WOW w/ Coach Jenny | Barbell Therapy

March 12, 2019Workout of the Week

I love barbells. I thoroughly understand the benefits of working with kettlebells, sandbags, bands, and body weight, but I’m happiest when I’m lifting, pressing, cleaning, or squatting a barbell. Barbells force me to slow down, to focus on rhythmic and intentional breathing, and be in the moment.

Barbells are basically my yoga, so I wasn’t surprised to read in a recent Outside Magazine article that two recent studies have confirmed that resistance exercise training (RET) helps to relieve symptoms of both depression and anxiety. This 2017 study from Sports Medicine concludes that RET significantly reduces anxiety symptoms among both healthy participants and participants who suffer from physical or mental illness. Another study published in JAMA Psychiatry in June 2018 concluded that “resistance exercise training significantly reduced depressive symptoms among adults regardless of health status, total prescribed volume of RET, or significant improvements in strength.”

I’ve always traced my increase in self-confidence and ability to get out of my comfort zone back to when I started strength training, and I’ve always known that the gym strengthened my mental toughness exponentially, but I haven’t given a lot of thought to the mental health connection specific to depression and anxiety. It makes so much sense. Pushing heavy things around seems daunting when you first start, but gives you a huge sense of accomplishment during and after the work, perpetuating an attitude of “I can do more” and instilling a notion that if you can work through physical discomfort, you can also work through mental discomfort. Strength training gives you something to look forward to, tangible goals that you can work towards, measure progress, and celebrate when you meet. That sense of accomplishment and capability translates to life both in and outside of the gym.

Personally, I feel the most mental health benefits from barbell work. I can get lost in the prescribed, reliable number of sets, the satisfaction of adding more plates to the bar each round and, every once in a while, the joy of pushing more weight on the bar than ever before. With that in minds, my WOW for this week is a strict strength workout starring the barbell as the protagonist.