How Lifting Weights Boosts Mental Health

00:00Real quick, the only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals, and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review, and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask for you to do is if you could leave a review. It will take you 10 seconds, and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else. Most women that I've coached are afraid of change, and that's totally normal.

00:30There's nothing right or wrong for that. But I think that when you have a more resilient mindset to bring to the table on a day-to-day basis for yourself when it comes to your family, your kids, your work, you know, your overall reality in your environment, and you engaging in strength training, and you having the ability to adapt and to change and having your brain give you that ability and improving the neuroplasticity of your brain, strength training is going to do that.

01:01Hey, you guys. What's going on? Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikki Stott, co-founder of Warrior Babe. And on this podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. I'm your host, Nikki Stott, and welcome to today's episode, episode 182. And today, I'm going to dive into a topic that I think is incredibly important, and that is the mental aspect of strength training.

01:32You know, so many people think about strength training and think about, like, they imagine lifting heavy weights, they imagine building muscle, they imagine improving, like, their overall physical fitness in their body. But it's not just that. And I know that people have talked about this in the space, they've probably talked about it on the podcast many times, but one of the most powerful tools that strength training can give you is also improving your mental health. So today, I want to dive into that and explore how lifting weights reduces anxiety, how it boosts your mood, how it helps you just to build overall mental resilience.

02:05And the first thing that I want to do is talk about the mind-to-body connection that strength training offers. I remember at the beginning of my journey, I always had the hardest time connecting my mind to my muscle, and I knew that that was something that was really important to create that, like, pathway to engage the muscle and to make it, you know, break down. And then, obviously, after the gym, you repair it up, but you have to, like, engage that pathway in order for growth to happen. At the beginning of my journey that was really, really, really hard for me to do, I remember spending time watching YouTube.

02:41Specifically, like, the hardest muscle that was really hard for me to engage was more my lats, the back, let's just miss dorsi. And I remember YouTubing how to engage that muscle and learning, you know, how to do pull-downs appropriately. Like, I had never worked out my back a day in my life before I started strength training the right way in 2015. And, yeah, yeah, YouTubed all those videos, and I was just teaching myself, you know, watching, like, creating mental cues and teaching myself how to engage that mind-to-muscle connection,

03:16but also the mind-to-body connection. Like, our brains and our bodies are deeply interconnected. And the benefits of strength training that it gives you extend far beyond just the physical aspect of things. When you engage in strength training, you're not just building muscle. You're also working your mental well-being and, again, like, creating pathways to be a little bit more in tune with your body, which I think is so freaking cool. And that's what we're going to kind of dive into today, along with a lot of other aspects.

03:46I'm actually going to spend a little bit of time talking about the stress of what strength training does to our body, but also how long-term it can help to reduce levels of stress. So that's what I want to dive into, actually. I kind of first is talking about the science aspect of this podcast and really about how strength training affects the brain. So, and then we'll dive into talking about the cortisol aspect, the stress aspect of it.

04:19But when you, you guys have heard this so many times, right? When you lift weights, you go work out, like, you release the endorphins in your body, those feel-good chemicals in your body that reduce pain and that boost your mood. And you've probably heard of, like, you've probably heard of that one. And then you've also heard of, like, a runner's high. But that also applies to strength training, too, as well. Like, for those of you guys that are running and runners and you want to build muscle and you know that, like, you need to kind of enter a chapter of your life that reduces running.

04:52And I'm not saying you have to entirely do it for a long period of time. And there's totally aspects of introducing both where you can run and lift and strength train to build muscle. But I would say there's a little bit more of an advanced type of concept to understand. So for a lot of women that we coach at Warrior Bay, we're like, okay, we're entering this chapter of focusing on specifically strength training, right? And a lot of women say that they're afraid of losing that runner's high that they experience when they're doing, when they're running. And I remember one of my first clients that I ever worked with, she's actually one of my best friends and dearest friends to date.

05:30We were training for the Boston Marathon when she first started working with me back in, like, 2016, 2017. And after that, she wanted to obviously focus on the strength training aspect. And we were doing both for a little bit, but we solely entered the world of strength training. And she, at one point of her journey, was like, Nikki, I'm really missing the runner's high that I get. But you can also get the runner's high in strength training. It applies to both. It's just about tapping in, I guess, to a different, like, mental, you know, attitude, essentially, when you're doing strength training.

