Fitness Flipped Podcast Week 2: Building Mental Strength
“My strength goes so far beyond my muscles.”
By Amy Gurvitz •
What does it mean to be strong? In the second week of episodes of our Fitness Flipped podcast, host and Peloton instructor Tunde Oyeneyin dives deeper into this topic, explaining how her definition of strength has evolved after losing her brother, father, then mother—all unexpectedly, over a short period of time. “I'm at this space now where I realize that my strength goes so far beyond my muscles,” she says. “When I think about being strong now, I think about what it takes to not only push hard on the Bike, but also off the Bike.”
Here’s a look at some of the stories you’ll find in this week’s pair of episodes, which feature Paralympic runner Scout Bassett, neuroscientist and mental performance consultant Dr. Daya Grant and Peloton Member and cancer survivor Robin Price.
The Healing Power of Exercise
Bassett is a record setter, who, like Tunde and Robin, is working to heal and grow beyond challenges she’s faced, rather than be defined by them. After being abandoned in the streets, Bassett lost her leg as a baby in a fire in China. Years later, she was adopted and moved to the United States. At age 14, she received her first prosthetic and ran for the first time ever, changing her life’s trajectory.
“From that point on, I knew that I wanted to run,” Bassett reveals to Tunde. “It was really an outlet for me to be able to heal, to overcome, to gain confidence and so many important things that I needed to really live this life and I'm so thankful for what a wild and crazy journey it's been.”
Developing Mental Strength Naturally
To explore the importance of mental strength and how to build it up, Tunde turns to Dr. Grant, who breaks down how exercise and recovery are scientifically proven to build mental strength, improve focus and manage stress.
“The really cool thing is that it sort of happens naturally when you're working out,” she tells Tunde. “So when you leave your workout and you go out into the real world and you're faced with work and you're parenting, whatever it is that you do, you are now showing up in a way that has more focus, more presence, simply by being very intentional about how you moved your body.”
#BooCrew Has Your Back
Tunde next hears from Price, a Member who shares how the mental strength she developed from her Peloton classes helped her battle an aggressive form of cancer. (“While I was going through chemo,” she recalls, “my mantra became ‘I can do hard things.’”) She also discusses how the emotional strength of fellow Members she’s never met in person (looking at you, #BooCrew) helped her power on.
And finally, Tunde wraps up with her weekly Fitness Flipped challenge, this one focused on strength. Check out the podcast for details, then tag @tune2tunde and @OnePeloton and use hashtag #FitnessFlipped to participate.