Lifting Your Mood 💗 How Weight Training Boosted My Mental Health

Lifting Your Mood 💗 How Weight Training Boosted My Mental Health

Today's SOLO episode is all about how weight training has lifted my mood and had a huge impact on my mental health. It has been the biggest game changer for me. I hope sharing how weight training has helped me will inspire you to focus on your mental health and make a small change for the better, you deserve it.

First thing first, if you're struggling with your mental health, go and see your GP. Finding medical professionals who are in your corner, who you feel comfortable with and who really hears and understands you.

My biggest take aways from weight training:

• Every week you see an improvement in your strength, you can lift a tony bit heavier and this feels SO GOOD.
• Being able to see the increase in numbers bring such a sense of achievement.
• The endorphin rush afterwards is THE BEST!
• The social vibe of a workout where you can catch up with friends or women who have a similar focus on wellness is motivational and supportive.
• Feeling stronger feels AMAZING.
• You will start to see results pretty quickly in your body composition without thrashing yourself in high intensity workouts.

At home YOUTUBE workouts with Hannah Robertson: https://www.youtube.com/@Heatherrobertsoncom

Some expanders and high vibe women I love following:
Amy Castano from Acero Gym - https://www.instagram.com/amycastano/
Sami Spalter from Transform & FORM - https://www.instagram.com/samispalter/?hl=en
Alexz from Hustl. - https://www.instagram.com/alexz.xo/?hl=en

I hope this inspires you to start strength training and see how well it impacts you. 

