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As part of my practice and research, I get lots of questions, and one of the biggest topics is mental health. Wellness is critical to mental health, and exercise is one of the biggest things we all can participate in.

In this episode, I discuss why exercise is so important. It is about the chemical makeup of your body, the activity in the brain, and physical activity.

Check out Chalmers Pillarsofwellness.com for Wellness updates! And ask me any questions you have at [email protected]. I will answer all of them and look forward to hearing from you.

The Chalmers Wellness Stubstack just launched. Comment, Like, and Interact with other people on their wellness journey. Communities can make a difference. DrChalmers.substack.com.

Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only. Before taking any action based on this information, you should first consult with your physician or health care provider. This information is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any questions regarding a medical condition, your health, or wellness.

Check out Chalmers Pillarsofwellness.com for Wellness updates! And ask me any questions you have at [email protected]. I answer all of them and look forward to hearing from you.

The Chalmers Wellness Stubstack just launched. Comment, Like, Interact with other people on their wellness journey. Communities can make the difference.     DrChalmers.substack.com

Dr. Matt Chalmers

Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only. Before taking any action based on this information you should first consult with your physician or health care provider. This information is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any questions regarding a medical condition, your health, or wellness.

Mental Health Episode.mp4

DR Matt Chalmers [00:00:10] Hi Im Dr Matt Charmers Welcome to the Dr. Chalmers Podcast. Today it’s just going to go over some of these longer form like questions of children’s wellness type of thing. So still send your questions or your comments to [email protected] and we’ll get those going. Some of these are a little bit longer want to answer these in a little bit longer manner other than the 30 to 60 seconds we do on the on the normal ones.

DR Matt Chalmers [00:00:35] So I do a lot of work with mental health and mental function and that type of thing and people ask me all the time when I think about different necessories and things like that, I’ve always thought necessories were not the right way to go.

DR Matt Chalmers [00:00:53] The the research evidence on them was always very, very poor. It took a long time for the community to come out and admit that they were useless. But that’s kind of where we’re at the the problem with a lot of society today is that they want a quick, cheap, easy answer that doesn’t require any, you know, thought energy, time or whatever.

DR Matt Chalmers [00:01:22] Unfortunately, that never works so the the best way there’s a couple hundred things that we do for psychological health net of a thing. The easiest and by far research wise, very best thing to do is exercise. The reason that that works is in not just, you know, all I’m saying, it is the way the body actually works.

DR Matt Chalmers [00:01:48] So when you when you move your body, tons of information goes from your joints up your spinal cord to your brain, and it activates the brain in a very specific way. So, for instance, typically movement information is going to hit the cerebellum first, and then as it starts firing off the cerebellum, there’s that same type of information is going to flow to the frontal lobe, the executive function up front and what’s happening there is, is that starts firing up and just using the processes it does it has a natural ability to suppress the temporal lobe in a variety of different ways.

DR Matt Chalmers [00:02:29] The temporal lobe, like I say all the time, houses, the amygdala, the fear, hate, anger, terror, anxiety, all the negative emotion stuff lives in the amygdala. So in the temporal lobe. So as it starts shutting all that stuff down, it starts shutting down all of the bad emotions and feelings and things like that, which is why a lot of times people get angry or they get upset and they need to leave the room and they go and they walk around for a little bit they feel better where sitting on the couch and just dwelling on it makes them feel terrible so the number one thing to do is exercise.

DR Matt Chalmers [00:03:03] Now, it’s not just say, I feel bad right now. I’m going to go move or go be active or go exercise right now because I feel that the research actually shows that doing this on a regular basis does not allow the brain to spool up nearly as bad as it was.

DR Matt Chalmers [00:03:19] So if you can get out and you can exercise on a regular basis, your body is going to start getting used to it. It’s going to start. Increasing the way that it functions, it’ll be more efficient in shutting down your bad emotions.

DR Matt Chalmers [00:03:34] So if you are someone who has anxiety on a regular basis, if you’re somebody who has depression, if you’re somebody who just feels bad about the world. Go work out, go exercise and do it like you mean it don’t just go and kind of joke around.

DR Matt Chalmers [00:03:47] Go and start doing it and, you know, the first part of that is always build a habit. Right? I’m going to go every day for 30 minutes. I can’t get it done in 30 minutes. All right. 45, whatever. Whatever your time thing is, I get my workout done in about 30 minutes. So go do your thing.