06:07But just as those, you can go and run, you can run for miles, and you feel this, like, boost of your mood, and you're so happy, and you feel so good. Same applies to you going into the gym, and you doing a strenuous workout, and you're challenging. Either in both components, you're challenging yourself. And in both components, if you're really challenging, what I always said to her is, like, you have to really challenge yourself with the strength training aspect to really release those feel-good hormones. Sometimes, it's not just about going into the gym and going in and doing the workout and being like, oh, okay, I showed up, I'm here, and I'm kind of just going through the motions.

06:40You're not going to experience a runner's high by just doing that, by just showing up and be like, okay, I have three sets of this. Not actually physically exerting yourself and challenging yourself with, you know, increasing your weight over time. And, like, the last couple of reps are challenging in a set. Like, that is at that stress level, just like how you're at, like, a stress level, essentially, when you're maybe at your fifth or sixth or seventh mile or wherever you feel like you start to hit that runner's high. It's the same thing when it comes to maybe, like, a certain set or a rep where you're really challenging yourself, and then you're meeting that, like, strength training high.

07:16So, it's, like, the same thing. They both apply across the board. But that's kind of the first component that I want to talk about is, like, the effects it has on the chemical aspects of our brain, releasing those feel-good hormones. And you guys have all known those things. But what I really wanted to talk about in that concept was, like, the difference between the runner's high with strength training and the runner's high with running. What's up, everyone? Today's episode is brought to you by Paleo Valley's Beef Sticks. If you're looking for a wholesome snack that fits perfectly into your busy lifestyle while helping you stay on track with your fitness and health goals, look no further.

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08:26So important for staying energized and healthy, especially during menopause. Also, these beef sticks are truly delicious. Give your body the snack it deserves. Head over to paleovalley.com forward slash the macro hour and use code the macro hour for 15% off your first order. Enjoy, and let's get back to the show. Now, what I really want to spend like a bulk of this podcast on is talking about the way that strength training reduces the levels of stress hormones like cortisol in our bodies.

08:57High levels of cortisol. High levels of cortisol over time can lead to, and I'm sure you guys have heard this, like chronic stress, anxiety, and even depression. But by you engaging a regular strength training on a weekly basis, you're not only managing your stress levels, but also protecting your mental health in the long term. Now, some of you guys may be like, well, strength training, you know, I just said strength training reduces the levels of stress hormones like cortisol in our bodies. There's also an acute increase in cortisol that strength training actually does to our body.

09:32So, like, it sounds like it's kind of counterproductive. I'm, like, going back on what I said, but I want to explain, like, there's an acute increase in cortisol, but then there's also long-term effects of which strength training promotes the release of all of these really good things. And which that counteracts, like what I just talked about with the feel-good hormones, that counteracts with the negative aspects of cortisol leading to overall reduction in your stress and improving your mood in the long term. So, while I said the strength training reduces levels of stress hormones, in the long term it does.

10:07But when you are engaging in an intense strength training workout, like on a day-to-day basis, cortisol levels do actually temporarily rise. But, and that's why I wanted to, like, talk through about this because people have kind of, I've been seeing this in the fitness space a little bit and there's confusing elements of it. Like, people are like, oh, people shouldn't strength training, strength training because, not, not, shouldn't, not, I shouldn't use, like, never, always, or all those types of words. But you get what I'm saying.

10:38Like, the uneducated will say you shouldn't strength train because it's reducing your cortisol levels. What I want to bring to the table is just clarity around these aspects. When you do exercise, you are in the temporary increasing your cortisol levels. But it is a natural response as cortisol helps to mobilize energy in your body by increasing your blood glucose levels and breaking down protein into amino acids and stimulating fat metabolism.

11:09So this acute increase in your body is a normal part of the body's stress response and helps you to power through your workout. So in order for all of that to happen, right, for the, the temporary rise in your cortisol levels, it's doing it for the reasons of which it's going to help you power through and give you energy to get through the workout. Long term, right, while they, while your cortisol levels will spike during and immediately after having an intense strength training exercise or workout, regular strength training actually helps to lower your baseline cortisol levels over time.

