Episode #30: Stop Cravings Fast — The Fitness Blueprint for Addiction Recovery, Mood, Mindset & BEYOND
This block introduces the full Strategic Recovery with Matt Finch audio episode (34:34 duration) on Fitness-Focused Recovery — how movement can flip your brain chemistry from depletion to renewal, shrink cravings, stabilize mood, and help you rebuild a powerful new identity after addiction.
Listen in as Matt breaks down the neuroscience of endorphins, dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, oxytocin, and BDNF, then maps out practical strategies for using real-world workouts to repair your nervous system, supercharge motivation, and create a sustainable, energizing recovery lifestyle.
🏋️♂️ Press play, let the episode run in the background, and start turning every workout into medicine for your brain, your mood, and your future self.
Strategic Recovery Field Notes 💪
Strategic Recovery with Matt Finch — Episode 30 Show Notes
In this episode, Matt explores one of the most powerful — and most overlooked — medicines for addiction recovery: fitness. We break down how movement restores depleted neurotransmitters, stabilizes mood, builds confidence, and literally reshapes the brain through neuroplasticity.
These field notes walk you through the full Fitness Blueprint for Addiction Recovery, Motivation & Mental Mastery: from brain chemistry and body types to workout strategies, supplements, safety, and identity-level transformation. Use them as a companion while you listen, or as a stand-alone guide to designing your own fitness-focused recovery plan. 🧠🏋️♀️
🧭 Quick Navigation
Field Guide · Episode 30 · Fitness-Focused Recovery
- 💥 Part I — Why Fitness is a Superpower in Recovery
- 🔬 Part II — What the Science Says (And Why It Matters to You)
- 🧘 Part III — The MindBody Connection: Your Nervous System’s Love Language
- 🏃 Part IV — The Best Types of Exercise for Recovery
- ⚠️ Part V — Risks & How to Stay Safe
- 📐 Part VI — Fitness Principles for Recovery
- 🛠️ Part VII — Fitness Optimization Strategies
- 🧬 Part VIII — Understanding Body Types
- 💊 Part IX — Supplements for Fitness-Focused Recovery
- 📏 Part X — Final Guidelines for Fitness-Focused Recovery
- 🌅 Closing — Move Your Body, Change Your Destiny
💥 Part I — Why Fitness is a Superpower in Recovery
Your Inner Pharmacy Comes Back Online 🧪
Addiction drains the very chemicals that make life feel worth living — endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, GABA, oxytocin, and BDNF. Fitness is how you turn the lights back on. Instead of outsourcing your mood to a substance, you learn how to generate your own chemistry through movement.
Matt frames exercise as walking into a free, built-in pharmacy: every workout is a prescription for less craving, more calm, and a more resilient brain.
Endorphins — Your Inner Morphine 💊
Endorphins are your body’s natural painkillers and euphoria molecules. When you move, your system says, “We’re doing something hard — let’s help,” and releases endorphins that:
- reduce physical and emotional pain,
- create a gentle, earned high,
- help you bounce back from stress and setbacks.
Low endorphins feel like numbness and “what’s the point?” Exercise gives you a safer, sustainable way to feel better — without the destructive crash of substances.
Serotonin — The Quiet Happiness 🌙
Serotonin is about calm contentment: sleep, relaxation, emotional steadiness. Cardio helps increase serotonin by shifting amino acids into your muscles and leaving more tryptophan available to convert into serotonin in the brain.
Translation: those walks, bike rides, and jogs literally support your ability to sleep better, stress less, and feel like life is manageable again.
Dopamine — The Motivation Spark ⚡
Addiction hijacks dopamine, convincing your brain that only the substance deserves that sweet hit of reward. Exercise offers a different script: effort → progress → dopamine.
Over time, your brain starts to anticipate workouts as a new source of reward. “I have to work out” slowly transforms into “I get to,” and cravings for the old high begin to lose their grip.
Norepinephrine — Your Stress Thermostat 🌡️
Norepinephrine is the alertness chemical that dials you up or down under pressure. Exercise challenges your system in a controlled way, teaching your brain and adrenals:
“We can feel intense sensations and not panic.”
