by Tony Gjokaj January 18, 2022 3 min read

A few months back, I listened to a podcast with a Cognitive Behavioral Therapist who was talking about the importance of exercise and depression.

As I own a fitness brand dedicated to helping people exercise out of depression, I was instantly drawn into the title of the episode.

In it, the speaker mentioned his book.

I picked it up.

I read it.

And it was SUPER INFORMATIVE.

I wanted to share it with you all today because I am rereading it for a second time.

 

You can read this post, or watch the video I did on it above.

Exercise For Mood And Anxiety

Exercise for Mood and Anxietywas written by Michael W. Otto & Jasper A. J. Smits — two authorities on cognitive behavioral therapy.

This book is packed with scientific studies and practical solutions that focus on exercise with the intention to improve mood and overall well-being.

After reading this book, I was shocked to find that some of the things that aided me on my mental health journey were backed by experts. While I didn’t do some of the stuff exactly as conveyed, it helped me on my journey.

One, for example, is being cognizant of how you feel after your workout sessions. I would find after my sessions that I would feel better, so I would continue to pursue that, rather than prioritize my physique.

In time, my physique followed with.

Ultimately, the most important thing I got out of the book was adherence.

Adherence and habit-building are different for everybody.

For some, habits can be built in a matter of months. For others, it can take 1/2 a year or even a full year.

What matters is that you implement strategies to build or reinforce those habits:

  • You modify your environment to make it easier to reach your goals.You have gym clothes within eyesight, you buy nice gym clothes to motivate you to work out in them.
  • You find a style of exercise that’s easy to stick to. One of the authors found running to be easy because they could just go outside to do it.
  • You use excitatory cues to amp you up to exercise.Take a pre-workout before your gym session, listen to a motivational gym playlist, and more.
  • You find the best time of day for you to work out.For some, it’s before work. For others, it’s after.

These are only a few of the insights I acquired from reading this book.

One thing I’ll note is that you will definitely go back to read this again, so be sure to take notes or highlight the important stuff.

Sometimes I find myself looking back at some of the points in the book to refresh my memory or try to engrain it into my lifestyle when I am feeling down.

So take notes. 

Add some bookmarks to the sections you find the most value.

And continue to look back.

If you would like to pick up this book, you can click the link here.

Note, I will receive affiliate commission from it if you use this link. If you don’t want to do that, no hard feelings — just grab yourself a copy, it’s SUPER helpful!

I hope this book helps, and let me know what you think about it by emailing us.

Until next time!


PS: If you read the book and still need an extra kick in the ass on your fitness and mental health journey, you can sign up for our Fitness for Mental Health email list. We’ve got an eBook series that complements the book. You can sign up here!

Check Out Our Fitness For Mental Health YouTube Channel!

Exercise For Depression Facebook Accountability Group

Tony Gjokaj
Tony Gjokaj

Tony is the Owner of Reforged. He is a PN1 Certified Nutrition Coach and has been in the fitness space for over a decade. His goal is to help millions exercise their way out of depression and anxiety.



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