Speaker 1: Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of My Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: I am Tom Holland and this is Fitness Disrupted. I
Speaker 1: would like to begin today's podcast by just reading just
Speaker 1: an incredible note I received from a listener. If you
Speaker 1: listen to the podcast, you know at the end of
Speaker 1: each show, I give you a way to reach out
Speaker 1: if you want to questions, comments, and I love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. And this just made my day. This
Speaker 1: is why I do what I do. Obviously keep everything
Speaker 1: anonymous when I read your notes and do the questions
Speaker 1: on the listener mailbag show. But here you go, just
Speaker 1: real quickly. I've been listening to your podcast for a
Speaker 1: couple of years. I want to say thank you for
Speaker 1: all you teach. I have changed the way I think
Speaker 1: of exercise since I have been listening to you. My
Speaker 1: main goal now is to be strong and healthy and
Speaker 1: not to worry as much about the scale. With your tips,
Speaker 1: I am much more well balanced and can run again
Speaker 1: slowly but without back pain. So many things make my
Speaker 1: day in this my passion is backpacking and mountain climbing.
Speaker 1: With your help, I am stronger than ever and look
Speaker 1: forward to each new adventure. Thank you for all you do.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you for listening, thank you for reaching out.
Speaker 1: And this goes to everyone, this person specifically for taking
Speaker 1: the time to let me know because when I say
Speaker 1: at the end of each show that you know my
Speaker 1: goal is to help us all live our best lives.
Speaker 1: That's that's it. That's it. And you know, there's so
Speaker 1: many great concepts in that message, including changing the way
Speaker 1: this person thinks of exercise, taking the focus off the
Speaker 1: scale being strong and healthy, back to running amazing, and
Speaker 1: this person is able to do what they enjoy backpacking
Speaker 1: and mountain climbing. There's no one way, and that is
Speaker 1: why we strength train and eat healthy so that we
Speaker 1: can live as long as possible, so that we can
Speaker 1: have as high equality of life as possible during those
Speaker 1: years add you know, years to your life and life
Speaker 1: to your years, and to be able to do what
Speaker 1: we want to do. That's it. So thank you, thank
Speaker 1: you for that note, and thank you for I just
Speaker 1: have the greatest listeners out there, I know from from
Speaker 1: hearing from you. So today I'm in a good mood
Speaker 1: because there were great studies. There are four that jumped
Speaker 1: right out at me when I was doing some research
Speaker 1: and I said, you know, this is perfect for today,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna bring you maybe a new term, exercise priming.
Speaker 1: And these are two small studies and they are focus
Speaker 1: more on depression, but it doesn't matter, and actually we
Speaker 1: can extrapolate that out in a positive and more broadway
Speaker 1: as well. But it goes to what this show is
Speaker 1: about in that. Yes, as the person said, it's not
Speaker 1: just about the scale. You know, after being in this
Speaker 1: industry for thirty years and talking about weight loss and
Speaker 1: weight loss and weight loss and weight loss, yes, that's important.
Speaker 1: We need to be a healthy weight. But the cognitive side,
Speaker 1: the mental side, is so powerful. And one of the
Speaker 1: lines I'm gonna read to you from one of the
Speaker 1: researchers in these two studies are done by the same people.
Speaker 1: There's a little depressing, but you know, not surprising, and
Speaker 1: we need to reframe it and just accentuate it, all right,
Speaker 1: But yes, this is another podcast on the incredible benefits
Speaker 1: of exercise and the brain and cognitive function and stress
Speaker 1: and all of that stuff and and just another way
Speaker 1: to utilize it. You know, when I when I did
Speaker 1: the first show and was writing the thirty second spot
Speaker 1: in sixty second spot four fitness disrupted. You know, years
Speaker 1: ago I said that I wanted you to have actionable information,
Speaker 1: stuff you can use right away, And this is yet
Speaker 1: another one based on science, and so I'm really excited
Speaker 1: to bring it to you. Let's do that quick break
Speaker 1: and when I come back, two studies on the potential
Speaker 1: power of exercise priming what the heck is that you'll
Speaker 1: find out? Right after this break, we'll be right back. Okay,
Speaker 1: So talking about studies depression and the effects that exercise
Speaker 1: has on that. And again the show is not it's
Speaker 1: not focused on depression actually just the cognitive benefit. Again,
Speaker 1: I'm going to extrapolate it out more broadly, and if
Speaker 1: you have depression, listen, it's a spectrum. So many people
Speaker 1: at different you know, points in their lives experience that.
