Moving for Mind/Body Health [Podcast Series]
[:55] Dr. Bantham introduces her guest, Dr. Michael Hosking
Dr. Michael Hosking is Creator of Revocycle Mind and Body Cycling.
He is also on the Program Advisory Board of the John W. Brick Mental Health Foundation.
[1:42] Research on mental health and exercise
“We've known about the connection between exercise and mental health and the brain now for at least 20 years. And this research has been slowly building in the literature, but not much of it has made it to the popular press, yet.”
[5:10] Physician exercise prescriptions/referrals
“[A]nd you and I and pretty much everyone else in the world knows that exercise is simply one of the greatest things you can possibly do for health. And yet the very people we go to see to take care of our health have no confidence in prescribing exercise, which speaks to the lack of training, the lack of emphasis in medical training. And maybe it speaks to the type of mind that goes into medicine in the first place.”
[8:46] Pathways for exercise benefiting mental health
“[t]hey highlight three different pathways by which exercise can benefit mental health. One is the biological pathways I've been talking about. And there are many, and they are complex. The others are social. By being around other people in a gym or in a group fitness class, you are interacting with people and away from your isolation in your home, and that is beneficial to mental health. But there's the third which is self efficacy, the thinking or the understanding that I can do this. Taking on something difficult and accomplishing it and saying to yourself, well, I can do this, and I'm proud of myself.”
[13:33] Marketing exercise and mental health
“We don't advertise with sexy pictures of instructors or clients. We don't talk about the body ever in our marketing or in our classes. We don't talk about burning calories. We don't talk about losing fat. There is no 30 Day Challenge. There is no new year, new you or summer’s coming promotion. We don't talk about any of that. And that's the first thing people notice is you talk about mental health, you talk about mindfulness, you talk about meditative movement, you talk about being present.”
[20:00] Building a new fitness emphasizing mental wellness
“[W]e can start to build from scratch a new fitness that emphasizes the things we're talking about today. Mental wellness, holistic health, meditative movement, mind body practice. I think that's the way we'll make it sustainable.”
[23:43] Meeting the needs of clients seeking to address mental health
“I’ve read that report. And I was just astounded that fitness professionals recognize that mental health has become an important part of the reason why people are seeking out fitness or movement in general. And yet they also have very little confidence in their ability to talk about it with clients or their ability to program or partner with people who are mental health professionals. I thought, we need to start at the very beginning.”
[28:08] System change in physician exercise prescriptions/referrals
“Who's the fitness pharmacist? Well, there are none at this point, right? So they might lose their confidence in that approach, because there's no one that they can refer to. Because there might be fitness people out there that are undermining the message of fitness for mental health, or disregarding it completely. So that speaks to the need for systemic change.”
