When I first built the Renewed Man program, I organized the teaching around 12 keys that I believe are essential for emotional and spiritual health — and therefore for long-term recovery.

One of those keys was something I didn’t see emphasized in other recovery programs: physical health.

Over the years, as I’ve worked with people struggling with a variety of addictions and compulsive behaviors, I realized two things, and then made a connection:

1. The people who were able to establish and maintain long term recovery built this on a base of mental, emotional, and spiritual health. In Renewed Man, we have a crass -- but true -- saying about this: "It's hard to stay sober if your life sucks."
2. There is a strong correlation between a person's physical well-being and their mental, emotional, and physical health.

The Connection: Therefore, there is a strong relationship between a person’s physical well-being and their chances of finding and maintaining long term recovery.

When someone is exhausted, sedentary, and disconnected from their body, their emotional world becomes more fragile. Temptation feels stronger. Discouragement looms larger. Stress gets overwhelming. And in that state it's VERY hard to maintain sobriety from addictive or compulsive behavior. 

I’m absolutely convinced that mental, emotional, and spiritual health is foundational for lasting recovery. Therefore I’ve become equally convinced that tending to our physical health is not optional. It’s part of the work. 

This is how we state it in our 12 Keys:

KEY 11. PHYSICAL WELL-BEING – We cultivate our physical energy and health. We do this by committing — or recommitting — to: (a) some kind of sound and healthy eating strategy (b) some kind of sane plan for physical movement and exercise.

Why does this matter so much? Why is physical health such an important part of recovery?

REASON 1 -- Physical Outlets Are Powerful Ways of Redirecting Addictive Energy

Many of the men I coach eventually ask two very important, practical -- and related -- questions:

1. "If I'm going through a hard time, feeling a strong pull towards acting out, what can I do? How do I deal with these urges?"
2. “What do I do with all this extra time and energy if I’m not acting out anymore?”

These questions are related, because a key part of the answer to both is physical activity. It could be hard exercise, some kind of physical action, or even just getting out and walking.

Sexual compulsion -- along with many other addictions -- isn’t only about desire. It’s about unmanaged energy — emotional, mental, physical. When that energy no longer has its old outlet, it has to go somewhere.

Physical activity provides a healthy channel. We often say that addiction is not simply a matter of subtraction -- having the same life you had before MINUS this addictive behavior. It's also a matter of addition -- what will you ADD to your life to replace this destructive thing that you do to get a burst of energy, joy, or relief?

And this also applies to the struggle we have when we are "in the moment" feeling a strong pull towards the addictive behavior. One really helpful thing we can do -- instead of just trying to "think our way out of it" -- is to take some positive physical action. Put your phone down. Step away from the computer. Push back from your desk and get up and do something physical. Get out and take a walk. Do some jumping jacks. Something.

But there’s another dimension to this that we don’t talk about enough.

When we start caring better for ourselves — even in small ways — something shifts internally. We feel more alive. More present. Maybe less ashamed about our bodies. Our energy rises. Our sense of personal agency builds.

And when this happens -- when you feel stronger and more grounded -- it's easier to hold your commitments.

Now let me be clear with this caveat: We're not talking about becoming a fitness model or running ultramarathons. We don't need to get to the perfect BMI in order to get help in our recovery. 

This is about progress, not perfection. It’s about moving in the right direction. Getting slightly stronger. Slightly more energetic. Slightly more capable of carrying the weight of your own life.

Over time, those “slight” changes compound.

REASON 2 -- The Mind and the Body Are Not Separate Departments

After launching Renewed Man, I came across the work of Dr. Ellen Langer, a Harvard psychologist who has spent decades studying how changes in physical condition influence mental and emotional states ... and, conversely, how changes in mental and emotional states affect our physical condition. 

Langer has been a pioneer in this field, having been a professor at Harvard since 1977 (and she's still actively working there!).

She has been partially responsible for the messaging you hear today about the “mind-body connection.” But she doesn't even like that phrase. Why? Because it subtly reinforces the idea that the mind and body are two separate systems that simply communicate with each other.

Her conviction -- backed by her decades of research -- is more radical: The mind and body are one thing. 

