Two Studies on the Potential Power of "Exercise Priming"

is why I do what I do. Obviously keep everything anonymous when I read your notes and do the questions on the listener mailbag show. But here you go, just real quickly. I've been listening to your podcast for a couple of years. I want to say thank you for all you teach. I have changed the way I think of exercise since I have been listening to you. My main goal now is to be strong and healthy and not to worry as much about the scale. With your tips, I am much more well balanced and can run again

slowly but without back pain. So many things make my day in this my passion is backpacking and mountain climbing. With your help, I am stronger than ever and look forward to each new adventure. Thank you for all you do. Thank you, thank you for listening, thank you for reaching out. And this goes to everyone, this person specifically for taking the time to let me know because when I say at the end of each show that you know my goal is to help us all live our best lives.

That's that's it. That's it. And you know, there's so many great concepts in that message, including changing the way this person thinks of exercise, taking the focus off the scale being strong and healthy, back to running amazing, and this person is able to do what they enjoy backpacking

and mountain climbing. There's no one way, and that is why we strength train and eat healthy so that we can live as long as possible, so that we can have as high equality of life as possible during those years add you know, years to your life and life to your years, and to be able to do what we want to do. That's it. So thank you, thank you for that note, and thank you for I just have the greatest listeners out there, I know from from hearing from you. So today I'm in a good mood

because there were great studies. There are four that jumped right out at me when I was doing some research and I said, you know, this is perfect for today, and I'm gonna bring you maybe a new term, exercise priming. And these are two small studies and they are focus more on depression, but it doesn't matter, and actually we can extrapolate that out in a positive and more broadway as well. But it goes to what this show is about in that. Yes, as the person said, it's not

just about the scale. You know, after being in this industry for thirty years and talking about weight loss and weight loss and weight loss and weight loss, yes, that's important. We need to be a healthy weight. But the cognitive side, the mental side, is so powerful. And one of the lines I'm gonna read to you from one of the researchers in these two studies are done by the same people.

There's a little depressing, but you know, not surprising, and we need to reframe it and just accentuate it, all right, But yes, this is another podcast on the incredible benefits of exercise and the brain and cognitive function and stress and all of that stuff and and just another way to utilize it. You know, when I when I did the first show and was writing the thirty second spot

in sixty second spot four fitness disrupted. You know, years ago I said that I wanted you to have actionable information, stuff you can use right away, And this is yet another one based on science, and so I'm really excited to bring it to you. Let's do that quick break and when I come back, two studies on the potential power of exercise priming what the heck is that you'll

find out? Right after this break, we'll be right back. Okay, So talking about studies depression and the effects that exercise has on that. And again the show is not it's not focused on depression actually just the cognitive benefit. Again, I'm going to extrapolate it out more broadly, and if you have depression, listen, it's a spectrum. So many people at different you know, points in their lives experience that. But it's going to be a broad application based on

this more specific finding. Okay, what if we could use exercises as a tool, Right? What do I mean by that? Well, when we talk about the studies into the benefits of exercise and you know, cognitive function or depression or mood states, it's more broad in that you know, decreases anxiety, all of those things that we're thinking more broadly over time, right, But this is more specific, and that's what these studies

looked at, like very short term benefit. Okay, let me give you an example from my life that I just started doing. Naturally. I've talked about that. I come from a lunatic, crazy, Irish Catholic family. I have five brothers, six boys, no sisters. Whenever I say that, the first thing that comes out of most people's mouths as your poor mother. No, no, no, she chose that she made the choice. I was the one who grew up in this insanity. Let me put it this way now, just

I'm pausing, I'm editing myself. Uh fast forward to today. Uh now there's like, you know, sixteen seventeen grandkids, I don't know, family functions are nuts and any of you who have a big family or families in general, or it's all crazy, right, and family get togethers or what they're stressful, right, holidays, things like that brings back, all of a sudden, you maybe fifty years old, but all of a sudden, you're fifteen again and you're having those

same fights. So what does this have to do with anything that we're talking about here today? What I started doing years ago was before a large family function. I would get a workout in right before could be a wrong and oftentimes it was could be a bike ride indoor outdoor. I did something right before, just naturally, and