Speaker 1: But it's going to be a broad application based on
Speaker 1: this more specific finding. Okay, what if we could use
Speaker 1: exercises as a tool, Right? What do I mean by that? Well,
Speaker 1: when we talk about the studies into the benefits of
Speaker 1: exercise and you know, cognitive function or depression or mood states,
Speaker 1: it's more broad in that you know, decreases anxiety, all
Speaker 1: of those things that we're thinking more broadly over time, right,
Speaker 1: But this is more specific, and that's what these studies
Speaker 1: looked at, like very short term benefit. Okay, let me
Speaker 1: give you an example from my life that I just
Speaker 1: started doing. Naturally. I've talked about that. I come from
Speaker 1: a lunatic, crazy, Irish Catholic family. I have five brothers,
Speaker 1: six boys, no sisters. Whenever I say that, the first
Speaker 1: thing that comes out of most people's mouths as your
Speaker 1: poor mother. No, no, no, she chose that she made
Speaker 1: the choice. I was the one who grew up in
Speaker 1: this insanity. Let me put it this way now, just
Speaker 1: I'm pausing, I'm editing myself. Uh fast forward to today.
Speaker 1: Uh now there's like, you know, sixteen seventeen grandkids, I
Speaker 1: don't know, family functions are nuts and any of you
Speaker 1: who have a big family or families in general, or
Speaker 1: it's all crazy, right, and family get togethers or what
Speaker 1: they're stressful, right, holidays, things like that brings back, all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, you maybe fifty years old, but all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, you're fifteen again and you're having those
Speaker 1: same fights. So what does this have to do with
Speaker 1: anything that we're talking about here today? What I started
Speaker 1: doing years ago was before a large family function. I
Speaker 1: would get a workout in right before could be a
Speaker 1: wrong and oftentimes it was could be a bike ride
Speaker 1: indoor outdoor. I did something right before, just naturally, and
Speaker 1: I felt better at those functions as a result. And
Speaker 1: that's pretty much exactly what these two studies are showing
Speaker 1: why you should and can use exercise in a priming
Speaker 1: fashion for stressful situations to come, and not just stressful situations,
Speaker 1: to handle tough situations things like tests. We'll get into it,
Speaker 1: all right. So it's about the benefit and benefits of
Speaker 1: exercise before an event, and there's gonna be two main takeaways,
Speaker 1: right that improved mood state with depression and things like that,
Speaker 1: and jumping ahead, but cut into the chase, the better
Speaker 1: ability to tackle tough tasks immediately following exercise. All right,
Speaker 1: so here we go. First study magnitude, timing, and duration
Speaker 1: of mood state and cognitive effects of acute moderate exercise
Speaker 1: in major depressive disorder. Okay, big words salad there if
Speaker 1: you want to call it that, then these are recent
Speaker 1: studies by the way, Psychology of Sport and Exercise, volume
Speaker 1: sixty one July. All right, read you the title one
Speaker 1: more time. I just enjoy it. Magnitude, timing and duration
Speaker 1: of mood state, and cognitive effects of acute moderate exercise
Speaker 1: in major depressive disorder against sounds super complicated. We'll distill
Speaker 1: it down. This was I was State University researchers there.
