A story of how exercise can help improve depression:

 When you have customers who use your business every day, you get used to them being a part of your daily life. It’s one of my favorite things about owning PURENERGY.

Kenneth Forman is someone I see quite regularly. His quiet demeanor and smile are something I have gotten used to seeing as a part of my week.

So a few months ago when he and I were the only ones in the gym on a Sunday morning, I stopped to chat with him. I complimented him on his progress that was obvious since he had started working out. 

Kenneth is quiet, but once he opens up he has so many great thoughts. He is a very intuitive person towards his mental and physical health. He started working out at the gym in mid 2021 after struggling with injury and isolation during the covid shutdowns. He had tried home workouts without success and knew he needed the accountability of the gym. He now uses his gym schedule as a goal and small routine to have a reason to get through each day.

Kenneth struggles with anxiety and depression. He spent time enlisted in the army and received some injuries from his service. He is always looking for tools to help combat a tendency towards isolation and aimlessness and keep his body strong. His accomplishments at the gym keep him going each day and in his words… “give him a reason to live until the next workout.”

This was pretty heavy stuff to hear as a gym owner, but I was interested to hear more about how achieving a healthier lifestyle had helped his quality of life.

Since Kenneth is more of a shy person, the fact that he used a gym membership as a tool to help his depression really excited me. He suffers from anxiety, which he says can contribute to jealousy and a fear of missing out in life. He uses those feelings to “take his aggression out on the dumbbells” and channel those feelings into something positive. He also says that working out improves his self image and allows him to be more confident and sociable.

When he first started out in the gym, he hired personal trainer John Graves to help him with a program . It increased his accountability at a time when the intimidation of coming to a new gym was high. One thing he learned pretty early on was that most people in the gym were working on their own progress. He never felt judged and saw that many others shared the goal of working through their own anxiety or other personal issues.

 

I asked Kenneth about some tips he would give someone who is just starting out or considering getting a gym membership. Here are his top 3 tips.

    The body wants to be lazy, so starting slow and acclimating to the gym is best. It is better to get a little bored with a routine than get burned out or injured from trying to do too much too fast.

        

 Isolation causes laziness, working out gets rid of the lazy feeling. Start small like walking for 15 minutes, it makes you feel better and then you will want more and eventually it becomes a routine.

    Think about the long term approach to health. Stick to your routine and celebrate achieving small goals. Just keep going and you will start to achieve big goals.

 Kenneth has also learned a lot about nutrition and how better food creates better health.

As he states, “Eating healthier comes more naturally when you work out.” But there is a difference between a good diet and calorie counting. A good diet is about eating healthier foods, but if you are trying to lose weight even too much of a good thing can be bad. He uses a food logging app called “Fat Secret” to help keep track of his food and his calories so that he doesn’t eat too much. It’s free and easy to use.

 

Kenneth is no stranger to overcoming a challenge,  he didn’t start speaking until the age of 12 and has a slight impediment that he still carries with him. But he doesn’t let it slow him down. He was quite open about how he doesn’t notice it even though others do and just tries to work through it and not let it effect him.

He has also become resourceful about finding ways to fulfill his life. He loves art and  works as a digital artist. He has a 7 year old dog named Cami and loves the responsibility of owning an animal.

When it comes to goals in life and in the gym, he says “ It doesn’t matter how long it takes, once you are there, you are there.” He has plans to keep going with his workouts and continue to improve his knowledge, physique, and function.

He loves the feeling of continuing to be more comfortable in his own skin and enjoys how working out helps regulate his emotion.

I am impressed by his drive for better physical and mental health and look forward  to continue seeing him in the gym!