11:50And this is because you engaging in regular strength training and physical activity helps to improve your body's overall ability to manage stress. So kind of like what I just talked about with endorphins and what I just talked about a little, a little bit ago, your body's feel good hormones, like it's releasing those endorphins. And those over time when you're doing that, um, for long periods and consistently across like months and years that, that constant release of those feel good hormones is basically counteracting the negative effect of cortisol in your body, which leads to you being able to manage stress in the longterm and improve your mood in the longterm.

12:35So basically what I'm trying to say is that during workout strength training is going to temporarily, temporarily increase your cortisol levels to meet the energy demand of your exercise. The longterm impact with consistent training and proper recovery and the right sleep and the right hydration and you eating right, it helps to regulate and to lower overall cortisol levels. And this improves your body's ability to improve your body's ability to improve your body's ability to handle stress day to day in the longterm. Okay. So while you may temporarily have a spike during and immediately after intense exercise, that's just your body's normal response to do all the things to give you the energy that you need to get through a workout.

13:17But in the longterm, your ability, uh, to manage stress and reduce your overall cortisol levels, because there's so many women, first of all, we do, I've mentioned this so many times in the podcast that we do, um, sex hormone testing. We do thyroid testing. We do A1C testing. We do cortisol testing. Um, we do vitamin D testing. We do all this types of testing for our new clients on the way into warrior B. One of those that I just said is cortisol. And that is like, literally, I don't know.

13:47I think I've said in previous podcasts, I don't know an exact stat, but like 85% of our results that we get back is that our babes have high cortisol levels. And that's not surprising. Everyone leads a very majority of people lead a very stressful lifestyle. So, and when we see that, we know that like, well, okay, we're kind of already doing our job here because we're having our babes, um, engage in regular strength training exercises on a daily basis. And we know that after six months, nine months, one year of them being in our program, that we're going to see this cortisol level come down.

14:21Hopefully they're doing it consistently that like we can have these lab results. We can tell you what to do, but like, you have to be the one to apply and do the work. So, I kind of wanted to spend just a little bit more, you know, I wanted to spend time talking about that because, uh, cortisol in this, it's becoming, uh, a very popular topic in the fitness space. Maybe I'll do another podcast on cortisol that dives in a little bit deeper outside of just like strength training. Um, but know that like, if you aren't engaging in strength training, I hope that this is empowering you to engage in strength training, knowing the long-term positive effects that it gives you.

15:02And if you are engaging in strength training, keep at it because you're doing the thing that your body wants you to be doing. That will help in a natural holistic way to reduce cortisol levels. Now, one, everything I'm saying is not all in terms of how strength training, um, positively affects your mental health. So, when we talked about like the endorphins release to feel good chemicals, um, in your brain, we talked about cortisol.

15:34Strength training also has been shown to improve your brain's neuroplasticity. And that's the brain's ability to adapt and to change. And one thing that I think, and I don't have stats or anything to back me up here on this, but just interacting with humans on a day-to-day basis. And, you know, having coached over like 17,000 women that have been inside of our programs and me personally coaching over thousands of them. Um, a lot of, uh, most women that I've coached are afraid of change and that's totally normal.

16:14There's nothing right or wrong for that. But I think that when you have a more resilient mindset, um, to bring to the table on a day-to-day basis for yourself, when it comes to your family, your kids, your work, you know, your overall reality in your environment. And you engaging in strength training and you having the ability to adapt and to change and having your brain give you that ability and improving the neuroplasticity of your brain. Strength training is going to do that. This means that lifting weights can actually help your brain become more resilient and better able to handle stress and challenges.

16:53When people always like, you know, change is sometimes scary for people. But imagine a world where change wasn't scary and you were so excited for what change could offer you and bring you. And, you know, you're like challenge accepted, right? And some of you guys maybe are like that, which is freaking awesome. It's hard to come by. Um, but then there's others that, you know, maybe this is a really cool selling point, uh, to, to engaging more. Like I said, like their strength training is just so much more than just the physical body.

