2/25/2026 - A major challenge for physical exercise is that it, like many things in life, can become routine. Ideally, exercise pushes us hard enough that it becomes truly effortful, not at all comfortable and routine. Also, when we vary exercise, we practice making efforts in multiple ways. For instance, I alternate days of working on flexibility and strength (upper and lower body) and working on aerobic fitness and core strength. This creates a structure for regularly challenging ourselves and pushing our limits.
What we're really exercising is our capacity to sustain effort. We only possess free will to the degree that we can form and sustain our intentions. Everything we exercise strengthens our free will muscles, because we're exercising goal-oriented behavior. As we build our intentionality, that carries over to other areas of our lives. Recent research (cited below) finds that an ongoing program of exercise enables us to get more out of each session. In other words, not only are we "fertilizing" the brain (see below), but we're adding more fertilizer over time.
In my routine, I wake up at 4:15 AM; greet and feed four hungry cats; immediately go on a power walk and begin my quest for 10,000 steps daily; then work out at home or the local gym; and then engage in prayer and study before actually beginning the work day. Exercising love. Exercising the body. Exercising the soul. Every day.
To keep going, we have to keep growing.
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2/24/2026 - The finding that exercise leads to enhanced BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor; see below) has led to research documenting the ways in which combining exercise with important cognitive activities helps us process the information from those activities more deeply and effectively. As one example, we can combine exercise with our market preparation for the day or with our trading reviews. The heightened brain activity created by the exercise improves our processing and makes our preparation more likely to stick.
What if it's not fear, greed, and lack of discipline that interfere with our trading, but suboptimal brain functioning? By not working out the body, we keep our minds in more sluggish and distractible states. I'm currently working out with a fitness organization, and the coach there routinely prescribes new exercises for me to improve my core functioning, my strength, my flexibility, etc. I find that mastering new exercises--and exercising new body areas and functions--creates overall well-being that carries over to other areas of life.
The ultimate workout is a workout of our willpower. By continually challenging our limits, we become comfortable with challenge and more able to respond to the market's challenges. By increasing our BDNF, we fertilize our ability to process market information and identify emerging opportunity and threat. The important conclusion of recent research is that exercising the body sharpens the mind and trains us to tolerate uncertainty and challenge.
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2/23/2026 - Recent research in psychology suggests that physical exercise not only helps our mood and the clarity of our thinking, but also significantly contributes to our resilience (Smits & Otto, 2024, p. 76-78). Resilience refers to our ability to tolerate stress and discomfort and persist in our planned activities. It is difficult to think of anything more relevant and valuable for traders. Indeed, we can think of the lack of "discipline" often discussed in trading psychology texts as actually a limited degree of resilience. We need to get better at tolerating discomfort and persisting with our efforts if we are going to succeed in difficult market conditions.
There are two ways in which we can use exercise to improve our resilience during trading. First, we can turn each exercise into an opportunity to build resilience. That means that we make conscious efforts to push past our comfort zones and lift enough weights, run with enough speed and incline, to expand our capacities. Every workout thus becomes a workout of our willpower. Indeed, a training coach can help us make sure that we perform exercises the right way and also persist long enough to build our endurance and strength.
Second, we can use each routine in our workouts as an opportunity to exercise mindfulness. Note how many people working out at a gym will listen to music on their phones while they're on the treadmill or doing calisthenics. They are distracting themselves from the difficult experience of physical effort. Suppose, however, they were to sustain attention throughout their routine, thus exercising their capacity for awareness at the same time that they exercise their bodies. Our routines become training in cognitive focus under conditions of stress--quite relevant to trading.
By training ourselves to strive for goals under conditions of challenge, we become more capable of maintaining our functioning in challenging market conditions. If we don't challenge ourselves and develop our intentionality outside of markets, can we expect to trade with free will?
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2/22/2026 - The discovery that exercise impacts the mind in ways strikingly similar to antidepressant medications (see below) is a complete game changer. Yes, we've long known that exercise is a component of well-being and that when we have more energy, we can perceive more and accomplish more. That is important. We cannot get very far in life with a sluggish body.
The finding that exercise enhances the neurotransmitters serotonin, norepinephrine, and GABA (Otto & Smits, 2024) raises the possibility that we can engage in specific exercises to achieve specific improvements in our cognitive and emotional functioning. Research finds that "Exercise also has important effects on a crucial brain-maintenance molecule known as BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor). BDNF has been called a memory molecule because it is involved in the way the brain forms memories, helping those memories to be available for guiding ongoing functioning" (p. 12). The authors refer to BDNF as a kind of "Miracle-Gro" for the brain, fertilizing our brain's functions as we might fertilize a plant's growth.
When we exercise before an activity that involves important learning (a therapy session, a trading session, a review of trading), three benefits become evident: "better mood, less anxiety reactivity, and enhanced memory" (p. 91). In short, exercise helps us process information better and more deeply. If our goal is to learn, it is best accomplished in an optimal physical state.
Work on our strength conditioning? Work on our aerobic conditioning? Work on our flexibility? Our core? What if each has a unique, distinctive impact when pursued regularly and properly? It doesn't matter how many trades, research reports, and charts we process if we're not in our best state of mind and body.
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A significant portion of the population is quite lacking in fitness. According to research from the Centers for Disease Control, 25% of the population reports no deliberate physical exercise in the past month and fewer than 25% of adults meet recommended guidelines for strength and aerobic conditioning. Interestingly, exercise boosts our levels of neurotransmitters, much as psychiatric medication does. Indeed, Smits and Otto, in their review, suggest that "exercise may be conceptualized as a non-pharmacological analogue of antidepressant medication" (p. 8).
From a positive psychology perspective, exercise boosts our sense of wellness, which in turn energizes our work efforts. The right kind of session in the gym not only exercises our strength and aerobic capacity, but also is a direct experience of goal setting and achievement. Smits and Otto also point out that exercise benefits sleep quality, providing us with a clearer mindset and boosting our sense of resilience.
In the next post, we'll take a closer look at how we can use exercise as a psychological treatment.
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