The Annoying Truth

in which I talk about how exercise helps me manage my ADHD symptoms

NOTE: This post is meant to express my own experience with exercise as an able bodied person. I recognize that an exercise regimen may be out of reach for disabled folks or people with medical conditions.

I am not a mental health professional or a physician. Please ALWAYS consult with your doctor before starting any exercise program if you have any underlying conditions! 

Photo by Ginny Rose Stewart on Unsplash

I used to be one of those people who hated exercise. As was the trend in the mid to late 90s, I viewed People Who Go to the Gym as my mortal enemies. I also cannot discount the routine humiliation of PE class, where they took a bunch of out of shape kids and forced them to run a mile in 90 degree heat with a belly full of cafeteria pizza, or made them attempt a pull-up only to miserably fail in front of the entire class. I also was very much a Theater Kid, and Theater Kids were not Jocks. Jocks went to the gym. Ergo, the gym was bad. 

Confusingly, I also came of age at a time when Kate Moss and Britney Spears were the gold standard of thinness. Low rise jeans were in fashion, for some reason. A cigarette and a Diet Coke was a completely acceptable lunch. When I went to college, I was an acting major, and it was made clear to me that my physical state was not going to cut the mustard. In fact, I had an actual professor (a woman, no less!) tell me I had to wear long sleeves for a showcase because “my arms didn’t stop moving when I did”. I had never thought about my arms before, so on top of my unfashionably round stomach, big boobs, wide hips and sturdy Irish thighs, I was taught to hate my arms too! The early aughts were wild, y’all.

Despite the pressure to be thin, I didn’t start working out regularly until 2003, after I graduated from college. I joined the local Bally’s, which was the only gym I could afford. Nothing fancy at the good ol’ Bally’s, but I had a couple of free sessions with a personal trainer and learned a few things. From then on, exercise became a consistent part of my life. It started with me trying to get into low rise jeans (even at my thinnest they looked awful on me, short torso gals holla at me), but as it turns out, it was the best thing I did for my mental health. I joined New York Sports Club when I moved to Astoria in 2004, and attended frequently after work. My early 20s were a shitshow of epic proportions, but physical exercise helped me become a better human. I don’t think I realized it at the time, but the focus and discipline it gave me extended to other parts of my life, and my depression and anxiety were more under control.

The annoying truth is that outside of medication, exercise is one of the best things you can do to manage your ADHD symptoms. It is well known that on top of improving your physical health, exercise has many benefits when it comes to depression and anxiety, but less discussed is the impact it has on a person with ADHD. Before my diagnosis, I was struggling with finishing a writing project, and my friend Stephanie told me to pair exercise with writing. She told me to get my workout done and then just sit down and write. Magically, I churned out seven pages that day. It’s all about the dopamine - exercise increases both norepinephrine and dopamine in the brain. This increases focus and attentiveness, even in neurotypical people, and also soothes the anxiety and the emotional dysregulation that can come from ADHD. It’s a win-win situation. While it is totally okay to work towards a weight loss goal, I find that I am more consistent with working out when I am focused on my sanity and not my pants size. I now view exercise as a supplement to medication and therapy.

I know that this is very annoying. I know that it’s another thing on the list of things. I know it is another task. The idea of where to start might be completely overwhelming. As someone who spent a good 20 minutes psyching herself up to go to CVS on her lunch break - I see you.

My main advice to anyone with ADHD who wants to start (or restart) exercise: Start small. I know we can get very locked into DOING ALL THE THINGS and we know how that turns out. I am sure that you have tried and failed to stick with many things, as I have. As with any task we struggle with - chunk it down. Commit to 10-20 minutes a day at first. If you do too much too soon, you can injure yourself or get overwhelmed. It could be anything - a walk outside, going up the stairs in your apartment building, gentle stretching, light weights, even just dancing like an idiot to your favorite bops. Music is essential. I cannot work out without music playing, much like my inability to sleep without a fan that sounds like a jet engine. It always sucks at the beginning. Sometimes, it still sucks. But I never regret working out because of how I feel after*!

*I annoyed myself even saying that. But it’s true.