Transcript

Elise: Very quickly you get stronger. So not only do you get that endorphin release of being in a social environment, having chats with other women and other mums, and then feeling good after moving your body, but you realize that the next week you can lift a heavier dumbbell than you did before. And it's like this sense of satisfaction, this like celebration of like, go me. I'm getting stronger. For the first time in such a long time, you get to relate a physical number to your progress of movement and fitness. And when I say I see results, I'm not talking about physical results, which I do see as well, which has been really great, but more beneficial than that is, I am feeling so good in my mental health. Friends have said to me, Elise, you have your sparkle back. I feel motivated to go, I feel motivated to create. I just feel so much better in myself. Hello, I'm Elise and this is the inspiring her podcast. It's all about you here. Your wellness, your nourishment, your lifestyle and finding that unstoppable glow. I'm bringing you conversations with my guests and friends to spark change in your health. Embrace your power and live your best life. Get ready to be inspired, uplifted and empowered as we chat about the tips and tools that will light up your journey to a vibrant, glowing you. I have been reflecting the past few weeks, probably about how I've come so far in the last few months with my mental health. And I really wanted to do a podcast episode about this because I think that mental health is something that a lot of us are struggling with at the moment. And I love sharing the realistic part of my life, the realities, the things that aren't necessarily always so rainbows and butterflies, because I want to reach women out there and help them feel not alone. I want us to share in the things that are real, the things that are taboo. And I want you to know that you can do better and you can make a change. For me, hearing other people's stories, it just gives me that little push bush of motivation that I can do it myself. So I'm hoping by sharing this with you, it really helps. It is very personal. It is what's been going on with me in the last probably six months. The subject of today's podcast is the benefits of weight training for your mental health. And this is purely based off of my experience. I am not a health professional. And please, please, first and foremost, go and talk to your GP. And on that note, find a GP who you feel within your heart gets you, understands, you. I, since moving to Cronulla, have jumped around so many different gps and I just felt like I couldn't find the one. And then I was recommended a new female GP. I went to her and she. I just feel like she hears me. She listens to what I'm talking about with my autoimmune disease and she has really followed me through the last, probably year. And then this is where we got to this point with my mental health. So she diagnosed me with major depressive disorder probably about six months ago. And we had a lot of plans within that. One of them was to see a therapist and then move on from just a general therapist to like a cognitive behavioral therapist, more of like a psychologist, which definitely helped me. I personally didn't want to go on any medication because I have been on medication in the past. Probably when I was 19 was the first time I ever went on any medication for depression and anxiety. And since then I've come on and off it a few times. But I really wanted to take the chance this time to find a better place for myself without going on medication. What we decided was that I would go on the medication for the two weeks leading up to my period because I didn't want to go on the medication full time. So we decided that we would start trying just the two weeks to kind of help with that. PM's that like crazy, crazy lows that I was having? And for me, when I say crazy lows, it was like not wanting to get out of bed, not wanting to do the things that brought me joy, not wanting to exercise, not wanting to see my friends, not wanting to show up in a creative space, so always self sabotaging and feeling like I'm not good enough and not wanting to even connect with my husband, getting angry at the kids, all of those things. So I remember coming home from this appointment and saying to my husband, this is the plan, but it just doesn't sit right with me. Like, I don't want to take medication. So I sat down that night and I wrote all of the things that I know have worked for me in the past with helping with my mental health. And my list looked like movement, walking, taking time for me, doing things that make me feel creatively fulfilled, catching up with people where I leave feeling inspired and better about myself, like that I've been able to be myself. So I said to him, starting tomorrow, I'm going to do these things. So I think I started out by getting up and just getting out for more walks or on the days where I didn't want to do a walk, I would have get up and have my coffee and journal, even just like a five minute journal, really sitting in gratitude, finding what was feeling really right for me at the moment. But the biggest change, and this is the thing that I want to talk about with you today, the biggest change to my mental health in the last, probably now four months, I have been doing weight training. Now, I have never really done weight training like this before. I dabbled in it a little bit after Chloe was born, but then co so I stopped. I also started weight training, I'm not sure, about a year ago with a personal trainer, but I hurt my back. And I believe that's because I was just doing weight training and I wasn't doing it in combination with pilates. And that was, for me personally, that's my body. Because after having three children, my back tends to, like, pull out really quickly because I had pelvic problems with the kids. I've been doing weight training three times a week consistently. Plus I try and get in one pilates at least a week for the last probably four months. And when I say I see results, I'm not talking about physical results, which I do see