Magazine_Spring2021_RND3_04.05.21.indd

By Peter Andrew Danzig I’m on my last set of burpees, and I find my usual routine isn’t working. My performance output is low, my endurance is lagging, and I find myself distracted and deep in my thoughts. I sit back and question myself, “What’s going on? This is the easiest day in your regimen, why are you exhausted so fast?” As I reflect on the weeks prior – a pandemic in which COVID has our world under collective traumatic stress, financial obligations, and the loss of a parent – I realize that although I’ve been exercising as a normal approach to stabilize my mood and support my mental health, I’ve not considered flipping the coin. We have long known the research indicators on how exercise improves mental health outcomes; yet we also need to honor that they are dependent on one another. I wasn’t exercising my mind and finding proper recovery for my mental load, so my workouts were suffering. Continued on next page. Mental & Physical Health: The Healthy Codependent Approach Nutrition Quarterly · 2021 – Volume 2