Speaker 1: We're studying how acute exercise, which is one exercise about
Speaker 1: a day, one exercise session, influenced primary depressive symptoms. All
Speaker 1: right'll read you right from it here. Acute exercise generally
Speaker 1: improves mood state and cognitive functioning and healthy adults. However,
Speaker 1: the impact of acute exercise on primary symptoms in adults
Speaker 1: with major depressive disorder is poorly understood. The present randomized
Speaker 1: crossover study evaluated the magnitude, timing, and duration of the
Speaker 1: psychological effects of thirty minutes of moderate intensity cycling exercise
Speaker 1: compared to quiet rest in thirty adults. That was twenty
Speaker 1: one female, which would make nine male with major depressive disorder.
Speaker 1: All right, and I'm gonna read you one quote to
Speaker 1: clarify a little further from one of the researchers. A
Speaker 1: lot of previous research on the effects of exercise on
Speaker 1: mental healthy general have used very broad measures of well being.
Speaker 1: That's what I said in the intro, right, what we
Speaker 1: were interested in specifically is how does acute exercise, that is,
Speaker 1: one session of exercise today influence the primary symptoms of depression?
Speaker 1: All right, So this one is looking at that mood state, right,
Speaker 1: and then we're going to connect it to the tough task.
Speaker 1: And that's what they do in the study. That's to follow, right.
Speaker 1: And so again we know, well knows a strong word
Speaker 1: that exercise benefits all of these things we're talking about,
Speaker 1: mood states, cognitive function, things like that. Although the quote
Speaker 1: at the end that I will do at the beginning,
Speaker 1: he says, well, mate, I'm confusing you. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: be somewhat scientific, right, but how many studies do we
Speaker 1: need to read? How many workouts do you have to
Speaker 1: do that make you feel bettern till we believe this
Speaker 1: is true. That's why I'm trying to choose my words carefully.
Speaker 1: All right. So thirty adults, as I said, experiencing major
Speaker 1: depressive episodes were brought in for testing. They set him
Speaker 1: for two thirty minute lab visits in which they either
Speaker 1: exercised again modern intensity cycling or they sat. Then one
Speaker 1: week later they came back and they switched the task
Speaker 1: that either SAD or cycled did what they didn't do
Speaker 1: in the first visit. Okay. During the visit, both groups
Speaker 1: were asked to fill out electronic surveys immediately before, halfway through,
Speaker 1: and directly after a session. Okay, so they're checking their
Speaker 1: depressive symptoms. They're asking them questions right right before they exercised,
Speaker 1: halfway through, and right after. And then they also tested
Speaker 1: them and seventy five minutes post workout. Okay, so six
Speaker 1: different times before, during, and right after the workout, and
Speaker 1: then three more times after to see how the effects lasted. Okay,
Speaker 1: the questionnaires again met your depressive symptoms and cognitive abilities.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to really go into that too deep,
Speaker 1: but again it alludes to what I was talking about
Speaker 1: at the start when we talk about those tough tasks. Okay,
Speaker 1: during the cycling experiment, participants depressed mood state, what do
Speaker 1: you think it improved over the thirty minutes of exercise,
Speaker 1: and they found consistently up to seventy five minutes after,
Speaker 1: and you go, why not seventy five minutes or past
Speaker 1: seventy five that's when they stopped testing. So one of
Speaker 1: the follow up they said for future research they should
Speaker 1: look past that as well. But shockingly, they improved their
Speaker 1: mood state during the exercise and up to seventy five
Speaker 1: minutes after, so it didn't end when the exercise ended.
Speaker 1: That's that's why I exercise as frequently as I do.