as well, which has been really great. But more beneficial than that is, I am feeling so good in my mental health. Friends have said to me, Elise, you have your sparkle back. I feel motivated to go. I feel motivated to create. I just feel so much better in myself. So I thought I would do a little bit of research on this topic so I could share it with you guys, just in case you're feeling like I was a few months ago, where maybe you're in a little bit of a rut with your mental health. You don't necessarily want to have to do anything medically about it, but you do want to try something new. I would suggest weight training. And what I also would like to say is that you don't have to go to a big, scary gym to try weight training. I have a friend, Casey. She's done an episode on the podcast before about her experience. She's been through some horrible things in her life and she always comes back to weight training. She does 20 to 30 minutes every day at home in her own house with weights that she bought just from Kmart or wherever. And she looks incredible, but it helps her mental health. I'm going to put some links in the show notes down below of some great free YouTube channels you can go to start doing strength training if you want to do it in home. Otherwise you can look for your local gym team up with a friend and just go. Just go together. That has been one of the biggest tips for me too, is going with a friend because we motivate each other. She actually has done strength training in the past, so that's helped me with my form. And then the other biggest thing that I do is when I go to a class, if I don't know the trainer, and in the very beginning I would say to them, I'm new to this, I have no strength, please come and correct me. And every single time we do a new move, I'm not scared to wait for them. And I ask them to come over and I say, can you watch me? Can you make sure my form is correct? And they will give me little corrections every single time. And it helps. I'm feeling stronger and it's just been the best. I want to talk about the types of training that are beneficial for us in different age groups. So let's start with the thirties. I was looking into this and I actually listened to a podcast on selfdom, and I'm going to share some resources at the end of people and things that have really expanded my knowledge on strength training, rather than just doing what I was doing previously. In your thirties, it's all about balancing hormones and building your endurance. So your focus is really on resistance training and core stability and functional training. So I would say to me that means pilates and strength, and that's the age group that I am still just in at the moment. Now, why is it that we need to focus on these in the thirties? It's because we have careers, families, we've got life pressures. We're maintaining a balance between the physical and mental wellbeing, and it's really crucial to maintain that balance. We have lots of hormonal challenges happening because we're having babies, our hormones are changing, our cycles are changing, and in our late thirties, even more hormonal changes start happening. So weight bearing exercises really are key. I would love to get someone professional on to talk about this more. So if you're interested, please message me or leave a review at the bottom of this podcast saying that that's something you're interested in so I can look into it more for resistance training. From what I know, you should be doing at least two to three times a week to see results. Now that is focusing on maintaining muscle mass so you don't have to lift ridiculously heavy. It's just lifting something that feels a little bit challenging to you and then working up the next time to something that is a little bit higher for me. Adding in the emphasis on core stability and functional movements is the key here. So I am doing the three sessions of strength training a week, but I am always trying to do at least one pilates as well because it does help me focus on my core and it helps me feel stretched out. If I don't do my pilates and I only do my strength, I feel really tight. My back starts to like twinge a little bit. So for me that has really worked. Low impact cardio. I personally, because of my hashimoto's as well, I don't do any of the HIIT cardio classes. I find them too intense. I have tried and it just sends me into a flare up. So when I say low impact cardio, I personally love walking. I love going for long walks. It doesn't even have to be a long walk, it can be 20 or 30 minutes for me. I find that most impactful and functional training. Again, what I said, it's like bodyweight exercises through pilates, reformer pilates, mat pilates, that type of thing. I also think it's really important to combine that with like a mental something that's good for your mental health. So maybe it's yoga and what types of recovery are you doing as well? Then we move on to our forties. And in our forties, it is definitely a focus more on strength training and flexibility. So the goal here is maintaining that muscle mass that you've built up through your thirties and that flexibility that you've built up through your thirties. Now, in your forties, your muscle mass and your bone density naturally starts to decline. So you'll have even more hormonal shifts into perimenopause and menopause, and it can affect your metabolism, your fat distribution and your energy. So the best types of training again, is strength two to three times a week, prioritizing muscle maintenance, and then the low impact cardio, walking, cycling, swimming, whatever you prefer. And still the core strength and balance. Balance, because I think when your hormones are shifting, your balance can go off and that can cause a whole bunch of other problems. So pilates again, I'm such an advocate for. And this all comes into moving towards your fifties. So then in your fifties and beyond, you're all about preserving your mobility and preventing injuries. So you still want to focus on your strength training, your flexibility, your balance, and then you're starting to focus on bone health