DR Matt Chalmers [00:04:05] If you want to go and jump on the treadmill or on the elliptical or the bike or whatever, I’m going to get that done and watch TV at the same time focus on the exercise, not on the TV. If you’re not if you’re not breathing hard, if you’re not sweating, you’re not exercising.

DR Matt Chalmers [00:04:18] So you can watch however you want to watch you can listen to whatever you want to listen to. Just make sure that you’re sweating and you’re breathing hard and you’re actually moving. And that’ll do tremendous things for you.

DR Matt Chalmers [00:04:29] Now, the nice thing is that as you start getting used to that and you’re doing that, then like I always tell people, don’t exercise, train. So find something you want to do. You want to lose fat. You want to gain muscle. Do you want to do both? You want to become a great runner or even a decent runner?

DR Matt Chalmers [00:04:42] I am a bad runner, but that’s the way my body was built I do pretty well lifting though, so that’s my thing. And I focus my workouts on how well I lift range of motion resistance that that whole thing. Am I getting that perfect range of motion.

DR Matt Chalmers [00:04:59] So as you start doing those, all of a sudden you start setting goals okay, I want to do X, Y, and Z. I want to lose fat. All right, cool. You’re the Gym. You’re working out. Okay. I’m going to start eating a little better now because you want to reach that goal of, you know, body body transformation.

DR Matt Chalmers [00:05:18] And as you start doing that and you start, you know, sort of you start working on different things and all of a sudden you start seeing some results, ROI. Now all of a sudden, it’s all a doping kick. All right. Not only did I try to go to the gym, and I did, that’s first and I don’t mean kick I reduce all my anxiety and all that type of stuff for a little bit.

DR Matt Chalmers [00:05:39] Now, after, you know, couple weeks, couple months of trying and eating right, lifting and exercising the whole deal, now you feel better you’re sleeping better you’re starting to look a little better. So you are going to lean in this a little harder because I’m getting some I’m getting return on what I’m putting out I’m getting what I want out of this exercise. So sort of a little bit more a little bit more before you know it you feel a lot better you look better and you’re happier about stuff.

DR Matt Chalmers [00:06:03] Now, that does not mean that you’re going to be happy all day. Every day forever is just the best way to overcome a lot of these issues that we’re seeing. Diet plays a big role there’s a lot of other things that come into it there’s a lot of mental function like goal setting there’s a lot of little things in there that are really important.

DR Matt Chalmers [00:06:18] But getting into the gym is the number one thing that you can do for your mental state. So get in exercise. You know, if you want to play soccer, if you want or whatever we want to do, just get out and move and be active.

DR Matt Chalmers [00:06:31] The reason I like the gym is because it requires no one else you know, I’ve written exercise programs for people who travel all the time and they can workout by themselves in their hotel room and they’re great. You just find your way to get out, move, and that can help tremendously. So, you know.

DR Matt Chalmers [00:06:47] Now in any program that anyone should design for Anxiety, Depression, you know, any of that type of stuff, exercise needs to be a very big component of it because that’s just the way the body works.

DR Matt Chalmers [00:07:02] Your theme of the day. We can all wish that there was just a really easy pill we could take and everybody was happy to be great and be good for you that that doesn’t really exist because that’s not the way the body works sorry so, you know, that’s just kind of how it is so if you guys can get out and find your way to exercise and start exercising, it’s really going to help your mental state.

DR Matt Chalmers [00:07:23] And if you can establish those habits now, it’s a lot easier when life throws things in your face to just go to the gym, just keep on and you know what? You’re going to have bad days, but they’re going to be not as bad as they would have been. If you can get to the gym and work out, you can get out and you can exercise, go outside and just jog, not walk briskly.

DR Matt Chalmers [00:07:45] Like I said, just move and do it continuously yeah to the point where you’re breathing a little bit heavy, You’re you’re sweating a little bit, you know, and do it for, you know, 20, 30, 40 minutes. It’s going to really, really help.

[00:07:55] So get out. And exercise is one of the there’s lots of things I say on this, but that is the that is the biggest piece that everybody can do whenever they want to just get out and exercise.