This training carries over into everyday life: cravings, conflicts, work stress — you’re less likely to overreact because your stress thermostat is better calibrated.
BDNF — Miracle-Gro for Your Brain 🌱
BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) is like “Miracle-Gro” for neurons. Exercise boosts BDNF, which:
- helps grow new brain cells,
- repairs damaged circuits,
- strengthens the pathways that support your new lifestyle.
This is one of the main reasons people say exercise “rewired who I am.” It literally does.
🔬 Part II — What the Science Says (And Why It Matters to You)
Evidence-Backed, Not Just Motivational Poster Science 📊
Matt walks through research showing that exercise is not just “nice to have” — it’s a legitimate intervention for addiction and mental health:
- Heavy cannabis users cut their use by over 50% when they started exercising.
- More exercise is linked to lower addiction risk and fewer relapses.
- Cardio reduces emotional reactivity, helping you respond instead of react.
- Exercise plus meditation can drop depression symptoms dramatically.
- Training programs reduce psychotic symptoms and activate genes involved in brain repair.
The takeaway: movement is medicine. When you treat workouts as part of your treatment plan instead of an optional chore, your whole recovery trajectory changes.
🧘 Part III — The MindBody Connection: Your Nervous System’s Love Language
Hormesis: The Alchemy of Beneficial Stress 🔥
Hormesis is the idea that a little bit of the right kind of stress makes you stronger. Lifting weights, brisk walks, sprints, cold exposure, sauna — these teach your nervous system:
“We can do hard things and come out more powerful.”
Unlike toxic stress from chaos and substance use, hormetic stress improves resilience instead of depleting it.
Hormonal Balance: Rebuilding the Inner River 🌊
Addiction can wreck hormones like testosterone, estrogen, cortisol, and growth hormone — leaving you tired, depressed, and unmotivated. Fitness, combined with healthy fats and good sleep, helps recalibrate this inner river.
The result? More drive, more confidence, better mood, and a body that actually wants to participate in life again.
Self-Esteem: The Body Becomes Evidence 📸
Each rep, walk, or stretch is more than movement — it’s evidence. Evidence that:
- you show up for yourself,
- you can do hard things sober,
- you are becoming someone new.
Over time, the mirror stops being a place of shame and becomes a place of honest pride. Your body becomes proof that you are no longer abandoning yourself.
🏃 Part IV — The Best Types of Exercise for Recovery
The Fitness-Focused Recovery Triad 🔺
Matt simplifies the universe of workouts into a triad that covers what your brain and body need in recovery:
- Flexibility — stretching, yoga, mobility to prevent injury and move energy.
- Cardio — walks, runs, bikes, rows; the anti-craving, mood-stabilizing king.
- Strength — resistance training to build muscle, posture, and hormonal health.
You don’t have to be extreme in any one category. The magic is in combining them consistently.
Adventure Counts Too 🧗♂️
Fitness doesn’t have to live on a treadmill. Hiking, paddle boarding, surfing, dancing, martial arts, rock climbing — these turn your recovery into an adventure instead of a chore.
Novel movement = new memories that compete with old using memories.
Workout Buddies & Oxytocin 🤝
Training with others releases oxytocin, the bonding hormone. Whether it’s a gym partner, group class, or walk with a friend, you’re not just building muscle — you’re building connection.
And connection is one of the strongest antidotes to addiction.
⚠️ Part V — Risks & How to Stay Safe
1. Injury 🩹
You don’t get bonus points for wrecking your joints. Learn form first, progress gradually, and listen to your body. Think in years, not weeks.
2. Exercise Addiction 🔁
Some of us are wired to chase dopamine wherever we find it. If missing a workout sends you into panic or you train through serious pain, it’s time to re-center on recovery, not perfection.
3. Nutrient Depletion & Burnout 🔋
Workouts are a demand on your system. Without protein, healthy fats, minerals, and sleep, that demand can push you toward fatigue and cravings instead of resilience.
Fuel the machine you’re asking so much from.