17:27It, it gives you all of these, uh, additional benefits, um, to your, to your mental wellbeing. And it also, too, uh, promotes the growth of new brain cells. It, and that, and, and, and especially in the areas of being associated with your memory and learning. And, you know, where my brain goes with that is like dementia and, um, Alzheimer's and being, I mean, you guys know from listening to the podcast,

17:59if you have from episode one that I spent upwards of how much. Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control. If you're between 45 and 65 years old and tired of struggling with body fat and muscle loss, Warrior Babe is here for you. At Warrior Babe, we've helped over 18,000 women just like you lose body fat, build toned muscle,

18:34and understand their bodies better with personalized plans based on hormone and thyroid testing and more. Imagine knowing exactly what your body needs to see real results and results that last. Look, don't wait anymore. Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women. Visit warriorbabe.com forward slash apply today to start your transformation. That's warriorbabe.com forward slash apply. All right, let's get back to the show.

19:07Years, man, nine, nine in total in healthcare, but a decent amount of that about five years was inside of a long-term skilled nursing facility. So that being like the dementia unit, taking care of patients that needed, that were not independent anymore. And I saw firsthand dementia, combative patients, you know, people not, people talk like, you know,

19:40you couldn't really have a conversation with them because, like, I've seen that world. And this is like, those are very, one of the very small reasons why I got, why my health was, I felt so important to me. Um, I didn't want that to be the, what happened in the long run. So like your brain having, doing strength training and growing new brain cells and being, and having that specifically associated with memory and learning is, I just think so freaking important. So those are a few components of how mental, um, mental health is positively impacted by you engaging in strength training.

20:17Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control. If you're between 45 and 65 years old and tired of struggling with body fat and muscle loss, Warrior Babe is here for you. At Warrior Babe, we've helped over 18,000 women just like you lose body fat, build toned muscle, and understand their bodies better with personalized plans based on hormone and thyroid testing and more. Imagine knowing exactly what your body needs to see real results and results that last.

20:53Look, don't wait anymore. Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women. Visit warriorbabe.com forward slash apply today to start your transformation. That's warriorbabe.com forward slash apply. All right, let's get back to the show. I wanted to spend also a little bit more time talking about the mental resilience aspect. One of the most powerful aspects, as I kind of touched on already, of strength training is its ability to build that mental toughness. Like, think about it, you guys. You go into the gym.

21:24You set goals in the gym, like lifting heavier weights or completing a challenging workout. You're pushing your limits, both physically and mentally. And as you should, like, again, as I touched on, you shouldn't be going through your workouts and just showing up and going through the motions. Like, to make a huge component of what your results can offer you is by showing up and pushing yourself to your limit. And I don't care if you're 45, 55, or 65 years old. Your limit is typically, honestly, more than what you think it is.

21:56So, this is just a little, like, tough love, little nudge to the next time you go work out, see how much more, how much you can push the ceiling of what you think you can do. Obviously, without getting injured. You know your body the best. But you know, you know what you can do a little bit more or do one more, right? Each time, though, that you do that, each time you go in, you complete a challenging workout or you're lifting a heavier weight or you get the push-up count that you want to do, you get the pull-up count that you want to do. Each time you achieve a specific goal, you're proving to yourself that you're capable of more than you thought.

22:32And that alone builds so much confidence. It builds so much mental resilience that carries over into other areas of your life, right? Imagine you just got done completing, like, a grueling workout. You've been there. Or maybe those of you guys are like, oh, I haven't been there yet, but, you know, I'm hearing Nikki right now. I'm going to go in the gym and really push it and see what I got. Do it. But imagine you've completed that. You push through the discomfort. You lifted more weight than you ever did before and came out on the other side stronger.

23:04I remember, I've talked about this inside of our community. We do community calls on a weekly basis in the VIP program. And I remember talking about this in one of the specific topics of me specifically. And you guys can actually go see this on my Instagram. It was in my squats. My squats are my least favorite exercise. And it's more so because I'm in my head about it. I'm in my head like, oh, I'm going to crush my spine or I'm going to pull my, you know, I'm going to tear my ACL again or something's going to happen.

23:34And so I'm always afraid to push heavy weight in that specific exercise. And this could be like any specific exercise. You guys, it doesn't have necessarily to be the squat. This is just an example that I'm sharing with you. And I remember doing more weight than I thought that I could do. And I proved to myself that, hey, I can actually do that. And wow, like even so far into my journey, like I'm still proving to myself that I can go beyond my limit. I can get outside of my comfort zone and to seek discomfort.