If you don’t see yourself getting to a gym, or it is not affordable for you, try working out at home. A lot of people discovered this over the pandemic, as gyms were closed for a long while. I used to be able to deal with the gym, but over the years, it became a sensory nightmare. Too many mirrors, too much noise, too many grunting weight bros, and I invariably forget my shoes/towel/pants. I hate the torturous process of getting there and fighting for equipment and showering in public. I love the simplicity of being able to just roll out my mat or jump on my Peloton (more on that in a second) and do it without thinking about it. I throw on a sports bra and some stretchy pants and go, and I don’t have to worry about foot fungus because I can use my own shower. If working out at home makes the process easier for you, here are some recommendations below for free/cheap exercise in the comfort of your own home. If this doesn’t interest you, feel free to close your browser and go dissociate on TikTok instead.

FREE AND/OR CHEAP EXERCISE AT HOME

Fitness Blender - If I had to point to the time when exercise truly led me to appreciate my body and what it can do, it would be when I started using Fitness Blender. I quit the gym for good in 2014, as I was in grad school and barely had time to brush my teeth, let alone get to a gym. I started with their beginner level workouts. Kelli and Daniel (there are many other instructors now as well) are absolutely wonderful. The workouts are clearly communicated, there is no music so you can play your own or just listen to the instruction, and their teaching style is nurturing and not aggressive. They have a slew of free videos on YouTube, but if you have the scratch, you can join FB Plus for about ten bucks a month and access their entire catalog, which is over 800 classes now. They also have programs for purchase, which is ADHD friendly in that everything is planned out for you and you don’t have to spend 20 minutes trying to decide on a routine and wind up watching cat videos on YouTube (not that I do that).

I worked out with them pretty much daily for years, and I still use their videos to this day. If I ever met Kelli or Daniel in person, I would fangirl. I’m so grateful to them for helping me change my relationship with my body. I love everything about them and I truly think they were pioneers in the at-home workout revolution. Bonus: They have a very cute dog named Loki who makes cameos.

Good place to start:

Yoga With Adriene - Adriene Mishler is a woman on a mission to make yoga accessible to everyone, and her YouTube channel is full of yoga at all levels. She has a paid option like most fitness folks do, but there is plenty of content that is totally free. My long journey to finally enjoying yoga started here. Bonus: like Daniel and Kelli, she has a very cute dog! His name is Benji, and he sometimes joins her on the mat.

Good place to start:

HasFit - I used HasFit from time to time when I was looking for variety. They have many free videos at all fitness levels, and I found the instructors to be fun and enthusiastic. There is also an option to purchase extra content.

Good place to start:

These are just the ones I’ve used. Other free resources include PopSugar, Tone it Up, Yoga with Kassandra, and countless others.

NOT FREE

Peloton - I was very resistant to Peloton at first, because it felt a little culty (it kind of is, but in a good way), but my husband really wanted to get one. I reluctantly agreed to the purchase, and now I use their workouts nearly every day. I love spinning, and used to take it regularly at New York Sports Club, but once I quit the gym I could not make myself cough up $40 a class for SoulCycle or a similar company. For $44 a month, we have the All Access Class Pass, which even with the cost of the bike (around $2K, or rentals start at $89/mo) is still cheaper than what we would have paid for two gym memberships in NYC over the past two years. It’s also smaller than you think it is, and plenty of people are able to squeeze the bike into a small space.

If you’re not in the market for a bike to rent or buy, the Peloton App has 50 free classes a month, or you can choose a subscription which starts at $13 a month. If you have your own stationary bike you can still take the cycling classes with the app, and of course you can do strength/yoga without any equipment needed except a mat and a set of dumbbells.

My favorite cycling instructor is the one and only Cody Rigsby, as he peppers his classes with delightful and profane humor that is so distracting that I literally forget I am working out. His playlists are also excellent. I got to take a live class at Peloton Studios last week (total luck) and he was as lovely in person as he is on the bike. He has rescued my sanity more than once over the past two years and it was nice to thank him in person.

Cody Rigsby and me. Cody is very tall!

Do you have any ADHD friendly workout tips? Drop em in the comments!