Exercise benefits more than just your physical health

EDMONTON- An Edmonton woman who suffers from depression says she has started to gain control over her mental health, thanks to exercise.

42-year-old Vaughn Neff has battled depression for years.

“It’s a very big struggle,” said the mother of two. “I have the classic depression symptoms: not wanting to get out of bed, not wanting to do things, difficulty just running my normal life.”

After taking medication for years, Neff’s doctor encouraged her to try exercising as an alternative treatment. She says she was skeptical at first, but a book called Spark helped changed her mind.

“It made a lot of sense to me, and it talked, not so much about exercise and your physical health, but exercise and your mental health and what damage you might be doing if you weren’t exercising on a regular basis.”

“It just clicked for me,” Neff recalled. “I wasn’t really quite ready to give up my mental health or my intelligence.”

One year ago she decided to get a personal trainer to help her not only with the exercise, but to help keep her focussed.

“The first time I came (to the gym) I was terrified. I was absolutely terrified,” said Neff, who hadn’t exercised in years.

“She was nervous, which is normal.. and didn’t know what to expect,” explained Neff’s personal trainer Paul O’Brien.

He says he didn’t want to pressure her, so he took a nice and easy approach. He got to know her on a personal basis and spoke with her about what she wanted to gain from the experience.

“I also told him at the time that it was more mental health focused. Losing weight wasn’t my goal. Being in shape wasn’t my goal. I welcomed that, but that wasn’t what I was going for,” said Neff.

“(We took it) one day at a time. Today you did 10 pushups, great. Tomorrow we’ll do 11, if not we’ll still do 10,” O’Brien explained.

Psychiatrist Dr. Jane Carr says our bodies are designed to move.

“Movement tells our body that we’re alive. Movement tells us that there is health. When we stop moving, historically, that means something’s wrong,” Carr explained.

She says when the body stops moving, the brain gets a signal that the body is sick or, perhaps, dying.

“Movement is, it’s one of things that we’re just wired to do. So if we actually start moving, even in small ways, it’s amazing the changes we can see.”

Neff says it took about a month of regular exercise to begin to notice small improvements in her health, and about six months later she says she felt like a brand-new person.

“Some of it was just feeling more positive about myself, doing something good for myself. But some of it, I think, was biochemical too; just feeing, sleeping better, eating better, enjoying things more. I had more energy.”

And Neff says the physical changes she’s experienced aren’t bad either.

“Believe me, I took the other side effects very well,” she says with a laugh. “Over the year I’ve lost about 69 pounds. I ran a five kilometre. When I started, I think I started running in April, I couldn’t run one minute in a row without taking a break and walking. Now, I can pretty much run a five kilometre and I’m hoping to go on and do a half marathon with my friend this year.”

She says the benefits have been life changing and is now encouraging others suffering from depression to get moving.

“It doesn’t have to be six days a week or three days a week, it can be as simple as going for a walk. Unfortunately, when you’re depressed, that’s probably the last thing you want to do is get out, interact with people and exercise. But, it’s almost something you almost have to, the first few times, force yourself to do.”
With files from Su-Ling Goh.

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