of breath. And depending on how hard you go, that discomfort can be subtle or it can be super intense, like what you might have in a HIIT session.

And even though the exercise might be uncomfortable, you’re choosing it. Isn’t that nuts? You’re purposely putting yourself through the stress of exercise. It’s willful discomfort. I can give you a good example of this.

A few months ago, my 11-year-old was downstairs in our gym and he was hanging out with me while I was lifting weights. I was doing overhead shoulder presses and he saw me basically hoist the dumbbells over my head, using my legs to get them into position before starting. And then he saw me get totally red faced and pretty uncomfortable as I did my set.

I am not a grunter. I wasn’t shouting or anything, but I certainly did not look cute. I wasn’t chatting away with him, I was working. And when I finished the set and racked my weights, he gave me a funny look and asked straight up, “Does that feel good?”

It was such a great question. And a logical one. Here he is watching me do this, and I’m going to bet I don’t look comfortable. In fact, I probably looked like a mess. Despite how I looked when I was doing those shoulder presses, my answer was, “Yes, it does feel good, later.”

Even though my arms feel like jello, and I’m trying my hardest to get the weight back up, and I’m all red and I have neck veins popping out, even though that doesn’t tickle, it feels good. It feels good to get the dumbbells up and over my head. It feels good to slowly but surely move up to the next higher weight and keep going. It feels like work. It feels like muscle. It feels like progress.

And even though it burns right there in the moment, it feels good. And it’s a choice; a deliberate, purposeful choice. So when you choose to exercise, you make a choice to get uncomfortable on purpose.

If you follow a strength training plan or go to an exercise class or turn on your Peloton or head out for a run, you know what you’re signing up for. You’re signing up to get a little uncomfortable. And even though it may burn, you do it anyway. You’re choosing it.

And what happens when you take on the willful discomfort of exercise? Well, lots of things happen. You realize it’s not so bad. That workout that you were dreading, or that soreness you were avoiding, or that out-of-breath feeling that makes your lungs burn, when you feel it, you realize it’s not such a big deal. You realize you can handle it and then some. And again, it’s not that deep.

You accept the discomfort and you get the exercise done anyway. And you get through it, whether it was an awesome workout or just a so-so workout, and you move on. What seemed really challenging or intimidating is actually not such a big deal after all.

And again, transferable skill. So think of something in your life you’re avoiding because of the discomfort. A difficult conversation with your partner, a big ask of your boss, changing your schedule, changing your career. Whatever it is, in order to make that change happen you are going to have to willingly get uncomfortable.

You have to walk right in, head on to the discomfort. And exercise is your practice run. It’s your test case. It’s your opportunity to practice choosing a hard thing on purpose and seeing it through to the end. Because when you do it, when you carry it out and get your exercise done, even when it’s hard, then you’re building up evidence for yourself.

If you remember, in the past, I’ve talked about creating a highlight reel. Well, your exercise belongs on your highlight reel whenever you need to access past experiences of getting uncomfortable and seeing it through. Exercise is evidence of your ability to choose hard things on purpose and get it done. Okay?

That belongs on your highlight reel whenever you need to remind yourself of your capacity for hard. You can use exercise as a reminder that you are capable of not only choosing, but also handling discomfort. And that transfers to all the other parts of your life. All right?

One other thing that exercise will give you is a means of competing with yourself. It’s an opportunity to show yourself what you’re capable of and making progress. So if you know me at all, you know that I am not a super competitive person. I’m really not.

I joke with my family all the time about how in high school I got a lot of second and third place medals in track, and I was fine with it. I just did not, and still really don’t, have that killer drive to go and crush the competition. Now, my husband, on the other hand, that is a different story. He is a super nice guy. Anyone who knows him will attest to that. But if he plays, he plays to win.

I still remember, when we were dating, I taught him a card game and when he beat me, he stood up and pounded the wall as if he had just won the lottery. He plays to win. And while there is nothing wrong with being competitive or playing to win, that doesn’t do it for me.

Sure, it is great to place or get a medal or be on the podium or whatever. But at the end of the day, I don’t see my high school or college races, or even the races I’ve done as an adult, I don’t see those races as a competition with other people.

I really do see exercise as a competition with myself. And maybe that sounds corny, but really, to me, that’s what it is. And here’s how I see it. You can’t control what anyone else is doing. You can’t control who shows up or what they’re going to do.