because your estrogen is reducing. If you're coming into menopause, which can affect your bone density and muscle mass. So same thing here, strength training. Emphasizing on lower body and core strength for your posture and your joint health. Lifting weights or using resistance bands really helps preserve your muscle mass and improve your bone density. You don't have to do crazy things like this is what I mean. Sometimes I show up in the gym and I really don't feel like being there and I will lift. Not super heavy, but I've still been there, I've shown up and it's still great for my movement and my health. So I hope that gives you a little bit of an overview of, you know, the types of training that are good in these different decades of our lives. Because I guess the goal is like, what is your goal? What do you want to aim to be? I personally want to aim to be in my sixties and be able to be on the floor playing with my grandkids. I want to be able to go traveling with my husband. I want us to be healthy. Like, I don't want us to have any health problems. My dad died of cancer when he was 60 and I just think that is so young. So if there's anything I can do to prevent any health problems, that is it in. So that's my goal really. My goal has shifted, I think, from exercising for how I want to look to exercising to preserve my wellness of life into my sixties, seventies, eighties. Now let's talk about the mental health. So the mental health for me personally, and I'm going to give you some stats on this too because I find it really interesting and I like to kind of geek out a little bit on this stuff. But I first want to share what has worked for me for my mental health. Weight training has not only been such a great social thing because I show up at the gym, I go to the classes that I know I'm going to feel comfortable in. So I go to the classes where there's a female trainer. It's a 930 class, so I know there's going to be other moms there. So I'm not going to feel like overwhelmed or out of my comfort zone. And I only do what feels right for me. I let it out of my head that anyone's looking out at looking at me or judging me and I just do what's right. Sometimes I only lift the bar. Sometimes I just use dumbbells. I do what's right. But you know, the really cool thing that happens is that very quickly you get stronger. So not only do you get that endorphin release of being in a social environment, having chats with other women and other mums and then feeling good after moving your body. But you realize that the next week you can lift a heavier dumbbell than you did before. And it's like this sense of satisfaction, this, like, celebration of, like, go me. I'm getting stronger. For the first time in such a long time, you get to relate a physical number to your progress of movement and fitness. And that is something that I haven't seen before because I will do Pilates and I will think to myself, yeah, I think I'm doing more advanced moves, but the way my mind works to be able to see, last week I was using a five kilo weight, and this week I'm using a six. And when I started, I was using five, and now, guys, I'm using a ten. That is just like, such a celebration in my mind. Like, I'm just like, go you. And I say that to myself. I consciously congratulate myself for my wins and my improvements from what I've researched. The more muscle that you have, the more fat that you burn. So if your goal is to just build muscle, and when I say build muscle, it's not about getting bulky, it's literally about getting stronger. And as you build up those muscles, the muscle burns fat. So it takes time. Don't give up. I think that it does take a few months for you to start to see any changes because it's all happening internally. This is a really cool stat that I found out. Women who strength train report a 70% increase in body satisfaction and overall self confidence. This is because training helps women shift their focus from aesthetic goals to strength and performance, leading to a healthier body image perspective perspective. So that is definitely my experience, 100%. That is how I feel. Another really cool stat that I found out was that women who strength train or engaged in resistance type exercises experienced a 32% reduction in cortisol levels, which is a stress hormone. So cortisol is something that I'm also working on. I think a lot of women in our mid to late thirties, early forties, have problems with cortisol. And cortisol can mean that you hold on to weight. You start to get this, like, weight gain around your stomach that you may not have ever had before. So ways to reduce your cortisol is really, really important. So I really loved that stat. And I think for me personally, it's like just the joy and the celebration of leaving the gym and feeling like I've achieved something. And having had a little conversation with another woman and mom, it brings down my stress and that just feels really good. I saw a little quote on instagram that I wanted to share with you as well. It says, don't be afraid to disappoint people by doing what's necessary for your mental health. Too often we sacrifice our needs, values and well being to keep others comfortable. Your wellness should be your daily priority. So I quite often get messages from mumsd saying, like, how do you fit it in? And I think that it has to be like, you have to have that moment where you take the switch. It's like me going, I could start taking the medication or from tomorrow I'm going to start doing something different and I'm going to show up for myself and I'm going to be there and I'm going to see what happens. And if in a few months I still feel ******, then I'll take the medication and no harm in taking the medication. If you take medication, good on you. You do what's right for you by the guidance of your medical practitioner. But one thing that was really interesting that I was thinking about was putting yourself first as a mum. Because I think we've become accustomed to not put ourselves first. We've just always, for the last, however long since you've become a mum. For me, twelve years almost, we've