Stephen of SMART Fitness and his story about his struggle with anxiety and depression and how physical fitness has helped him ease his mental health.
“For all those people that said - "I can't do it"
A while few years back I used to weigh around 8 stone. I thought I'll just eat and bulk up and I ended getting a belly and size wearing 34inch pants and looked terrible.
My belly stuck out my arms were like twigs, I never wore t-shirts as I was to body conscious and though people would just laugh at me for being so worried about others opinions it all goes back to my childhood as I got bullied in school for being so thin, and picked on for not being very physically active.
Due to this I suffered from depression and anxiety which didn't help matters.
I started the gym but didn't know a thing at all. I spent 20 minutes in the gym and got bored and felt out of place so I left and went home. I did this about 4 times a week for over 6 months.
One day on holiday someone said to me
"why are you wearing a jumper its boiling?"
I told him why and he laughed at me and said
“you feel ashamed of how you look but that's you, not anyone else if you want to change this you can but it doesn't start with the body it starts with the mind.”
I didn’t think much of this after hearing it until I got home. I went to the gym and again after 20 minutes I started walking out.
On my way out I bumped into an old man approximately 70 years old called Phillip.
We spoke and he ended up walking me back to the gym without me realising.
We spoke and spoke and worked out the entire time without me even noticing. At the end he said to me,
“now that's longer than 20 minutes. You’ve got it in you, you just need to motivate yourself. Nobody in this gym cares what you look like or what your doing, they’re concentrating on themselves.”
After this I went to the gym a few days later and pushed myself harder than ever before, spending around 2 hours in the gym.
About 2 weeks later I started noticing the difference and the changes in my body I had made.
THIS is the point I fell in love with training and fitness, but I wanted to know more so I studied, learnt and trained with some of the best people and best trainers to become a trainer myself. With the help and support of my parents I thrived and found myself and what it was I was meant to do in life.
To this day I'm always pushing and learning new and different ways of helping people not just in the gym but everywhere possible. I realised that there were other people that still now think how I did.
After 4 years as a personal trainer I have helped countless people achieve their goals and start to feel better about themselves.
Girls who never wanted to go on holiday out of fear of showing their bodies, are now going away in bikinis. Guys who weren't sure of how to get the body they have always wanted are now well on their way to achieving their goals and setting new ones.
Anyone can say "I can't do it" but everyone can also say "I can do it" all you need to do is believe in yourself.
I love what I do for a living and that's a rare thing to find these days. I am privileged and honoured that I get to help so many fantastic people everyday.
People who want to lose weight, build muscle join the army, train for a sport, want to feel younger physically and get more flexible or need assisting with their aches and pains.
All different goals all different types of people with one thing in common MOTIVATION.
I achieved my goal and keep chasing new ones. We can all do it, whether its changing your body or helping you through a difficult time, training and exercising does one thing, it releases you. It helps you to do something you thought was impossible for you to do.
It makes you believe in yourself again.
From just a brisk walk to hours of training it all means something. The best thing about training in my opinion is, that for that time I'm training I feel on top of the world because each time I train I'm doing something I couldn't do before.
Whether its lifting a heavier weight, running further as well as eating better.
I am now 13 stone 6 pounds and love wearing tight fitting t-shirts because I'm proud of what I have made of myself.
I have diploma after diploma in fitness and as a personal trainer, fitness coach, class instructor and a nutritional advisor and I love it.
My mental health has been helped by my physical health.”
