Exercise and Bipolar disorder

George’s Story

“When I first began exercising more seriously with an Exercise Physiologist, it was suggested as one of my goals as getting “jacked”, but later when I got more fit I thought my wife would approve of my new look. However, one day she saw me in the mirror and said I looked like a gorilla. Subsequently, I had to re-evaluate for what reasons I did exercise and how it helped my life. There seemed to be so much more than getting “jacked.”

The interaction with my exercise physiologist has provided much encouragement to exercise and talk about the benefits of exercise that left me feeling positive to do exercise. Having a good exercise physiologist is just as important as rehabilitation itself because they are a sounding board for what you want to do and get out of it, as the best exercise physiologists listen carefully to you, help find the motivation in you (the cornerstone to doing exercise) and partner with you to reach your goals.

For my bipolar condition I can get quite depressed and exercising is one activity for something simply to do (where just doing something/anything can be difficult) and know I get some health benefits out of it, plus knowing I’m doing something positive, as opposed to say lying in bed depressed.

Doing a variety of exercises can be interesting and challenging. I didn’t know that there could be so many exercises around the core exercises. My bipolar condition could be one reason why I like the novel and creative. So performing new different exercises is quite interesting to me and gives me some motivation to try them out.

Reaching measurable goals or just setting personal bests can be motivating and encouraging, if I don’t care about them (the goals), which sounds paradoxical. This is because they are incidental and when they are mentioned they give me some confidence along the way, but to keep going seeing what you can do in terms of pushing yourself is a bigger motivator.

Pushing yourself as your own motivator helps my depression which I can apply to other tasks in life. My exercise physiologist helped initially to push myself. But eventually, you can learn to push your own self to do exercise, and then try to transfer this ability to do other things in life on your own initiative with enough confidence, which is very helpful for depression. In the end, even though I feel a bit fitter, I like trying new things out and seeing where you can go or go all the way.

After learning the above as my journey, I then asked my wife later: “what’s wrong with looking like a gorilla?” She said, “looking like a gorilla is fine.” I sighed. But I realised my journey of learning wasn’t in vain, as I had experienced the real benefits of exercise (other than being “jacked”)”

– George, AXM Exercise Physiology Client.

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