I felt better at those functions as a result. And that's pretty much exactly what these two studies are showing why you should and can use exercise in a priming fashion for stressful situations to come, and not just stressful situations, to handle tough situations things like tests. We'll get into it,

all right. So it's about the benefit and benefits of exercise before an event, and there's gonna be two main takeaways, right that improved mood state with depression and things like that, and jumping ahead, but cut into the chase, the better ability to tackle tough tasks immediately following exercise. All right, so here we go. First study magnitude, timing, and duration of mood state and cognitive effects of acute moderate exercise

in major depressive disorder. Okay, big words salad there if you want to call it that, then these are recent studies by the way, Psychology of Sport and Exercise, volume sixty one July. All right, read you the title one more time. I just enjoy it. Magnitude, timing and duration of mood state, and cognitive effects of acute moderate exercise in major depressive disorder against sounds super complicated. We'll distill it down. This was I was State University researchers there.

We're studying how acute exercise, which is one exercise about a day, one exercise session, influenced primary depressive symptoms. All right'll read you right from it here. Acute exercise generally improves mood state and cognitive functioning and healthy adults. However, the impact of acute exercise on primary symptoms in adults

with major depressive disorder is poorly understood. The present randomized crossover study evaluated the magnitude, timing, and duration of the psychological effects of thirty minutes of moderate intensity cycling exercise compared to quiet rest in thirty adults. That was twenty one female, which would make nine male with major depressive disorder. All right, and I'm gonna read you one quote to

clarify a little further from one of the researchers. A lot of previous research on the effects of exercise on mental healthy general have used very broad measures of well being. That's what I said in the intro, right, what we were interested in specifically is how does acute exercise, that is, one session of exercise today influence the primary symptoms of depression? All right, So this one is looking at that mood state, right, and then we're going to connect it to the tough task.

And that's what they do in the study. That's to follow, right. And so again we know, well knows a strong word that exercise benefits all of these things we're talking about, mood states, cognitive function, things like that. Although the quote at the end that I will do at the beginning, he says, well, mate, I'm confusing you. I'm trying to be somewhat scientific, right, but how many studies do we need to read? How many workouts do you have to do that make you feel bettern till we believe this

is true. That's why I'm trying to choose my words carefully. All right. So thirty adults, as I said, experiencing major depressive episodes were brought in for testing. They set him for two thirty minute lab visits in which they either exercised again modern intensity cycling or they sat. Then one week later they came back and they switched the task that either SAD or cycled did what they didn't do

in the first visit. Okay. During the visit, both groups were asked to fill out electronic surveys immediately before, halfway through, and directly after a session. Okay, so they're checking their depressive symptoms. They're asking them questions right right before they exercised, halfway through, and right after. And then they also tested them and seventy five minutes post workout. Okay, so six different times before, during, and right after the workout, and

then three more times after to see how the effects lasted. Okay, the questionnaires again met your depressive symptoms and cognitive abilities. I'm not going to really go into that too deep, but again it alludes to what I was talking about

at the start when we talk about those tough tasks. Okay, during the cycling experiment, participants depressed mood state, what do you think it improved over the thirty minutes of exercise, and they found consistently up to seventy five minutes after, and you go, why not seventy five minutes or past seventy five that's when they stopped testing. So one of the follow up they said for future research they should

look past that as well. But shockingly, they improved their mood state during the exercise and up to seventy five minutes after, so it didn't end when the exercise ended. That's that's why I exercise as frequently as I do. That's why I talk about micro workouts. You don't have to do those. You don't have to do multi workouts a day. And when I say workouts, you could be a walk in the morning, could be a thirty minute

you know, bike ride, indoor outdoor. But my point is I want that hit of Sarah tonin as much as I can get it. Right. Yeah, you can go to the gym do one workout a day, and that's great, like of course, but we need to move and if we can get in shorter workouts and get that hit and if you have a couple events throughout the day where maybe you need a little bit more, this is controlling your quote unquote medication people administering it yourself. It's

the beauty of exercise. You can have as much or as little any time you want, unlike the pharmaceutical option. Okay, to what's their conclusion, we already said it, but specifically performing short bouts of moderate intensity exercise appears to be effective for management of key symptoms and the term they use in the study and hedonia, which is an inability to experience pleasure from activities usually found enjoyable depressed mood

state in adults with major depressive disorder. Okay, two big takeaways though, the time immediately post exercise may be ideal for performing emotionally challenging tasks and or tasks where a low symptom severity would be helpful. And they use the example of psychotherapy. So here's where we're extrapolating it out.