For this triathlon, I had no idea who’s going to be there. I had no idea what other people did for their training. At the gym, it doesn’t matter if someone is lifting more than me. It doesn’t matter if my output on the Peloton is not as high as the next person. It doesn’t matter, because every time I show up for my workout, I show up and do my best because that’s about all I can control.

And that’s just it. Whether it’s exercise or your work or your relationships or really anything in your life, you have control over one thing, yourself. And because of that, I use exercise as an opportunity to turn inward and compete with myself. My ultimate goal is nothing more than to make progress.

If you know what you’re capable of, you can test yourself. You can compete against your past self and show yourself how far you’ve come. And no, I do not mean chasing after your high school or college glory days. Okay? I don’t want you pining away for the days when you were a star athlete in high school.

That is not what this is about. Instead, I’m asking you to look at where you are right now and decide that you’re going to try to get just a little better every time you show up. Okay? Maybe you choose to bust out one more rep at the gym today because you think you’ve got enough left to get those dumbbells up one more time.

Or maybe you decide to go just a little farther on your next run because you’ve been doing the same route for a while now and you believe there’s just a little extra gas left in the tank. Whatever it is, you can strive to continuously show yourself what you’re capable of.

And the more you do this, the more you show yourself what you’ve got, the more you improve. Honestly, of all the things that I love about exercise, this is it. I’ve said it before, but I really don’t care about winning or competing or other people. I show up every day because I’m chasing progress. I am chasing progress.

I’m pretty sure, because of that I will still be doing triathlons when I’m 80. And who knows? I may step on the bodybuilding stage again too and be the oldest, grayest, saggiest one out there. But it doesn’t matter, because for me it’s about the progress I’m making.

So I’m going to offer the same to you. Exercise because it’s a really awesome way to chase progress. Again, this translates so very nicely to your life outside exercise. I’m going to admit something to you, I am never satisfied. My husband apparently has known this for years, but I only just realized this.

When I left my doctor job and finally started a business and then went on to start this podcast and then started doing some public speaking, and all of these great things are happening in my life, I realized, yes, this is awesome. I have a lot of gratitude for all of the things that I’ve got, and I’m insanely grateful for what I’ve created in my life. At the same time, I’m not done. I am not satisfied because I know I can do more. And exercise taught me that.

Exercise taught me that I can always find a way to make progress, always. I’ve said it before, but it’s not about the race. If you’d have told me at age 20 that I would do bodybuilding shows, or become a gym rat and love to throw around barbells and plates, or that I would get over my fear of swimming and do triathlons, or clip into a veritable road bike and actually ride a bike on the road with other cars, I would have laughed.

But all of those things are reality now. And the only way they became reality was because I decided to stretch myself. I’m sharing all of this, and I’m sharing all of these random bits about my story and my relationship with exercise, to suggest that the same is absolutely possible for you.

Use exercise as a way to chase progress. Be grateful, but don’t be complacent. Don’t let yourself get too comfortable. Choose discomfort and show yourself what you’re made of. Test yourself, stretch yourself, learn to trust yourself through the movement of exercise.

And then take what you get from it and put it out in the world. Take all of that power and all that strength that you get from moving your body and go use it. Use it to make your work better. Use it to make your relationships better. Use it to create more confidence in yourself.

I promise exercise can give all of that to you. Come back to exercise when you need to remind yourself of how capable you are. Access those highlights when you need them. And don’t stop showing up once your workout is over. Because in reality, your workout is just the beginning.

That workout, sure, it’s just exercise, but it is so much more than a workout. It’s an opportunity. It’s a source of peace. It’s your place of calm, control, and release. It is your playground for chasing progress. It was for me and it will do the same for you. All right?

And if you want help with this, let’s go. If you want to establish or reestablish the habit of exercise, I can help you. We will make it easy. We’ll make it doable, and we’ll make it fun so that exercise becomes your happy place too.

Check out my website and send me a message at www.CarrieHollandmd.com/contact to schedule a consultation. And let’s talk about how exercise will change your life. All right?

Thank you again for hanging out with me and I’ll catch you again next week.

Hey, if you’re looking for your next great read, I’ve got you covered. Head over to CarrieHollandMD.com/books and download my list of most favorite reads. I’ve got two collections waiting for you. One is all about work-life balance. The other is a collection of books that have changed my life.

I’ve referenced many of these books in the podcast, and now you can access those titles all in one place.

Again, that’s CarrieHollandMD.com/books. Check it out and find your next great read. Thank you for listening to the Strong Is a Mindset podcast. If you want to learn more about how to build both a strong mind and a strong body by eating, moving, and most importantly, thinking, check out CarrieHollandMD.com.