📐 Part VI — Fitness Principles for Recovery
Identity is Destiny 🪪
People who keep fitness going long term don’t just “try to work out” — they become someone who moves. The story shifts from “I’m trying to exercise” to “I’m the kind of person who trains.”
Consistency Beats Intensity 📆
A few solid sessions every week will beat one heroic blowout workout that wipes you out for days. Recovery loves rhythm more than drama.
Fitness Feeds Neurotransmitters 🧠
Regular movement keeps a steady drip of endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, GABA, oxytocin, and BDNF flowing. That chemistry is the soil your new habits grow in.
1/3 of Your Bio-Foundation 🧱
In the Strategic Recovery model, your Bio-Foundation is:
- Nutrition — what you eat.
- Supplementation — what you strategically add.
- Fitness — how you move.
Fitness isn’t an optional extra; it’s one-third of the base that keeps everything else stable.
🛠️ Part VII — Fitness Optimization Strategies
1. Start with Baby Steps 👣
Especially in early recovery, your nervous system is already doing a lot. Five- to ten-minute walks, gentle stretching, and very light strength work are powerful starts.
2. Make it Easy to Start 🧺
Lay out your clothes, keep shoes by the door, schedule your sessions. Design your environment so the first step feels almost automatic.
3. Choose Joyful Movement 😄
The best workout is the one you’ll actually do. Music you love, beautiful views, fun classes — let pleasure be a guide so your brain associates movement with genuine reward.
4. Add Variety & Novelty 🎨
Rotate cardio, strength, flexibility, and adventure days. Variety keeps boredom low and dopamine high in a healthy way.
5. Find Your Sweet Spot ⚖️
Too little training and you stagnate. Too much and you burn out. Your job is to experiment until you find the amount of movement that leaves you feeling more energized, not wrecked.
🧬 Part VIII — Understanding Body Types
Ectomorph — Long & Lean 🦴
Often naturally slim with a hard time gaining weight or muscle. Strategies:
- prioritize strength and compound lifts,
- eat more calories and protein,
- sleep deeply,
- focus on progressive overload.
Mesomorph — Naturally Athletic 💪
Gains muscle easily and tends to look “fit” even without trying. Strategies:
- balance cardio, HIIT, and weights,
- keep nutrition balanced (protein, quality carbs, veggies),
- cycle intensity so you don’t burn out.
Endomorph — Soft & Strong 🌕
More prone to storing body fat and gaining weight easily. Strategies:
- mix HIIT and steady-state cardio,
- strength train to build metabolically active muscle,
- prioritize protein and healthy fats,
- honor sleep, stress management, and meal timing.
None of these body types are “good” or “bad” — they’re just different starting maps for designing your plan.
💊 Part IX — Supplements for Fitness-Focused Recovery
Pre-Workout Support 🚀
These can enhance energy, focus, and performance when used wisely:
- Caffeine or theobromine
- L-citrulline, beetroot, or other nitric oxide boosters
- Creatine and beta-alanine for strength & endurance
- Tyrosine, Rhodiola, Alpha GPC or Citicoline for focus
- Electrolytes to support hydration and nerve function
Intra-Workout Support 💧
During longer or more intense sessions, you can experiment with:
- BCAAs or EAAs,
- dextrose or simple carbs for quick fuel,
- electrolyte blends.
Post-Workout Support 🔁
Think “repair, refuel, rebuild”:
- protein powder (whey, beef, egg, collagen, or plant-based),
- creatine,
- carbs to refill glycogen,
- omega-3s, glutamine, turmeric/HMB for recovery.
Everyday Support 🌿
Your baseline allies might include:
- sports multivitamin,
- adaptogens like maca or ashwagandha (if appropriate for you),
- quality organ supplements,
- collagen and a protein source that digests well.
Supplements are assistants, not saviors — they work best when your fundamentals are strong.
📏 Part X — Final Guidelines for Fitness-Focused Recovery
1. Get Enough Physical Exercise 📈
For many people, 3–5 sessions per week of 30–60 minutes hits the sweet spot. Your starting point might be smaller — that still counts.