always put others first. So it's like retraining ourselves to put ourselves first. So it's like me saying to my husband, no, I am going to go to that 06:00 a.m. gym class. You don't need to leave till 07:00 and that might not be your situation, but this is mine. And he might say, oh, but I really want to leave at ten to seven. And I'll say, really? Because this is my mental health and this is how I feel then going to the day as a mum, looking after their three kids, being like the mum that's looking after the family. So I would really appreciate it if you could make it work to leave at 07:00 because you're a team and it's those little things that consistency and showing up and making those decisions for you, that's what's going to make you feel better. Now, for the end of this episode, I wanted to share with you some because I really feel like when you find something new that you're loving something new that's creative or that you really want to delve into deeper, it's very helpful to find expanders in that domain to really give you that boost, that motivation. So when you're feeling inspired by something. Find expanders. Follow people on Instagram that you're interested in who are doing it well. Find new friends. Like, don't be afraid to talk to new people. Ask questions. People love talking about themselves, so just ask them what they've been doing. That's one thing I do in the gym. I'm like, how long have you been training here? Do you have kids? Like, I just love hearing other people's stories. So push yourself out of your comfort zone. Find new expanders. But in particular in weight training, I wanted to share with you a few that I have found in case of you feel like you want to look into it as well. A woman who I find super inspiring, who have only recently found, is Amy Costano. Now, she is the owner of Acero Gym, which is apparently. I had no idea this amazing. They name it the influencer gym. And I think it's just because they do a lot of social promotion on this gym. But what I loved about Amy is not that she's the owner of the gym, that she actually had a huge transformation in her health. So she lost, I think, I don't know how much weight she lost, maybe 20 kilos or something like that. A huge amount of weight. And she's just so humble in her story. I heard her sharing her story on the self Dom podcast, and I just loved it. So I started following her on Instagram and her gym, and I just find it's so inspiring because she's like, you can tell that she weight trains, and she didn't used to be in that place. So that's someone where I feel very inspired because they've obviously pushed themselves into a new realm and really found benefits from it. Another person I find really inspiring in this is Sammy Spalter. She also lost a lot of weight by doing movement, and she is part of the form Pilates, and she has a podcast called Transform. And I just want to also say here, I'm not following these women because I want to look like them. I'm following them for their mindset. I love how they talk. I love their approach to their health and wellness. That is what I find inspiring. I don't want to look like somebody else. I want to look like me, but I want to feel my best self. And it's when I hear other women talk, when I hear their stories, when I hear about their transformations, that it reminds me to have that positive approach to my health and wellness. And the last person I love following in movement on Instagram is Alex Alexandra. She's the owner of Hustle which is a Pilates studio in Byron. And she just cracks me up. If you just want to laugh. I think she's got ADHD and she openly talks about it on her instagram. And she's just so funny. She's funny. She swears she has fun. She motivates you to show up and just move and be your best self and then in person. I wanted to give you an example of an expander who I just adore. Her name's Rhiannon. She was one of the trainers at the Pilates where I used to go. And now she's training at a different gym. And she's such an advocate for strength training and pilates. And she's just amazing. She's so supportive of women's health. She would be in a Pilates class saying things like, if you are restricting your calories to lose weight, like it's not healthy. You know, like, she is just. She says it how it is. She's real, she's fun and a friend and I actually went to a festival with her. So it's just an example of surrounding yourself with new people, people who expand you, who interest you, who give you an example of how you want to show up for yourself. And I can handle my heart. Say that six months ago, I was in a really bad place. I would get out of bed in the morning, I would put my feet on the floor, and I would try and think of things that I was grateful for and things I was looking forward to in the day, and I could not. I hated it. I hated being a mum. I hated doing everything throughout the day. And I. I don't think I would say it was rock bottom, but I was feeling really, really horrible within myself and I wasn't sharing it with anyone, but going to my gp, talking to professionals about it, and then really just making that shift, trying something new instead of just being a victim, has helped me so much. And I just want you, you to know that you can do that, too. You're not a victim. You are allowed to change. You're allowed to try new things. And you need to stand up for yourself because you are the only one who can. And I think everybody who loves you and is there for you will support you no matter what you decide. So I hope you love this episode. Please do let me know if you would like me to get on a professional to talk about women's strength training and how beneficial it is for us. Next week, I have a really cool episode with a naturopath and nutritionist who's created a skincare line, so that is going to be really awesome. If you are looking to find that glow in your skin, then you need to listen to that. If you love today's podcast, please share it with your friends and family. And don't forget to come on over and say hi on instagramnspiringher podcast until next week. Be inspired and I'll see you then.