Finding Balance: The Intersection Between Mental Health and Fitness
Explore practical insights and inspiring tips on how integrating fitness into your lifestyle can boost both physical health and mental well-being, helping you find a harmonious balance in your life.
Finding Balance: The Intersection Between Mental Health and Fitness
Date: May 8, 2024
Author: Blake (Posted by Kurdt Allan)
Hey there! I'm Blake, and I’m thrilled to be chatting with you today about something near and dear to my heart: fitness.
Before I dive in, let me share a little bit about myself. I transitioned from a career in professional dancing to becoming a NASM-certified personal trainer with Orangetheory Fitness. After finishing my master's in arts administration and museum leadership, I now work in fundraising with Mental Health Partnerships—but my passion for fitness remains unwavering.
Fitness isn’t just about physical health for me—it’s about confidence and mental well-being, too. And let’s be honest: walking into a gym for the first time can feel overwhelming. I’ve seen people sit in their cars for 45 minutes, paralyzed by doubt before a group class. That breaks my heart because I know how transformative fitness can be, physically and emotionally.
That’s why I want to share some friendly, accessible tips to help you start your fitness journey with confidence.
6 Tips to Get Started on Your Fitness Journey
- Dress Comfortably: Forget trendy gym wear. You don’t need the “it” brand to get started. Just wear supportive sneakers, comfy shorts or sweats, and a shirt you don’t mind sweating in. If you feel good in it, you're doing it right.
- Familiarize Yourself with Equipment: You don’t need to know everything on day one. Read the labels on machines, observe others, and take your time. No shame in learning—everyone starts somewhere.
- Plan Your Workout (Ish): Feeling overwhelmed? Here are three beginner-friendly workout frameworks to help you stay focused:
- Full-body workouts: Do 1–2 exercises per muscle group (chest, back, arms, shoulders, glutes, legs, etc.).
- Upper/lower body split: Alternate days between upper body and lower body exercises.
- Muscle group splits: Split your workouts into push (chest, shoulders, triceps), pull (back, biceps), and legs (quads, hamstrings, glutes).
- Listen to Your Body: Start with light weights, increase gradually, and pay attention to how your body responds. I usually aim for 3 sets of 8–10 challenging reps per exercise. And yes—rest is part of the plan!
- Be Kind and Social: A smile or friendly hello can ease nerves. Try going during off-peak hours for a calmer atmosphere.
- Remember: It’s a Journey: This is about your growth, your pace. Celebrate progress, be patient, and honor where you are right now.
Whether you're starting fresh or picking up where you left off, you're not alone. Let’s take this journey together—one step, one rep, one deep breath at a time. 💪
You’ve got this. 🌟
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"I'm so grateful for the community that's here and the people that I get to work with in a way that they inspire me every day."
"Every experience I've had with MHP thus far has been great, from the training to being able to get support, a community, sponsorships to go places I never thought I'd go."
"MHP has given me so much, I want to give back."
"Give you your own purpose, you know, just like doing something more. Just a good feeling for me. Now I can be productive."
"MHP has a long history of being a really trusted and reliable resource for peer specialists.
So these experiences already live within your walls."
"The incredible empowerment and the impact that peers have in the field of mental health."
"There's something really, really powerful that happens when you're connecting with someone who's sitting across from you and says, you know, I see you and I hear you. Because I've been there."
"...and just that little click. Wow, it's so powerful just to have somebody who understands exactly how you feel, because we can sympathize all day, but to have somebody else in the room with me, to say, I've done it too, I've experienced that too, allows for a bond that goes beyond words."
"That opened me up to talk to other people so I could coach them and have them get the aha moment again. I did it and I'm glad that I got into new ways of thinking."
"I'm able to be helpful just to know that, like, all that hard work I put through actually paid off."
"And I hope that everybody would get the opportunity to connect with that organization"
"At Mental Health Partnerships. Together..."
"Together..."
"Together..."
"Together...we build hope."
"Together...we build hope."
"We build hope."
"We build hope."
"Together...we build hope."
"Together...we build hope."
"Together...we build hope."
"Period!"
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