Speaker 1: That's why I talk about micro workouts. You don't have
Speaker 1: to do those. You don't have to do multi workouts
Speaker 1: a day. And when I say workouts, you could be
Speaker 1: a walk in the morning, could be a thirty minute
Speaker 1: you know, bike ride, indoor outdoor. But my point is
Speaker 1: I want that hit of Sarah tonin as much as
Speaker 1: I can get it. Right. Yeah, you can go to
Speaker 1: the gym do one workout a day, and that's great,
Speaker 1: like of course, but we need to move and if
Speaker 1: we can get in shorter workouts and get that hit
Speaker 1: and if you have a couple events throughout the day
Speaker 1: where maybe you need a little bit more, this is
Speaker 1: controlling your quote unquote medication people administering it yourself. It's
Speaker 1: the beauty of exercise. You can have as much or
Speaker 1: as little any time you want, unlike the pharmaceutical option. Okay,
Speaker 1: to what's their conclusion, we already said it, but specifically
Speaker 1: performing short bouts of moderate intensity exercise appears to be
Speaker 1: effective for management of key symptoms and the term they
Speaker 1: use in the study and hedonia, which is an inability
Speaker 1: to experience pleasure from activities usually found enjoyable depressed mood
Speaker 1: state in adults with major depressive disorder. Okay, two big
Speaker 1: takeaways though, the time immediately post exercise may be ideal
Speaker 1: for performing emotionally challenging tasks and or tasks where a
Speaker 1: low symptom severity would be helpful. And they use the
Speaker 1: example of psychotherapy. So here's where we're extrapolating it out.
Speaker 1: Here's where the term exercise priming is coming in. Here's
Speaker 1: why I get in sometimes a really long workout before
Speaker 1: visiting family because the time immediately post exercise maybe ideal
Speaker 1: for performing emotionally challenging tasks intoor tasks where a low
Speaker 1: symptom severity would be helpful. Final quote from one of
Speaker 1: the researchers, The cool thing is I love that he
Speaker 1: started that way. The cool thing is. The cool thing
Speaker 1: is these benefits to depressed mood state and and hedonia
Speaker 1: could last beyond seventy five minutes. As I said, that's
Speaker 1: as far as they tested though we would need to
Speaker 1: do a longer study to determine when they start to wane,
Speaker 1: but the results here we go. Second real important takeaway
Speaker 1: suggests a window of time post exercise when it may
Speaker 1: be easier or more effective for someone with depression to
Speaker 1: do something psychologically or cognitively demanding. Now I'm extra playing
Speaker 1: this out myself. I'm going to take the word, the term,
Speaker 1: and the concept depression out. Yes, that's what they study for,
Speaker 1: that's what they were looking at. But let's say, all people,
Speaker 1: let's let's just go broad, let's go big. Okay, So
Speaker 1: that could be so many things. If you're giving a speech,
Speaker 1: you know, public speaking. I love it because I'm nuts,
Speaker 1: but most people fear public speaking more than death. So
Speaker 1: if you have to give a presentation, getting in exercise
Speaker 1: right before can be a powerful performance enhancing tool. Taking
Speaker 1: a test, gonna end with that book spark, taking a test,
Speaker 1: anything challenging cognitively emotionally, and they use going to therapy
Speaker 1: as there what they were looking at specifically. All right,
Speaker 1: so study too, coming up. Smaller study, they're both small studies. Uh,
Speaker 1: this one's smaller than the first though same research group,
Speaker 1: similar findings, but it's gonna bring it all together, all right,
Speaker 1: quick break, We'll be right back. Study number two Feasibility
Speaker 1: of an exercise and CBT intervention for treatment of depression
Speaker 1: a pilot, randomized controlled trial. Awesome finding. So we'll be
Speaker 1: right back, and we are back talking about exercise, priming
Speaker 1: of these terms, of these terms, and the ability that
Speaker 1: we all have to control this. How much we move
Speaker 1: when we move? Now, you know, I say how much
Speaker 1: we move, what we put into our mouths and our attitudes.
Speaker 1: We control those things I say at the end of
Speaker 1: every podcast. Now you can see on the when we
Speaker 1: move and how much we move or how much we
Speaker 1: move when we move makes a difference potentially. You know,
Speaker 1: I used to go running after a stressful event, right,
Speaker 1: I talked about like one of the most stressful times
Speaker 1: in my life was owning a gym. Always said I
Speaker 1: didn't want to do it. I had a crazy opportunity.
Speaker 1: I did it. Holy stress, and yes, stress is a choice,
Speaker 1: and I knew that. I'm really glad I didn't. Looking back,
Speaker 1: I who learned so much, confirmed so much. Pretty sure war,
Speaker 1: even though I never say never, pretty sure I'll never
Speaker 1: do it again. Uh, for many reasons anyway, But in
Speaker 1: the new book. There's a lot of a lot of stories. Um.