2. Avoid Excessive Exercise 🧯
Overtraining can overload your nervous system and send you straight back into cravings and fatigue. More is not always better.
3. Train for YOUR Body Type & Life 🧭
Your schedule, history, energy, and body type matter. Your plan should feel like it was written for a real human (you), not a generic fitness poster.
4. Optimize Safety & Recovery 🛌
Fitness works best when paired with:
- solid sleep,
- nutrient-dense food,
- well-chosen supplements,
- downtime and unplugging,
- stress management practices.
Treat yourself like a high-performance engine, not a rental car.
🌅 Closing — Move Your Body, Change Your Destiny
From Depletion to Rebuilding 🏗️
Addiction is the story of depletion — of chemistry, of confidence, of trust in yourself. Fitness is one of the most direct ways to reverse that story. Every walk, every set, every stretch is a vote for a new identity: “I am someone who takes care of me now.”
You don’t need to become an elite athlete to claim this. You simply need to keep showing up, one small session at a time.
Move your body. Rewire your brain. Let your future self feel the ripple of the reps you do today.
This is fitness-focused recovery. This is Strategic Recovery. And this is the beginning — or deepening — of a stronger, brighter, more powerful you. 💥
FAQ — Fitness-Focused Recovery & Brain Rewiring
These questions go deeper into Episode 30: how to use movement, strength, and cardio as medicine for cravings, mood, identity, and long-term recovery — safely, sustainably, and on your own terms.
I’m out of shape and early in recovery. Where should I start without overdoing it?
⌄
Think nervous system first, ego second. In early recovery your body is already doing a ton of repair work, so we want gentle hormesis — not boot-camp punishment.
Great starting points:
- 10–20 minute brisk walks, 3–5x per week.
- Light mobility / stretching flows at home.
- 1–2 short strength sessions using bodyweight or light dumbbells.
The win is not intensity — it’s consistency. Once your brain and joints trust that you won’t attack them, you can slowly increase time or difficulty.
How fast can exercise really change my brain chemistry and cravings?
⌄
Some effects are almost immediate. A single bout of moderate cardio can spike endorphins, dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine enough to noticeably reduce cravings and anxiety for hours.
Other benefits — like BDNF-driven rewiring, better sleep architecture, and hormone balance — are more cumulative and show up over weeks and months of regular training.
Think of each workout as a neural deposit in your future self. The relief today is the bonus; the long-term rewiring is the real treasure.
How much exercise do I actually need for recovery benefits?
⌄
Research suggests that around 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity (or 75 minutes of vigorous work) delivers big mental-health and brain benefits.
A simple structure:
- 3x per week: 30–40 minutes of cardio (walk, jog, bike, row, etc.).
- 2x per week: 30 minutes of strength training (full-body basics).
- Most days: 5–10 minutes of light stretching or mobility.
But if that feels huge right now, start where you are. Even 10 minutes a day is enough to begin shifting neurotransmitters and identity.
What’s the difference between healthy commitment and exercise addiction?
⌄
Healthy fitness feels like:
- More energy and better sleep.
- Rest days without guilt.
- Room for relationships and other priorities.
Exercise addiction feels like:
- Working out despite injury or exhaustion.
- Panic or shame if you miss a single session.
- Life shrinking down to chasing the next workout high.
In recovery we aim for the Middle Path: consistent training that elevates your life instead of consuming it. If you’re unsure, ask: “Is this building my freedom or shrinking it?”
How do the three body types (ectomorph, mesomorph, endomorph) change my approach?
⌄
Body type isn’t destiny, but it’s a helpful map for strategy and expectations.
- Ectomorph: naturally lean, often struggles to gain muscle/weight. Focus on strength training, compound lifts, higher calories, and sleep.
- Mesomorph: athletic, gains muscle easily. Balance strength + cardio + HIIT; watch portion sizes and recovery.
- Endomorph: stores fat easily. Emphasize cardio (HIIT + steady state), strength training, blood-sugar balance, and consistent sleep.
The goal is not to change your basic wiring, but to work with it instead of against it.
