In this concluding video of his mental‑health series, Dr. John A. King explains why regular physical activity is a powerful tool for brain health and offers practical ways to fit exercise into a busy life. He outlines the physiological benefits—lowering stress, reducing brain‑related inflammation, releasing endorphins, and increasing oxygen flow—arguing that these mechanisms collectively improve mood and cognition. Dr. King stresses personal responsibility and points to research showing that as little as 15 minutes of exercise three times a week can produce significant mental‑health gains. He then provides a menu of low‑threshold, everyday activity ideas: walking a dog or cat, using step counters, setting incremental walking goals, turning chores into movement, taking stairs, biking instead of driving, and engaging in enjoyable pursuits such as martial arts, dancing, or team sports. He recommends hiring a qualified coach, specifically Andrew Curtis of Max Potential LLC, describing the coach’s medical background, elite‑athlete experience, and virtual availability, and explains three reasons to pay for coaching: increased valuation, holistic life‑management, and sustained motivation. Finally, Dr. King shares his personal habit of solo gym sessions, framing the gym as a daily prescription for mental clarity and family well‑being.
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Hey, hello, you lot. Good to see you. Good to be seen. Wrapping up the series on mental health, and I just want to give you a couple of thoughts on daily exercise and brain health. And then I want to go through some ideas for you on, you know, different exercise things I've used, or I know other people have used. So why, why is exercise good for your brain? Well, probably the first thing is it reduces stress levels. And, um, It also reduces inflammation. Now, depression is inflammation that happens in the brain. That's basically what causes it. So when you're reducing overall stress, you're also reducing overall inflammation, which helps you. And, you know, there's a release of endorphins and all those sorts of things. All that science is out there. If you take time, if you're, if you're wanting to improve your mental health, the very first place to start is personal responsibility. So there's enough material out there for you to realize and work up on the benefits of mental health and exercise. And I want to encourage you to do so. But they're probably the 2 main things. And probably the 3rd one is the amount of oxygen that starts to flush through your body and get things out, get all the negative stuff out. Just mentally, spiritually, just flushing it through with the engagement of activities. And you just don't feel useless. Now, people say, well, I don't have enough time to exercise. Well, there's studies that prove that as little as 15 minutes a day, 3 times a week, Will radically improve your mental health. Now, anyone can do that. Anyone can do 15 minutes a day, 3 days a week. There's no excuses why, there's no reasons why. You just got to do that and make that happen. Now, when I talk exercise, I want to give you a few ideas. You know, get a dog or drag the cat. You know, it's a 30-second— borrow the neighbor's dog. You know, get a reason for, for getting out there and motoring around if you want. Turn it into a competition or a game. Like every watch, smartphone, and gadget has got a step counter. Give yourself goals, progressive goals. Don't make them unobtainable. If it's a matter of you walking from here to the first telegraph pole today, then do that. Make it the next telegraph pole the next day and keep a little journal so you know where you're up to on what you're doing. Turn your daily chores into exercise. Like park a little further away from the building. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Ride your bike instead of drive. Any of those sorts of things, again, to engage. You're going to go to the shop anyway. It's 2 miles away. Why not ride a bike? Enjoy it. Learn something new. Martial arts, dancing. Don't necessarily do martial arts and dancing together at the same time. Gotta freak some people out. But whatever is fun for you, make that part of what you do. If you like to get together and play basketball with some guys at the gym, if you used to play ball, do that. You know, just get out there and make something happen. The other thing is get a coach. Now I'm going to recommend a guy to you, Andrew Curtis. I'm going to put his information in the, in the, in the blog here. Curtis is brilliant. He's one of the best coaches I know, and he's, he's very informed across a range of different areas. So, Max Potential LLC is what he runs. And so I'm gonna put a link there to Andrew. And if you're wanting to get a good coach that can operate virtually, has a medical background, has been an extreme athlete, has gone through rehab, rehab, and all those, and has managed a busy life, Andrew is able to tell you. But, you know, let me warn you about Andrew. He's a no-bullshit guy. So don't go there, waste his time, and say, Dr. King told me to tell up and you're a real pussy. He's going to kick your ass. So Curtis is the business part. And so I would suggest you connect with him. And why the purpose of getting a coach as good as this? Number one, you're paying for it. If you pay for it, you value it. If you don't pay it, then you're not going to value what you get. Number two is you get someone who's interested in the totality of your life. Everything from diet, personal injury, background, and they're going to say, you know, we can start you here and we can take you there. And with technology nowadays like Zoom and Google Meets and stuff like that, you can actually have as much interaction with the coach as you need to, to go over form and stuff. I know this because Andrew did it with me when I was coming back from an injury. And the third thing is a coach is there to help you stay motivated. We all want to bring our best game to the field every time, But sometimes we don't, and that's where a coach can interject, get involved, and give you the encouragement to move forward and get your goals down. So there you go. Get a workout buddy if you want to, but really, I don't know. I like going to the gym by myself because the reason I go to the gym is because the gym is good for me. The gym is good for my family. The gym is good for my mental health. So I see going to the gym and exercising as part of my personal daily prescriptions to keep my mind sound and my head, my head where it needs to be.
