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

It's not just about the physical stuff. It's

saving my brain, y 'all. What's up, my movers

and shakers? Famous Ashley Grant here. Welcome

to More Movement, Please, the podcast where I

hope to inspire you to move your body more. Today,

I wanna talk about the gym as therapy. And I

have mentioned this on the pod before, but I

have to bring it up again because y 'all, it

is that important to me. I love moving my body

for more than just my body. I love moving my

body for my mind. And it matters so much. And

I want to talk about that because some of the

people that I know, they have been dealing with

issues that are kind of depressing. And I understand

some of the woes that they're having. I've had

people reach out to me about how sad they've

been that they've lost work or lost clients or

lost their entire jobs. You know, money's tight,

groceries are going up. All kinds of negative

things are happening. And I'm dealing with this

myself. I've lost several clients because of

AI. I've talked about this in the past on the

pod that, you know, because of the fact that

it's so easy to type things in the chat, someone

like me, who's a ghostwriter and a freelance

writer. It's sometimes difficult for me to convince

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

mean, I'm not going to deny that some of the

articles that come out, even though most of it's

generic fluff, some of them are actually kind

of decent. I can't deny that. I understand. But

that's one of the reasons it's so important that

I go to the gym. When I am focused on... How

much life can suck. That's when I know that much

more I need to be living my body. Because after

a workout, I feel worlds better. It helps my

mental state. I mean, that's just the best way

I can put it. I am nicer. I am nicer when I work

out. I feel like I have more of a clear head.

I am able to make decisions more rationally.

I'm able to listen. I'm able to focus. I'm able

to get ideas that I wouldn't get outside of the

gym or outside of movement. And it's kind of

fascinating to me just how many exciting ideas

and things that come to me while I'm working

out that I didn't get before. I mean, when I

tell you I have a list of more than a thousand

ideas, that's not an exaggeration. And then I

could I would share the spreadsheet. But no,

some of that stuff is stuff I want to I want

to keep private till I share it. But but yeah,

just when I go to the gym, it's like that's the

time for me. That's the time where I shut the

world out. I shut out everything that I'm supposed

to worry about. Now, grant you, I was really

bad about that today because I do have a little

situation where I'm waiting on a payment that

hasn't come. And, you know, it's hard sometimes

to not think about things that are pressing at

home or at work. I'm not going to deny that sometimes

things are pressing, like they're an issue. But

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

in those moments, I don't really have time or

energy to focus on anything but the work, anything

but the exercise. And so it becomes, what's the

next movement? What's the next rep? What's the

next thing that I have to completely focus on?

And so the good thing about that is it keeps

me out of my own head. And the reality is that

if I get back in my head, that's when I risk

injury. And I know that. Like even today, whenever

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

like, okay, time to refocus. And it makes me

feel so much better when I get my head out of

life and I get it into movement. And so I can

honestly tell you guys that moving my body is

the cheapest and best therapy I've ever had in

my whole life. It is the best thing that I've

done for myself. And I want this for you guys,

not because I am pushing an agenda, although

I am. I want everybody to move their body more.

I'm not selling pills. I'm not selling shots.

I'm not selling hope. I'm just telling you that

when you move your body, we were meant to move.

And when you move your body, you open yourself

up. to so many positive things. I mean, they've

even done science on this, studies on this, that

you have brain cells that fire differently. You

have neurons that fire differently. Your chemistry

changes. Your brain chemistry does something

different when you're moving. And the more of

that you get, the more good feelings you get,

the better. And of course, I can't help but think

of that hilarious. you know, line from Legally

Blonde where she's like, exercise gives you endorphins.

Endorphins make you happy. And happy people don't

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

jokes aside, though, the truth is that moving

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

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.

I mean, more than anything in my life. And so

I just want to encourage y 'all, if you are looking

for something that will make you feel just a

little bit better about yourself, regardless

of the state of the world or your finances or

anything going on around you, try movement. I

think you might be surprised as to just how good

it's going to feel. Yeah, it's going to hurt.

I'm not going to lie. Some of it's going to hurt.

Some of it's going to make you so sore that you're

going to be like, why did I do this? Why did

Ashley tell me to move my body more? But the

more you start putting in the reps, the more

you start showing up, the more you start taking

care of yourself and choosing yourself, the better

you're going to feel. And I've done an episode

on this before that it doesn't have to cost a

lot to work out. And it really doesn't. I mean,

look in your local community. You may find that

there are free yoga classes that you can take.

I mean, I know that my local library has done

free yoga classes. They've done free Tai Chi.

I mean, whenever I was living in Tampa, they

used to have like free kickboxing nights or free

Zumba days or different things. And I remember.

some of the people that used to share coupons

where you could get like three free days at different

gyms. And I knew a couple of people who would

like rotate those passes and they would go and

find all the free classes they could take. They

would, you know, go to all these different gyms

and all these places taking advantage of free

offers. And there are also sliding scale fees

at a lot of places. Like the local YMCA that

I go to here in Richmond, Kentucky, they have

a sliding scale fee for people who... who can't

afford to go to the gym. You just have to ask,

you know, hey, do you have a financial aid program?

And then fill out an application, you know? And

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

body. I mean, I've shared playlists before of...

YouTube exercises, YouTube exercise classes.

I've taken a lot of exercises on YouTube and

YouTube is free. Yes, ads are a pain in the ass.

I completely agree. But if you're trying to do

it for free, hey, it's something you can use.

If you can't access the internet, you can still

move your body. There's all kinds of different,

you know, exercises that you can do that don't

require a gym, don't require any weights, don't

require any equipment. You can do jumping jacks.

You can walk. your neighborhood. You could, hell,

I remember that. I'll never forget that article

of the lady that was losing weight by walking

just around her apartment. She had, I think it

was something like 500 square feet and she literally

just walked around her apartment and she lost

several, several pounds walking her apartment.

So there's so many different things that you

can do to move. And I mean, heck, just put on

some music and dance around or start doing. wall

sits and planks and jumping jacks and all kinds

of different things. We did an episode recently

about how you can use chores as your movement.

Wash the dishes, fold some laundry, do some gardening.

When you're moving your body, it doesn't matter

how you're moving it. Just move. I want you to

move. And when you move more, you're going to

feel better. It's about more than just physical

fitness. It's about mental fitness, emotional

fitness. And like I said, it's even helped me

spiritually. I feel so much better because of

working out. And so I guess if I am selling anything,

I'm selling movement. Move your body. Onwards

and upwards, my friends. Have you worked out

today?