Weight training should be cool, because it is essential and medicinal. Daily resistance training improves mental outlook and all bodily functions.

Muscles got some bad press in the 80s, meaning most of my clients associate weights with bulking-up, steroids and the oiled-up gym-junkies of the 80. As soon as I mention the benefits of doing resistance work with weights, I get resistance. people commonly immediately say “I don’t need weight training”. But if people had any idea of the profound intelligence and transformational potential of muscle for physical, emotional and even spiritual health, they’d go straight out to buy a set of weights.

Muscles are beautiful, magical, under-acknowledged, and these days we desperately need more of them.

Muscles nourish all our organs and blood vessels, without them the skeleton would crumble into a pile of bones. Muscle has a direct influence on mental health (via the spleen in Chinese medicine). Even mainstream medicine has established that treating depression with exercise is way more effective than with drugs. And why? Because exercise builds muscles.

Sports science has also confirmed that there is nothing better for transforming negative emotionality than resistance (strength) training for muscle growth, and that doing it every day is necessary.

I’ve been saying this for years, I’ve been researching the body, mind, spirit power of movement and muscles for decades. I was one of those oiled-up beefy gym types but that was really valuable because I felt firsthand how muscles changed my outlook and that inspired me to research more, and that led to traditional Chinese medicine and a much deeper understanding of the magic healing powers of our bodies, muscles, meridians and chi.

I have clients (male and female) who, when I suggest weight training also say “I don’t want to bulk up.”

Forget the bodybuilders, you’re not going to turn into Arnie unless you’re doing 10 hours a day in the gym. That’s extreme and I don’t consider that healthy, it overloads the body. We need healthy functional muscles, these can treat so many symptoms it’s astonishing. I say it’s time for a rebrand, to make muscle fashionable, here’s mine: muscles are medicinal!

The more you understand about what muscles can do, the more likely you’ll be to overcome your resistance and get into it!

This is the basic equipment you need to work every muscle and treat multiple physical and emotional symptoms:

• TRX ropes – you can use resistance trainers like TRX ropes to improve the health and functionality of the entire body, and it’s lifelong skill development so it never gets boring
• Push-up grips – for deep push ups
• Step / chair – step-ups and dips

With this simple equipment you can treat anxiety, depression, timidity, inability to speak or stand up for yourself, tiredness, procrastination, negativity, grumpiness, irritability, anger and more.

Exercise becomes therapy when you work with the three types of muscles: cardiac muscles (involuntary), skeletal muscles (voluntary) and smooth muscles (gut muscles, involuntary). With the TRX you can engage all three which means it can be a chi practice (internal exercise) rather than just stimulating skeletal muscles (external exercise). The more skill you develop the better the treatment results

Medicinal exercises according to the Chinese medicine meridians activated during exercise:

• Back exercises: Calms the mind, lifts the spirit and treats resentment, sadness, sexual strength, poor memory, dizziness, abdominal distension.
• Arms and Shoulders: Depression, manic behaviour, mental confusion, opens the chest, removes obstructions (stops pain).
• Chest and Core: Anxiety, feeling powerful, tonifies kidneys, calms the mind, mental irritation, strong limbs.
• Legs: Hip problems, sciatica, strengthens the body, regulates menses, lower backache, knee pain, benefits digestion.

For more on learning about the incredible healing power of exercise check out my Chinese Medicine 101 online course. You’ll learn the connection between your organs / muscles, meridians and health, and the course includes practical demo videos of how to do the exercises.