Here's where the term exercise priming is coming in. Here's why I get in sometimes a really long workout before visiting family because the time immediately post exercise maybe ideal for performing emotionally challenging tasks intoor tasks where a low symptom severity would be helpful. Final quote from one of the researchers, The cool thing is I love that he started that way. The cool thing is. The cool thing is these benefits to depressed mood state and and hedonia

could last beyond seventy five minutes. As I said, that's as far as they tested though we would need to do a longer study to determine when they start to wane, but the results here we go. Second real important takeaway suggests a window of time post exercise when it may be easier or more effective for someone with depression to do something psychologically or cognitively demanding. Now I'm extra playing this out myself. I'm going to take the word, the term,

and the concept depression out. Yes, that's what they study for, that's what they were looking at. But let's say, all people, let's let's just go broad, let's go big. Okay, So that could be so many things. If you're giving a speech, you know, public speaking. I love it because I'm nuts, but most people fear public speaking more than death. So if you have to give a presentation, getting in exercise

right before can be a powerful performance enhancing tool. Taking a test, gonna end with that book spark, taking a test, anything challenging cognitively emotionally, and they use going to therapy as there what they were looking at specifically. All right, so study too, coming up. Smaller study, they're both small studies. Uh, this one's smaller than the first though same research group, similar findings, but it's gonna bring it all together, all right,

quick break, We'll be right back. Study number two Feasibility of an exercise and CBT intervention for treatment of depression a pilot, randomized controlled trial. Awesome finding. So we'll be right back, and we are back talking about exercise, priming of these terms, of these terms, and the ability that we all have to control this. How much we move when we move? Now, you know, I say how much we move, what we put into our mouths and our attitudes. We control those things I say at the end of

every podcast. Now you can see on the when we move and how much we move or how much we move when we move makes a difference potentially. You know, I used to go running after a stressful event, right, I talked about like one of the most stressful times in my life was owning a gym. Always said I didn't want to do it. I had a crazy opportunity. I did it. Holy stress, and yes, stress is a choice, and I knew that. I'm really glad I didn't. Looking back,

I who learned so much, confirmed so much. Pretty sure war, even though I never say never, pretty sure I'll never do it again. Uh, for many reasons anyway, But in the new book. There's a lot of a lot of stories. Um. So second study, what they're looking at here, same group, same researchers conducted a separate study to learn whether they could synergize the short term benefits from exercise and the long term benefits from therapy to deliver the most effective

intervention for depression. So now they're saying, Okay, you've got cognitive behavioral therapy or therapy in general, and you've got exercise. Will that help? And yes, they were doing CBT of course, and just read that. So again the title of this study, Feasibility of an exercise and CBT intervention for Treatment of Depression. A pilot, randomized control trial. This is Frontiers Psychiatry. May

again super recent small study. Ten adults with ds M five diagnosed depression were randomized to groups and complete did They did an intake, then they did eight weekly cognitive behavioral therapy sessions, a final assessment, and a three month follow up. So eight weeks, eight week intervention. And what they did thirty minutes of exercise prior or no exercise, just their usual activities. And for this one they didn't

make them cycle or do anything like that. They just said you have to do something, and this is really cool. They looked at their fitbits and make sure that they did not only exercise but modern intensity. I love that, Like, there's where fitness trackers are really starting to benefit people and research and everything else. Okay, so eight weeks cognit behavioral therapy. You either exercise for thirty minutes right before

or you didn't. Okay, immediately prior. What did they find? Well, exercise amplified the benefits of cognitive behavioral therapy for people with depression. It was a good thing. Now, not going into all the reasons, I think personally, one of the possible reasons they given the study was that participants who exercised before their session reported a quicker and stronger connection with their therapists. Not something I would have thought of.