Speaker 1: So second study, what they're looking at here, same group,
Speaker 1: same researchers conducted a separate study to learn whether they
Speaker 1: could synergize the short term benefits from exercise and the
Speaker 1: long term benefits from therapy to deliver the most effective
Speaker 1: intervention for depression. So now they're saying, Okay, you've got
Speaker 1: cognitive behavioral therapy or therapy in general, and you've got exercise.
Speaker 1: Will that help? And yes, they were doing CBT of course,
Speaker 1: and just read that. So again the title of this study,
Speaker 1: Feasibility of an exercise and CBT intervention for Treatment of Depression.
Speaker 1: A pilot, randomized control trial. This is Frontiers Psychiatry. May
Speaker 1: again super recent small study. Ten adults with ds M
Speaker 1: five diagnosed depression were randomized to groups and complete did
Speaker 1: They did an intake, then they did eight weekly cognitive
Speaker 1: behavioral therapy sessions, a final assessment, and a three month
Speaker 1: follow up. So eight weeks, eight week intervention. And what
Speaker 1: they did thirty minutes of exercise prior or no exercise,
Speaker 1: just their usual activities. And for this one they didn't
Speaker 1: make them cycle or do anything like that. They just
Speaker 1: said you have to do something, and this is really cool.
Speaker 1: They looked at their fitbits and make sure that they
Speaker 1: did not only exercise but modern intensity. I love that, Like,
Speaker 1: there's where fitness trackers are really starting to benefit people
Speaker 1: and research and everything else. Okay, so eight weeks cognit
Speaker 1: behavioral therapy. You either exercise for thirty minutes right before
Speaker 1: or you didn't. Okay, immediately prior. What did they find? Well,
Speaker 1: exercise amplified the benefits of cognitive behavioral therapy for people
Speaker 1: with depression. It was a good thing. Now, not going
Speaker 1: into all the reasons, I think personally, one of the
Speaker 1: possible reasons they given the study was that participants who
Speaker 1: exercised before their session reported a quicker and stronger connection
Speaker 1: with their therapists. Not something I would have thought of.
Speaker 1: So that's interesting, a quicker and stronger connection with their therapists.
Speaker 1: But real quickly, I think it goes to all the
Speaker 1: benefits we have talked about before and read improved mood state,
Speaker 1: decreased anxiety, all of those things that are going to
Speaker 1: prevent you from probably having a good therapy session. And
Speaker 1: specific takeaway again or finding was a larger and potentially
Speaker 1: quicker symptom improvement was found following the active condition following
Speaker 1: those people that exercise before. Okay, exercise priming appears acceptable
Speaker 1: and plausibly efficacious for enhancing mechanisms of CBT and overall outcomes,
Speaker 1: though the present small sample precludes efficacy determinations. Small study.
Speaker 1: So let's wrap it up. Yeah, causality association. What are
Speaker 1: the downsides of people? We're not even talking about the
Speaker 1: physical benefits of exercise, So let's assume for arguments, say
Speaker 1: that none of this holds true, which you know, crazy,
Speaker 1: But let's just for arguments, say, get the myriad other
Speaker 1: benefits of exercise. But this is research that is piling up. Okay,
Speaker 1: I've used it personally, as I said, did it naturally
Speaker 1: started to read the studies on and go, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: it's common sense with the science with the what is
Speaker 1: the downside as well? All right, yeah, they're small studies,
Speaker 1: but what are the negative side effects you gotta work
Speaker 1: out in I'm pretty sure if you exercise before going
Speaker 1: to see your family like I do, you're not going
Speaker 1: to be easier. I don't you know, You're not gonna
Speaker 1: be less able to deal psychologically and all that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff so super exciting two studies. Let me just
Speaker 1: finish with what I alluded to talked about earlier, this
Speaker 1: book Spark. I have to get the author on. I
Speaker 1: read this book a long time ago. It is so good.