They are one system. Changes in one changes the other, not simply because one distinct entity somehow affects the other. But rather that they are, for all intents and purposes, one thing. We should stop thinking about "mind and body" but rather mind/body, or body/mind. 

That perspective resonates with both psychology and Christian theology. Scripture doesn’t treat us as fragmented beings. We are embodied souls. Integrated wholes.

So when we ignore the body, we aren’t neglecting a minor side project. We are neglecting an essential part of ourselves.

A Study That Got My Attention

Recently I came across a study from Brazil that illustrates this principle, with a striking way headline:

“You’re 775% More Likely to Let Stress Wreck You If You’re Out of Shape, Study Finds.”

The subtitle: “People who are in shape also experience lower anxiety overall.”

Below is an extended excerpt from an article by Ashley Fike summarizing the research. 

If you’ve ever snapped over something dumb, a slow driver, a passive-aggressive email, your phone dying at four percent, you’re a normal human. You’re also probably tired. And a new study adds another possibility. Cardio fitness might change how sharply stress spikes your anxiety and anger.

Researchers at Brazil’s Federal University of Goiás brought 40 healthy adults ages 18 to 40 into a lab for two visits. In one session, participants viewed neutral images. In the other, they viewed unpleasant images for about 30 minutes, including violence and accident-related content. The researchers measured anxiety and anger right before and right after each session using established psychological scales.

They also estimated cardiorespiratory fitness using predicted VO₂max, calculated from self-reported exercise habits along with age, sex, and body size. Then they split people into two fitness groups: above-average and below-average.

Now for the number that really stood out. In the unpleasant-image session, the below-average fitness group had an odds ratio of 8.754 for jumping from moderate to high anxiety compared to the above-average group. StudyFinds summarized that as a 775 percent higher risk. The math wording is clunky, but the point is simple. Lower fitness meant a much steeper anxiety jump during emotional stress.

The researchers saw a similar effect with anger. Lower-fitness participants had larger jumps in state anger after the unpleasant images. They also measured “anger-out,” a trait describing outward anger expression. Higher predicted VO₂max correlated with smaller anger changes during stress, even after personality factors were controlled for.

The study also checked the “everyday anxiety” side of things. Higher predicted fitness correlated with lower trait anxiety overall.

Now for the fine print. This was a small study. Fitness was estimated, not measured on a treadmill with a mask and fancy technology. The stressor was curated images, not your actual day, where stress throws curveballs. Still, the results fit a commonsense idea. Regular aerobic exercise trains the body to handle physical strain. That training can carry over when your nervous system deals with emotional strain.

The authors wrote that “Regular physical exercise can be a useful non-pharmacological strategy for anger management.”

If your fuse has been short, try the boring fix. Walk briskly. Ride a bike. Swim. Do something that gets your heart rate up, and you can repeat. No grand transformation required, just a little more capacity for the stuff that would normally send you over the edge.

Why This Matters for You

Let’s come back to what this means for each one of us today:

• If your fitness level is low, your nervous system is more reactive under stress.
• If your fitness level improves, your nervous system becomes more resilient.
• And if you’re trying to build long-term recovery from addiction, or lead a church, or parent faithfully, or simply remain emotionally steady in a chaotic world — this resilience matters A LOT (remember that 775%).

You might be thinking, “Mark, I already have too much on my plate. Now you’re telling me to add workouts?”

I understand that reaction. But here’s what I’ve experienced, and seen again and again: when people start investing in their physical health, they don’t lose energy. They gain it. They don’t become more stressed. They get better at handling stress.

Your body is not an inconvenience attached to your spiritual life. It is part of your spiritual life. Your body is not an impediment to your recovery ... it's an essential element of your recovery. And sometimes the most spiritual decision you can make is to take a walk.

NEXT ACTION

Before this day ends, do this:

• Set a timer for 10 minutes.
• Go outside (or walk indoors if you must).
• Move at a pace that elevates your heart rate slightly.
• As you walk, just enjoy your time. If there are stressful thoughts or worries, turn those into prayers to God.

That’s it. No grand commitment. No new identity as “a fitness person.” Just ten minutes.

Small practices, repeated consistently, build capacity. And capacity is one of the greatest gifts you can give your future self — and the people who depend on you.