USING EXERCISE TO BEAT DEPRESSION WHILE SELF-ISOLATING

In happier days pre-Covid-19, Steve Dennis ran a free, two-hour session every Sunday at his gym “Fitness Flex” in Basingstoke for men of all ages. 

Between and three and five on a Sunday afternoon turned out to be a good time for men of all different walks of life to get together, build some muscle and talk together – share worries, stresses and deep thoughts. After all, suicide is the biggest killer of men under fifty. 

Together, they would get stuck into a warm up and a weights class that Steve devised specifically for the group, aptly titled “Deadlifts for Depression“. I know about this because I was one of them. Sundays became a lot more energetic and sociable.

“Too many men are out there battling depression, anxiety or stress on their own and not talking about it,” says Steve, a well-toned, fit family man with an irrepressible zest for life. “The time we spend together on Sundays is a great way of mixing a workout with honest, supportive chat.” 

It’s easier to talk when you have something to else going on to deflect attention from yourself quickly when you need to – like lifting weights, for example. Exercise itself, of course, is tremendously good for lifting mood, too, and it seemed that Steve was onto a winner for men at risk of depression all over the region.

Nobody could have seen what was coming up, though. Within a few short weeks, Covid-19 had hit and we all went into self-isolation.

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Gyms everywhere were shut down – for who knows how long. Equipment that used to clang, grate and crunch as we all tuned up physically now stands quietly in unlit studios all over the country, waiting for the day when we all burst in through the doors and pound everything into life again. 

Steve, though, like several other fitness experts, has taken his training online. Whereas Sunday afternoons at “Fitness Flex” was where some lucky lads in Basingstoke could hang out and focus on their wellbeing holistically, now anybody can join in from in front of their computer. Of course, it’s not the same as being able to meet up in person, but while this strange and confining time lasts it’s the best solution. 

Steve explains that he used to have difficulty managing his anger as a young man following his difficult teenage years. 

“Birthdays and Christmas were always big deals for me,” he remembers. 

He learned that exercise was a good way to increase the ‘feel good’ hormones which helped to take the edge off his mood – but they didn’t go far enough to prevent his having suicidal thoughts. For fifteen years he resisted medication, as he was quite sure that the potential side-effects would feel worse.

It was a therapist who finally talked him into a combined approach of therapy and medication. Since then, Steve’s grown in strength and confidence in his managing his depression. 

“I don’t go over and over my past so much now,” he says. “I’ve stopped focusing on feeling guilty about stuff I did in my teenage years – sometimes I would react to bad situations that I found myself in.”

Perhaps it was written in the stars that he’d end up with a career in physical fitness. When he discovered that working out and being disciplined in one area of his life could really help his battle with depression, he stuck at it and now offers training and support to others, too. Not everybody who goes to his gym suffers with depression, of course, but it’s amazing how many people are who’d never let on … particularly men.

“I’m seeing a lot on social media – a lot of messages written by men that are struggling,” Steve agrees. ”They might not say it outright, but I can read between the lines of some of them.”

For him, the difference that the meds make comes in the form a vital, spare couple of seconds. Whereas before when a situation would trigger feeling of anger in him, Steve now has a the briefest of delays before he commits to a physical or verbal reaction thanks to his prescribed medication. It’s gone in the blink of an eye, but the blink of an eye was all it used to take for him to make the wrong choice and react badly before. Now, he’s able to think twice, collect his thoughts and choose a different route. What a difference a couple of seconds can make!

Many people around the world are joining in fitness classes online and it’s very likely that the trend will continue when this horrible pandemic has dissipated. Lots of people have joined in with Steve’s free, live online Bootcamp Classes (look up Fitness Flex – Body Transformation Bootcamp Studio on Facebook) since he started them, but we’re all looking forward to the time when life can return a little more to normal. 

When Sundays are all about getting together, chatting about life, how we can help each other get mentally and physically fit and strong … and pump some iron! 

Go to www.fitnessflex.co.uk or look him up on Facebook