Yesterday morning I was telling my personal training clients about my weekly challenge to post an article relating to some aspect of health and fitness. I told them “the challenge is coming up with new things to talk about”. One of my clients suggested writing about how it affects mental health.

This particular client had recently been through a trying time, and technically is still going through it but seems to be doing much better. I like to think that either I or someone I’m networked with and sent her way had something to do with it.

About a year or two ago I did my motivational speech brought to life with a strength performance for a group of social workers and told them “You are important because mental health is the next great frontier, and you’re the ones working in the trenches. The world needs you.” That’s true, but a lot of us are also attempting to do the same thing.

I don’t pretend to be a therapist, and I recommend anyone going through a trying time to also go to therapy quite simply because I’m not qualified to handle that sort of thing.

What I am qualified to handle is what I like to call “iron therapy” as in the iron teaches you what you are truly capable of. And it’s one of the most valuable things really is knowing you’re capable of more than you realized.

As I reflect on my own personal journey of strength, I’m reminded of the fact that a little over a decade ago I started down the path of the steel bending superhuman. Before that, I was devastated when my first wife left me for my best friend in the first year of our marriage. I bounced back faster than I thought I would and I credit that to my strongman mentor making me feel good about myself again. Bending steel gave me back the confidence I lost when I was tossed aside like yesterday’s garbage. I learned that it’s possible to bend steel, and not just possible….but possible for me.

Now for those that don’t bend steel, well getting stronger with weights does the same thing. I’ve seen it happen multiple times. As great as therapy is, it’s difficult to measure. How do you measure something subjective like a general feeling that can shift by the minute? Getting stronger with weights is objective. Nothing teaches you what you are capable of like lifting weights you never thought you could. It proves to yourself, your self efficacy and that you are capable of more than you realize. Numbers are easy to compare.

It’s almost become an internal joke. I load all the weights for my personal training clients and when they ask me how much it weighs I’ll say something to the effect of “don’t worry about it” or “it’s the appropriate training load”. I wait till after they do it to tell them and sometimes they’ll be floored, like in the case of when they took something they could do only once and do it 10-15 times in a row or get around 50 reps in a 10min period after having only trained 3 or 4 months.

Something like doing their first chin up which is harder to disguise has provided numerous times for discovery of ones potential, and we can see it happen in real time as they do it. I watch their face go from doubt, to determination to “OMG… I’m doing it!” all within a matter of seconds as they get their first one. One woman who started training with me in her 50’s had never done a chin up before, despite having worked with other personal trainers over the years. She didn’t think she would be able to get there and when she did her first she had an emotional release as she cried, now realizing yes she can.

And just this morning, one of my other personal training clients is going through a bit of a stressful period in her life. Took it out on the weights and had that natural endorphin release which made her feel way better than when she walked in.

And then going back to that first one, she has a goal that she is working towards. Not a training goal though training is a critical part of the journey to get their, but she’s making meaningful process en route towards her goal and that plays a part in mental health. Knowing you’re getting closer, seeing the changes, feeling the changes, other people telling you they see the changes, seeing the numbers get higher and getting that natural endorphin hit that makes you feel better when you walked in and quiets those internal whispers that tell you you aren’t good enough. You don’t have to say anything back, you already proved it to yourself. The iron said it for you.

If you need help with this, I offer a free trial at my personal training studio on Main Street in Boonton. Just send me a text at 973 476 5328 to get started.

Eric Moss is a personal trainer in Boonton and moonlights as a world-record-holding modern-day professional performing strongman, author, and motivational speaker. In the tradition of the strength performers more common during the turn of the century, he performs feats of strength such as bending steel and breaking chains as part of a live show and travels across the country doing presentations on goal achievement for conferences, corporations, associations, nonprofits, and government entities as well as for schools and universities. His personal training studio is located on Main Street in Boonton New Jersey and is close to Mountain Lakes, Denville, Montville, Butler, and Parsippany New Jersey.