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Would you agree with this statement?

The Cost of Adaptation | StrongFirst

Looked at in a basic way, a large part of mental health involves where the mind is on the spectrum between deep calm and fight or flight. Generally, anxiety, anger and so on push the organism up in the direction of fight flight. So, carrying more anxiety etc leads to a greater ongoing load on the organism. A person who trains for GPP has the greater physiological functional reserve and so will carry the load better than an unfit person. In this sense GPP helps mental health. However, if you think about it you will all recall elite athletes with mental health problems and so physical fitness as such does not prevent mental health issues.

In addition, other athletes sometimes at the behest of their coaches are driven to over train which simulates a severe ongoing load, a physical fight flight response, that erodes the functional reserve and will at some point add to mental ill health and other problems.

Incidentally, you might see that the right loading and type of training will help support mental health. Non physical training such as a type of meditation that reduces anxiety via pure effortless relaxation is also helpful (as in the late Dr Meares meditation method).
 
steve-in-kville said:
As mentioned, I have no real direction intended, but I see and even agree with some points being made.
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I don't think it's relevant that he's a combat vet. That in no way qualifies him to talk about mental health. The best he's qualified to do is talk about his own mental health and, if he was intelligent and well-intentioned, he'd be very cognizant of the shortcomings in his knowledge. But that quote tells me he's going far, far in the opposite direction -- probably to further his "brand". The world doesn't need more quacks and charlatans, especially "treating" people who are suffering. They do real damage.
 
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A single sentence is tough to flesh out. I’d have to hear more to get the context. Was he implying that those with good mental health either improved it through better physical health or was he implying that improving one’s physical health helps improve one’s mental health? He could have corrected or clarified himself later on, I’d have to hear more than that sentence.
 
Physiology and psychology are intricately linked. With that in mind, I think the most we can say is our physical behavior cultivates or helps provide stability within the mind. For example, a poor nights sleep results in grogginess. but the outcome of anger is not deterministic. The motives of the heart are always at play, so the external and internal struggles are influences of the mind/heart, but are not indicative of a persons action/feeling on their own.

Regarding the original statement, I think we should be cautious around the "always" statements. The removal of that word would change the entire perspective.
 
No I don't agree with the statement. A couple of examples would be Victoria Pendleton. An Olympic athlete at the top of her sport winning everything all whilst battling mental health issues, same for Graeme Obree. Untouchable in their primes but both battling mental health issues at the same time. I've read both autobiographies and it is quite disturbing how ill they both were but amazing athletes at the same time. The human condition is a conundrum sometimes.
 
I would rather talk about Health as a header and then explore the components that make up overall health which would include physical, mental, emotional, relational, spiritual and probably others too. All are affected by diet, sleep, hydration, gut health and movement quality/quantity etc.

All are interconnected and related. In my experience, poor emotional health manifests physically in the body, equally, exercise tends to boost my mental health. I think we need to look at it all holistically. This is what a soundbite like the one at the start of the thread can never convey. Yes there are established ways in which exercise is good for your brain but if you are lonely and isolated, and chronically sleep deprived exercise alone isn't going to produce complete health.
 
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Pete L said:
I hope not.
What happens if you get a serious illness.
Does that poor mental health is inevitable as well?
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I been there. physical unhealth definitely lead to a tougher mental space. We had to work hard to keep my mind in a safe space. we=family, friends, this forum, other people and places, just a simple 30 minute walk with a 12kg KB in my neighbourhood etc. <edit> and @Symanoy is spot on. it is a holistic state of being.
 
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Lotto said:
No I don't agree with the statement. A couple of examples would be Victoria Pendleton. An Olympic athlete at the top of her sport winning everything all whilst battling mental health issues, same for Graeme Obree. Untouchable in their primes but both battling mental health issues at the same time. I've read both autobiographies and it is quite disturbing how ill they both were but amazing athletes at the same time. The human condition is a conundrum sometimes.
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Your point here is a good one, but we have to reminds ourselves from time to time that elite athletics has everything to do with performance, and very little to do with "health" (physical or mental).
 
Boris Bachmann said:
but we have to reminds ourselves from time to time that elite athletics has everything to do with performance, and very little to do with "health"
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Yep. Elite generally means specialized which requires sacrificing something for the sake of performance/competitiveness. I think of elite athletes often as highly tuned sports cars, what they do is impressive but the upkeep is costly and they don’t always seem to be particularly robust. I’d rather be an old school well engineered workhorse that is robust, reliable, and will run for a very long time.
 
Lots of great comments and good discussion. Thanks for keeping it civil.

Some points were made above to the effect that poor mental health can also work against physical health. When I went through some tough times, I was in the poorest health of my life: wasn't sleeping well, poor eating habits, layed around, didn't move. When I got sick, the sickness was 3x worse than it had to be and lasted much longer than it should've.
 
steve-in-kville said:
Some points were made above to the effect that poor mental health can also work against physical health. When I went through some tough times, I was in the poorest health of my life:
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I went through a couple year period of depression and really let myself go. It wasn’t until my mental health improved that I started trying to improve my physical health.
 
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