Focusing on the mental health aspect of things is so incredibly important.

I'm a personal trainer, so my domain is the physical. But the physical is influenced by the mental.

If someone's not at their best mentally, they can lose focus and injure themselves during a workout. I've seen it happen numerous times. And then you don't get the benefit of the workout anyway.

If someone's struggling with anxiety and depression, it's much harder to eat mindfully, and that brings with it a host of all sorts of other problems.

So, I try to prioritize mindfulness and mental health with my clients, including encouraging them to get professional help when possible. I know what's outside of my scope of practice. And while exercise supports mental health, it isn't 100% a cure all for all issues.

It is so important that I'm typically reluctant to take on a client if things they don't need me for, such as sleep, daily walks, and water, aren't in check. These dramatically impact mental health AND physical health, and they don't need to pay me a penny to get those benefits. And if those aren't locked in, they won't get the most out of their workouts anyway. After that we can talk about yoga, and tai chi, and weightlifting, and whatever.

So, yeah, mental health has to be a priority in so many ways.