24:04I think that's so important to seek discomfort and to really push through it because you're going to have a sense of accomplishment. You're going to have a sense of, oh, I can do this. I have confidence. You're believing in yourself more. And that sense of accomplishment isn't just about physical strength. It's about that mental toughness. You've shown yourself that you can overcome challenges and that mindset can help you tackle obstacles outside of the gym as well. So again, like shrine training is so much more than just the physical strength about changing your body composition and all the other things that you people think about when they think about that strength training.

24:42It is you being able to develop this type of mental resilience and toughness that you can carry into work, into life, into family, into kids and to teach your kids this. Like I think that's such an impactful, empowering thing to be able to do. And it also is a way of grounding you. It requires focus. It requires discipline. It requires consistency. All qualities to help you manage stress and stay present day to day.

25:16In a world where we're constantly bombarded with phones and distractions and stressors, strength training can be a form of active meditation. That's why I love it so freaking much. Like sometimes I have a hard time meditating. I've actually welcomed it back into my space in the morning. And I know the first couple of days were so, so tough, you guys. But strength training in and of itself is a form of active meditation because you are required to focus. You are required, which a lot of people have a hard time to do. Think about if that's you, like your mind, if your mind wanders throughout your entire workout and thinking about like, oh, what am I going to make for dinner?

25:53Oh, I have to go pick up the kids from soccer practice at this time. Or, you know, I had this argument at work today. Your mind's wandering. You're not connecting with your body. And if you're not connecting with your body, it's really hard to be focused. It's really hard to, you know, want to go back and do that thing again. You, I challenge you guys to go into your workout and have no distractions because you already have so many distractions in your outside life. I've heard so many women say like, that one hour of my workout is my me time. I put my phone on, do not disturb.

26:23Nothing is going to, nothing is going to fall apart. No fires will happen. Okay. And if you do, people will ring through to do not disturb multiple times to get your attention. But I think it's so important to think about it like this because it can really help you change like, again, your mental attitude. When you look at, maybe this is something that you know you want to eliminate like stressors or meditation you want to bring into your practice for yourself. Um, this is a way of kind of maybe starting that for you and looking at it from this perspective.

27:00So, yeah, I mean, that's a lot of what I wanted to bring to the podcast today, you guys. Um, you know, and I think, and all to say of this whole topic today, um, we've all been in a situation where we felt overwhelmed. We felt stressed. Um, but hitting the gym and lifting weights has always helped us and helped, or, you know, maybe just specifically speaking, my perspective has helped me clear my mind and regain focus again. And that the sense of accomplishment I feel after a challenging workout is just truly unmatched.

27:32And it's a reminder that I'm capable of overcoming any obstacles. And I think that that's a really important reminder for you guys to take into maybe your next workout and apply some of the things that I talked about today. But strength training is so much more than just, you know, looking better and physical strength and changing your body composition. It's creating, uh, how it has this positive impact on your mental well-being, your mental health and long-term effects, positive long-term effects that they can offer you to as well. So just bringing that type of perspective to your guys' mindsets and thought processes.

28:07And yeah, I hope you guys enjoyed today's podcast. So if you did, I really appreciate you guys could leave a comment, leave a review. The reviews go so far and I haven't seen a review in a couple of days. So, um, it has pushed us out of the ranking that we've been so hard holding onto being top 10 in fitness. I think we're like 19 right now. Uh, so please guys, if you could just take like 30 seconds and leave a review, you haven't yet. That would mean the absolute world to me. And it would help somebody else.

28:38Um, because once this put, this podcast gets pushed a little bit back up to the top, easy people can access it and can listen to this podcast and it can help them too as well. That's what I'm all about. I'm one person, you guys are many. So help spread the word. Appreciate you guys. I'll see you in the next podcast. Hey guys, real quick. If you're interested in taking your body to the next level, lose body fat, build more muscle, feel more confident. Do it alongside one of our 30 plus professional coaches work one-on-one with her to eliminate all of the guesswork that you may have.

29:11And all you need to do is just do the work that she tells you to do to get to those goals of yours. And to learn more, click the link below this podcast and apply to our VIP program right now.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.