Exercise has well-documented mental health benefits. From decreasing stress to improving mood, memory and sleep, the effects are far-reaching and long-lasting. Trauma can lead to a variety of mental health challenges, including PTSD, C-PTSD, anxiety, and depression, but research shows that endurance sports can provide a powerful emotional release.
Trauma: stuck in the body
Trauma manifests in the body. This means it gets ‘stuck’ in our nervous system in the same way it’s originally experienced. When triggered, or when recalling a memory, you can hear, see, and feel things as if they’re happening again for the first time. Your body holds it all in your nervous system in an unfinished, unresolved state. This often presents in physical sensations and unconscious behaviours.
However, exercise improves communication between the body and brain after trauma. It helps our nervous system burn off adrenaline and, in the long term, reduce cortisol levels, meaning it can move out of a chronic state of fight or flight. Meanwhile, it can also increase serotonin and dopamine, which both play an important part in regulating our mood and emotions.
Enduring
Trauma survivors know how to endure. But endurance sports like running allow them to endure on their own terms. They know they can get through hard things. For some, it was the only choice they ever had. But endurance sports allow them to take back control.
Anthony Daunt is an ultra-endurance athlete and the father of two beautiful young girls.
He ran his first marathon in 2014, and this July is taking part in an IronMan, but says:
Truthfully, I’ve been training for it my whole life — I just didn’t always have the miles to prove it. The mental toughness, the grit, the need to keep moving through pain — those qualities were forged long before I ever laced up a pair of running shoes.
Trauma causes immense suffering, but endurance sports like running bring a different kind of suffering. One with purpose. He said:
I needed a container to hold the chaos, a place where pain could be moved through, not just managed. Running didn’t just call to me… it challenged me. It offered the kind of suffering that came with purpose, something trauma never gave me.
Endurance sports allow Anthony to find the best version of himself. Running strips everything away, leaving no room “for ego, distraction or performance”.
It makes me feel alive. It’s where I reconnect with my body, my breath, and my truth.
It’s just me, the road or trail, and the choice to keep going. And with every step, I reclaim more of who I really am.
Bi-lateral stimulation
Cecile Tucker is a trauma therapist in Canada.
She told the Canary that trauma survivors may turn to endurance sports in an attempt to regulate a nervous system that is stuck in long-term dysregulation.
She said:
Trauma survivors may be, whether consciously or not, self-prescribing these endurance sports as a way to regulate neurotransmitters, self-soothe or reconnect to their bodies in a way that they can control.
Cecile also pointed to Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. This has been proven to help people recover from trauma. It uses bilateral stimulation to aid the integration and processing of painful memories or information.
@ceciletuckercounselling If you’re looking for an emdr therapist we have a team at WellMind ready to help! Link in bio. #trauma #traumatherapy #cptsd #complextrauma #healingtrauma #therapistsoftiktok ♬ original sound – Cecile Tucker, counsellor
According to Cecile, endurance sports that involve rhythmic movement patterns from left to right will mimic this bilateral stimulation, and when done alongside therapy, will further soothe the nervous system and aid in trauma processing.
However, Cecile emphasised awareness and mindfulness when using any activity to soothe and manage trauma.
Checking in on the effects and impacts on our traumatised parts, allows these activities to be extremely healing. When we do them as a way to avoid or push through our trauma, they can lead to further dissociation and wounding. Making sure that we are engaging in endurance sports in a way that facilitates our healing is, of course, very important!
Trauma can affect how a person sees themselves and the world around them. Often, the world no longer feels like a safe place, or with childhood trauma, it may have never been. Endurance sports allow a person to create a sense of safety within themselves.
Ultimately, running gave Anthony the tools to rebuild.
It taught me how to stay when everything in me wanted to run away. And over time, it showed me that what I thought was broken… was actually being rebuilt stronger.
It gave me clarity on my mission — to inspire others who carry deep wounds to see that their pain is not the end. It’s the starting line.
It helped me overcome the belief that I wasn’t enough. That I was broken beyond repair. That my past disqualified me from a powerful future. When I push my body past its limits, I realise that those old narratives were lies — and every mile I run is a reminder that I’m rewriting the story, not just for me… but for my daughters, my wife, and everyone who’s still stuck in the pain I’ve run through.
Feature image via Anthony Daunt
