Episode 89Jul 2, 2026· 11:10

Movement Is My Cheapest Therapy: What the Gym Does for My Brain, Not Just My Body

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About this episode

Ashley Grant reflects on using the gym as mental health support while navigating financial stress from losing freelance ghostwriting clients to AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude. She describes the specific cognitive effects of working out — mental clarity, idea generation, forced present-moment focus during reps — and recounts nearly messing up a lift today while distracted by an unpaid invoice. She compares movement…

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Who this episode is for

This episode may resonate with you if:

You're watching your income shrink in ways that feel out of your control — clients disappearing, work drying up — and the anxiety is sitting in your chest all day with nowhere to go.

You've done therapy, you've done the self-work, but something still feels off — and you're wondering if there's something more physical, more immediate, that might actually help your brain.

You want to move more but you're broke right now, and the idea of a gym membership feels like one more thing you can't afford on top of everything else.

You're stuck in your own head — replaying problems, worrying about things you can't fix right now — and you need something that forces you out of that loop.

You feel like you've lost a sense of control over your life lately, and you're looking for something — anything — that's just yours, that makes you feel a little better about yourself.

Questions this episode wrestles with

Can working out really do what therapy does when you're stressed about money?

answered

Ashley says yes — and goes further, sharing that moving her body has done more for her mental and emotional state than anything else she's tried, including actual therapy, while actively dealing with lost clients and AI undercutting her freelance writing work.

"my body has done more for my mental state than anything else I've done. I can say that without a doubt. Like there's not a single doubt in my mind that moving my body more this past year has done more for my emotional and mental state than anything else. And y 'all, I've done therapy. Like I've done a lot of therapy, done a lot of"

What happens when you can't stop thinking about money problems even at the gym?

answered

Ashley describes nearly messing up a lift because she was distracted worrying about an unpaid invoice — and says catching herself in that moment was the cue to refocus, because getting back in her head is exactly when she risks injury.

"I was worrying about the fact that I haven't received this payment yet, I... I was messing up a little bit on lifting the weights. And I caught myself and I noticed this. And so it was"

Is it even possible to use exercise as a reset when the stress is real and ongoing?

answered

Ashley shares that even on a day when she couldn't fully shut out a pressing financial worry, the physical demand of movement still functioned like a brain reset — describing it as "like turning a computer on and off again or closing an internet browser."

"when I start moving my body, It's like a brain reset. It's like turning a computer on and off again or closing an internet browser. It's like it clears everything. I feel so much better after I've moved. I feel so much better after I've sweated it out and suffered a little bit. Because"

Is 'just move your body' advice realistic when you're broke?

answered

Ashley pushes back on cost as a barrier by listing concrete free and sliding-scale options she's personally seen — free yoga at her local library, free kickboxing nights in Tampa, rotating three-day gym passes, and the YMCA's financial aid program — and notes that walking around a 500-square-foot apartment counts too.

"I just, I want to encourage y 'all to not let finances be the thing that keeps you from moving. Because even if you can't go to the gym, there's so many other things you can do to move your"

Setting expectations: This episode is not about workout programming, fitness science, or how to optimize your gym routine for physical results. It's Ashley talking through why she keeps showing up to the gym when clients are disappearing to AI, payments aren't coming in, and life feels heavy — and what movement actually does to her head in those moments.

Tone & style

Ashley opens in the middle of real financial stress — lost clients, AI undercutting her freelance writing, rising costs — and recounts nearly messing up a lift today because she was mentally distracted by an unpaid invoice. Catching herself mid-lift becomes the episode's turning point: she reaffirms that the gym forces her out of her own head, calls it more effective than anything else she's tried including therapy, then closes by urging listeners not to let money be the barrier, rattling off free and sliding-scale options.

Personal testimony and opinion. Ashley draws on her own experience, including actual therapy she has done for comparison. She gestures toward science without citing sources. Nothing here is clinical or medical advice.

toneCandid & warm

focusAshley making the case — from her own life, including a near-injury today caused by worrying about an unpaid invoice — that moving her body is the cheapest and most effective mental health tool she's ever found.

stylesolo_monologue

energymedium

complexitybeginner

pressure Levellow

emotional Texturepersonal, warm, lightly humorous, earnest

Notable quotes

"honestly tell you guys that moving my body is the cheapest and best therapy I've ever had in"

— Famous Ashley Grant

"someone to hire me at the rate that I charge whenever they can pay $21 a month to open AI or Claude and get a pretty decent article. I"

— Famous Ashley Grant

"when I start moving my body, It's like a brain reset. It's like turning a computer on and off again or closing an internet browser. It's like"

— Famous Ashley Grant

"Like I've done a lot of therapy, done a lot of self -work, a lot of self -reflection and all those things. But it is just, it's truly fascinating to me how much going to the gym and moving my body has helped my brain more than anything."