Speaker 1: Sparked the revolutionary new science of exercise and the brain.
Speaker 1: And I bring this up because he starts the whole
Speaker 1: book John, I'm sure how he pronounces it, raydy rady
Speaker 1: r a t e Yuh. He begins the book, starts
Speaker 1: the whole thing by talking about Naperville, Illinois and a
Speaker 1: school district there that tried to raise students test scores
Speaker 1: by making them do exercise right before school. Okay, they
Speaker 1: called it zero hour because they scheduled the fitness class
Speaker 1: right before the first period. What did they find increase
Speaker 1: east fitness, improved academics, increased executive functioning for these kids,
Speaker 1: and improved planning, greater capacity to reflect, evaluate complete work
Speaker 1: on time. Incredible results. And what they found is the
Speaker 1: day progressed wore off a little bit. So when they
Speaker 1: talk about seeing the effects post seventy five minutes, at
Speaker 1: least as far as certain cognitive functions, yeah, he found
Speaker 1: it diminishes over time, which makes sense. I mean, if
Speaker 1: you did one workout and you're like good for a year. No,
Speaker 1: that's why we should be moving all day long, and
Speaker 1: that's why you should do if you can, maybe more
Speaker 1: than one shorter bout of exercise. And that's why we
Speaker 1: can stop using the term justin only people see I
Speaker 1: brought that all together from prior shows. Stop saying I
Speaker 1: only did twenty minutes of you know, walking, Stop saying
Speaker 1: I just walked a mile. But that's it in this
Speaker 1: book and I quote they turned the nineteen thousand students
Speaker 1: in Naperville District two oh three into the fittest in
Speaker 1: the nation and also some of the smartest. So there
Speaker 1: you go. Exercise priming cognitive benefits, stress reducing benefits of
Speaker 1: exercising before it happens, or if you want to perform
Speaker 1: better on something for no other reason, you go in
Speaker 1: more relaxed after exercise, feeling better with those great feel
Speaker 1: good hormones flowing people all right. Two studies on the
Speaker 1: potential power of exercise priming. What do we learn here?
Speaker 1: Micro workouts again, maybe doing a couple of shorter workouts
Speaker 1: throughout the day, timing your workouts, timing your exercise after
Speaker 1: a stressful event. Absolutely, if you know the event is
Speaker 1: going to be stressful prior or challenging, get in fifty
Speaker 1: thirty minutes of activity to prepare yourself for it. There
Speaker 1: you go. Hmm. I love these positive shows. I mean
Speaker 1: I'm going to do the other ones, the ones that
Speaker 1: get me angry or raise the heart rate. Uh, but
Speaker 1: let's focus on the positive because we're in control of that,
Speaker 1: all right. Again, thank you for listening. If you want
Speaker 1: to reach out, as I said at the start, I
Speaker 1: love to hear from you, comments, questions, Tom h Fit Instagram,
Speaker 1: Tom h Fit Twitter follow me greatly appreciated, as well
Speaker 1: as rating the show if you can, depending on how
Speaker 1: you listen, subscribing, all of that's greatly appreciated. Micro Workout
Speaker 1: Plan is the most recent books. So if you're looking
Speaker 1: for workouts to do that I just described and how
Speaker 1: to work it into your day and more of the benefits,
Speaker 1: that's the Micro Workout Plan book. Thank you for that.
Speaker 1: So excited for the new book. It's my first non
Speaker 1: prescriptive book tell all on the industry. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: so excited for that. Anyway, thank you for listening. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna bring you the best information We're gonna break it
Speaker 1: down for you so you can live your best life.
Speaker 1: I'm biased in that regard because everything I tell you
Speaker 1: to do, I do myself. All Right, we control three things,
Speaker 1: how much we move, what we put into our mouths,
Speaker 1: and our state of mind, our attitudes. That's awesome. I'm
Speaker 1: Tom Holland. This is Fitness Disrupted. Believe in Yourself. Fitness
Speaker 1: Disrupted is a production of I heart Radio. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.