Are pre-workout formulas safe in recovery — or can they trigger old patterns?
⌄
It depends on ingredients, dose, and your history. Many pre-workouts rely on high caffeine + stimulants, which can feel uncomfortably close to old drug patterns for some people.
Guidelines:
- Start with low to moderate caffeine (or caffeine-free blends).
- Prioritize ingredients like L-citrulline, creatine, beta-alanine, electrolytes, and adaptogens.
- Avoid stacking multiple stimulants if you have anxiety, heart issues, or stimulant history.
When in doubt, build your “pre-workout” around hydration, electrolytes, whole food, and sleep — supplements are the accent, not the foundation.
What if I have injuries, chronic pain, or a medical condition?
⌄
You are absolutely still invited into fitness-focused recovery — we just shift the modality and pace.
Smart steps:
- Get cleared by your doctor or physical therapist for specific activities.
- Favor low-impact options: walking, cycling, swimming, water aerobics, gentle yoga.
- Use pain as information, not as a command to stop all movement.
Often, the right movement actually improves pain, sleep, and mood — but we want precision, not punishment.
Why do I feel exhausted instead of energized after workouts?
⌄
Common reasons include:
- Going too hard, too long, or too often for your current baseline.
- Under-eating protein and healthy fats.
- Low electrolytes, magnesium, or overall nutrient depletion from past substance use.
- Chronic sleep debt or high stress.
Try dialing intensity down 20–30%, shorten sessions slightly, and upgrade nutrition, hydration, and sleep. If exhaustion persists, talk with a medical pro to rule out anemia, thyroid issues, or other factors.
How does fitness fit into the 5 Pillars of Strategic Recovery™?
⌄
Movement sits primarily in the Biochemical Pillar, but it impacts all five:
- Biochemical: neurotransmitters, hormones, sleep, inflammation.
- Psychological: confidence, self-talk, stress resilience.
- Social: workout buddies, community classes, accountability.
- Environmental: routines, gym/home setup, outdoor time.
- Spiritual: feeling alive in your body, gratitude, presence.
That’s why I call fitness 1/3 of the Bio-Foundation alongside nutrition and supplementation.
Which supplements are most helpful specifically for fitness-focused recovery?
⌄
Everyone’s biochemistry is different, but commonly helpful categories include:
- Pre-workout support: L-citrulline, creatine, modest caffeine (if tolerated), electrolytes, Rhodiola.
- Intra-workout: electrolytes, water, possibly BCAAs or essential aminos.
- Post-workout: protein powder, creatine, omega-3s, magnesium, turmeric.
- Everyday: solid multivitamin, adaptogens (like maca), and targeted organ support if appropriate.
For a broader overview of supplements in recovery, you can explore the Ultimate Guide to Supplements for Addiction Recovery →
What if I’m insanely busy — can fitness still be a core recovery tool?
⌄
Absolutely. Fitness-focused recovery is not about living at the gym — it’s about strategic movement snacks woven into real life.
Examples:
- 3× per day: 7–10 minute brisk walks or stair climbs.
- 15-minute bodyweight strength circuit at home, 3x/week.
- Stretching + breathwork while your coffee brews or before bed.
Done consistently, these “micro-workouts” still change brain chemistry and identity — and they fit into even the most overloaded schedule.
What’s the simplest way to begin a fitness-focused recovery plan this week?
⌄
Here’s a 5-step micro-blueprint:
- 1. Pick your anchor: a 15–20 minute walk or gentle cardio, 5 days this week.
- 2. Add 2 strength days: simple moves — squats, push-ups (or wall push-ups), rows, planks.
- 3. Stretch for 5 minutes before bed.
- 4. Hydrate + electrolytes daily.
- 5. Track how your cravings, sleep, and mood feel after 7–14 days.
That’s it. You’re officially practicing fitness-focused recovery — turning movement into a daily vote for the future you.
🙏 Thank you for being part of the Strategic Recovery community.
👉 Click Here and Right Click to Save As to Download>>
🎧 Available on your favorite platform:
Leave a Reply