Do The Hard Thing After Your Workout

Have you ever had something on your to-do list that you knew would only take five minutes, but you put it off anyway?

Maybe it was responding to a text message, making an important phone call, sending an email, or tidying the kitchen.

The problem usually isn't a lack of time. Most of the tasks we avoid don’t take much time at all.

The deeper problem is the discomfort that comes with taking action. We avoid things because they feel uncomfortable, scary, awkward, stressful, or overwhelming, sometimes in ways we don’t even realize.

Recently, I discovered a simple strategy that makes those difficult tasks noticeably easier: I do them immediately after a workout.

The Avoidance Issue

I have used exercise to manage my depression and anxiety for many years. These days, my main mental health hurdle isn’t depression, it’s social anxiety.

While that’s gotten a lot better, there are still situations that are difficult for me. Two big ones are responding to messages in group chats as well as posting my work and marketing my business on social media.

Both of these activities are important to me. I’m in several group chats with friends and family who I love and want to maintain healthy relationships with. I’m also in group chats with other business owners for networking purposes, and while I don’t really use social media personally, I want to be active on social media for my business.

Like many people who have goals and good intentions, I often struggle to follow through and take action. I used to blame it on a lack of time, but that’s not really true. Over the years I’ve done enough introspection and built enough self-awareness to know that the friction I feel actually comes from fear. It’s a fear of being judged in public group settings.

To learn more about getting to the root of the excuses that might be holding you back from achieving your goals, check out my full article: How To Stop Making Excuses And Start Achieving Your Goals!

My resistance to facing my fear and participating in those group chats has definitely held me back, personally and professionally. And the repercussions aren’t just about the end result of my inaction. Avoidance in itself damages my mental health.

That lack of action feeds into a vicious cycle. I avoid, and then I feel bad about myself for avoiding, and then the thing I’ve avoided seems even more overwhelming so I avoid again, and I feel even worse, etc.

How I Leverage Exercise To Help With My Mental Health

One day, I realized there was something I could do. I had a Whatsapp notification from one of my networking accountability groups (where each member sends a weekly update) staring at me in the face every time I looked at my phone. I had read the messages and needed to send my update, and yet I didn’t. Until I got into the gym.  

About halfway through my workout, I picked up my phone to change a song and noticed that my hesitation to send a message was not as strong as usual. I quickly typed out a draft, did another set, re-read it, did another set, re-read it yet again (this is who I am), did another set, and then hit send.

I felt so relieved. Knowing what I know about exercise science it was clear what had happened, but I was surprised that it hadn’t previously occurred to me to leverage the brain-changing power of exercise.

But once it did occur to me, I never looked back. These days if there’s something difficult or scary I need to do, I try to do it immediately after a workout if possible.

Of course, that’s not always possible depending on what the thing is. If it’s an in-person meeting, I probably want to leave some time after my workout to shower and look presentable. But when it involves sending messages or posting on social media, I can do that whether I’m sweaty and out-of-breath or not.

The Brain-Changing Power Of Exercise

When you exercise, your muscles release chemicals called myokines that travel throughout your body, including to your brain. At the same time, exercise releases neurotransmitters and other compounds in your brain that can improve mood, motivation, resilience, and mental clarity.

Scientists call these chemicals “hope molecules” because of the way they can induce feelings of joy, happiness, hope, and social connection.

Exercise temporarily changes your brain in ways that make difficult actions feel more manageable. Those effects generally last at least half an hour and even a couple of hours beyond your workout depending on the type of workout and intensity.

How You Can Leverage The Brain-Changing Effects Of Exercise

If there's something you're avoiding, the period during and immediately after a workout may be the best time to tackle it.

Try pairing a workout with:

• Sending a difficult email

• Returning a phone call you've been avoiding

• Posting on social media

• Scheduling a doctor's appointment

• Completing a job application

• Meal prepping for the week

• Having an important conversation

• Tidying a room

• Tackling a project you've been procrastinating on

A couple of things to keep in mind:

Exercise intensity matters. Higher intensity exercise (faster or harder cardio and heavier weightlifting) tends to produce the biggest changes in brain chemistry and brain activity.

If you have the baseline fitness and the experience to do higher intensity exercise, it will give you a bigger boost. If not, work your way up to it.

To learn more about how exercise intensity affects mental health, check out my full article: How Hard Should You Exercise If Your Goal Is To Support Your Mental Health?

Don’t expect magic. Even during or immediately after a workout, I still feel the need to triple check my messages before sending them. Exercise doesn’t make me a totally different person who loves group interactions and who can easily put myself out there. But it does allow me to do the things I need to do with less resistance and to feel better about myself in the process.

The next time you're putting off something important, don't wait until you feel motivated or confident enough to do it.

Instead, try scheduling it immediately after your workout.

You might still feel nervous. You might still want to procrastinate. But you also might find that the resistance is lower and taking action feels just a little easier.

Sometimes, that's all it takes to get moving.

If You Need Help

If you have health and fitness goals, learning how to structure those goals and break them into actionable steps is incredibly important. Download my FREE Goal-Setting Guide which will walk you, step-by-step, through the process of setting goals you’ll actually be able to achieve.

To learn more about how to exercise for your mental health, including strategies to make any workout more effective for your mental well-being, download my FREE Guide To Exercise For Your Mental Health eBook.