So that's interesting, a quicker and stronger connection with their therapists. But real quickly, I think it goes to all the benefits we have talked about before and read improved mood state, decreased anxiety, all of those things that are going to prevent you from probably having a good therapy session. And specific takeaway again or finding was a larger and potentially quicker symptom improvement was found following the active condition following

those people that exercise before. Okay, exercise priming appears acceptable and plausibly efficacious for enhancing mechanisms of CBT and overall outcomes, though the present small sample precludes efficacy determinations. Small study. So let's wrap it up. Yeah, causality association. What are

the downsides of people? We're not even talking about the physical benefits of exercise, So let's assume for arguments, say that none of this holds true, which you know, crazy, But let's just for arguments, say, get the myriad other benefits of exercise. But this is research that is piling up. Okay, I've used it personally, as I said, did it naturally started to read the studies on and go, oh my gosh, it's common sense with the science with the what is

the downside as well? All right, yeah, they're small studies, but what are the negative side effects you gotta work out in I'm pretty sure if you exercise before going to see your family like I do, you're not going to be easier. I don't you know, You're not gonna be less able to deal psychologically and all that kind of stuff so super exciting two studies. Let me just finish with what I alluded to talked about earlier, this book Spark. I have to get the author on. I

read this book a long time ago. It is so good. Sparked the revolutionary new science of exercise and the brain. And I bring this up because he starts the whole book John, I'm sure how he pronounces it, raydy rady r a t e Yuh. He begins the book, starts the whole thing by talking about Naperville, Illinois and a school district there that tried to raise students test scores by making them do exercise right before school. Okay, they called it zero hour because they scheduled the fitness class

right before the first period. What did they find increase east fitness, improved academics, increased executive functioning for these kids, and improved planning, greater capacity to reflect, evaluate complete work on time. Incredible results. And what they found is the day progressed wore off a little bit. So when they talk about seeing the effects post seventy five minutes, at least as far as certain cognitive functions, yeah, he found it diminishes over time, which makes sense. I mean, if

you did one workout and you're like good for a year. No, that's why we should be moving all day long, and that's why you should do if you can, maybe more than one shorter bout of exercise. And that's why we can stop using the term justin only people see I brought that all together from prior shows. Stop saying I only did twenty minutes of you know, walking, Stop saying

I just walked a mile. But that's it in this book and I quote they turned the nineteen thousand students in Naperville District two oh three into the fittest in the nation and also some of the smartest. So there you go. Exercise priming cognitive benefits, stress reducing benefits of exercising before it happens, or if you want to perform better on something for no other reason, you go in more relaxed after exercise, feeling better with those great feel

good hormones flowing people all right. Two studies on the potential power of exercise priming. What do we learn here? Micro workouts again, maybe doing a couple of shorter workouts throughout the day, timing your workouts, timing your exercise after a stressful event. Absolutely, if you know the event is going to be stressful prior or challenging, get in fifty thirty minutes of activity to prepare yourself for it. There

you go. Hmm. I love these positive shows. I mean I'm going to do the other ones, the ones that get me angry or raise the heart rate. Uh, but let's focus on the positive because we're in control of that, all right. Again, thank you for listening. If you want to reach out, as I said at the start, I love to hear from you, comments, questions, Tom h Fit Instagram, Tom h Fit Twitter follow me greatly appreciated, as well as rating the show if you can, depending on how

you listen, subscribing, all of that's greatly appreciated. Micro Workout Plan is the most recent books. So if you're looking for workouts to do that I just described and how to work it into your day and more of the benefits, that's the Micro Workout Plan book. Thank you for that. So excited for the new book. It's my first non prescriptive book tell all on the industry. Oh my gosh,

so excited for that. Anyway, thank you for listening. I'm gonna bring you the best information We're gonna break it down for you so you can live your best life. I'm biased in that regard because everything I tell you to do, I do myself. All Right, we control three things, how much we move, what we put into our mouths, and our state of mind, our attitudes. That's awesome. I'm Tom Holland. This is Fitness Disrupted. Believe in Yourself. Fitness

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