— Famous Ashley Grant

"shoot their husbands. And I've often joked with my instructor, Rhonda Good, that there's no telling how many homicides she has prevented. And all"

— Famous Ashley Grant

Episode transcript

Organized into 4 chapters — open any part to read the full text.

0:001. Movement as Mental SurvivalAshley introduces the episode's focus on the gym as therapy, sharing that she and people she knows are dealing with real financial stress — lost clients, AI replacing freelance work, rising grocery costs — and that movement is what keeps her mentally afloat.2:542. What Actually Happens in Her Brain at the GymAshley describes the specific mental effects she experiences during workouts — clearer thinking, better decisions, a flood of ideas, and a forced focus on reps that keeps her out of her own head. She also recounts nearly messing up a lift today because she was distracted worrying about an unpaid invoice.7:123. More Than Therapy — Her Honest Pitch for MovementAshley says moving her body has done more for her mental and emotional state than anything else — including actual therapy — and references the Legally Blonde endorphins joke while crediting her instructor Rhonda Good with preventing homicides.11:104. Movement Doesn't Have to Cost MoneyAshley runs through concrete free and low-cost options — library yoga, Tampa kickboxing nights, gym trial passes, YMCA sliding scale fees, YouTube workouts, walking a 500-square-foot apartment — to make the case that finances shouldn't be the barrier to moving.

Open full transcript

Mentioned in this episode

personFamous Ashley Grant

The host of More Movement Please, a ghostwriter and freelance writer who uses gym workouts as her primary mental health tool and shares her personal experience throughout the episode.

companyOpenAI

One of the AI services Ashley mentions clients paying $21/month for instead of hiring her as a freelance writer — a direct cause of her losing clients.

companyClaude

An AI service Ashley mentions alongside OpenAI as a cheap alternative to hiring a human ghostwriter, contributing to her loss of freelance clients.

personRhonda Good

Ashley's gym instructor, whom she jokes has prevented countless homicides by getting people to exercise and release endorphins.

eventLegally Blonde

The movie Ashley quotes for its famous line about exercise, endorphins, and happiness — used humorously to support her point about movement improving mental state.

organizationYMCA

The local gym in Richmond, Kentucky that Ashley attends, which she notes offers a sliding scale fee financial aid program for people who can't afford membership.

placeRichmond, Kentucky

The city where Ashley currently lives and where her YMCA is located.

placeTampa

A city where Ashley previously lived, which she recalls as having free community fitness events like kickboxing nights and Zumba days.

websiteYouTube

A free platform Ashley recommends for exercise classes, noting she has shared playlists of YouTube workouts despite the ads being annoying.

Key themes

gym as cheapest therapy

Ashley repeatedly frames going to the gym as more effective for her mental and emotional state than actual therapy she has done, calling it 'the cheapest and best therapy I've ever had in my whole life.'

financial stress from AI replacing freelance work

Ashley shares that she has personally lost clients because AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude undercut her rates as a ghostwriter, and that this real financial pressure is part of why she needs the gym.

workout as brain reset

Ashley describes the gym as a moment where she shuts the world out and movement forces her focus onto the next rep, comparing it to turning a computer off and on again or closing a browser tab.

getting out of your own head to avoid injury

Ashley recounts nearly messing up a lift today because she was distracted worrying about an unpaid invoice, and notes that getting back in her head is literally when she risks physical injury.

movement generating ideas

Ashley says she has accumulated a list of more than a thousand ideas that came to her while working out, framing the gym as a space where creative thinking happens that wouldn't occur otherwise.

movement vs. traditional therapy

Ashley explicitly compares gym-going to actual therapy she has done, saying moving her body this past year has done more for her emotional and mental state than all the therapy and self-work combined.

removing financial barriers to movement

Ashley runs through a concrete list of free and low-cost options — library yoga, Tampa kickboxing nights, gym trial passes, YMCA sliding scale fees, YouTube workouts, and a woman who lost weight walking laps inside her 500-square-foot apartment — arguing finances shouldn't stop anyone from moving.

movement as more than physical fitness

Ashley frames the whole episode around the idea that she moves her body for her mind, not just her body, and closes by naming mental, emotional, and even spiritual fitness as what movement gives her.

being nicer and clearer-headed after working out

Ashley describes specific behavioral changes she notices in herself after a workout — she is nicer, has a clearer head, makes more rational decisions, and can listen and focus better.