The Simple Way Movement Gives Us ‘Hope’

An expert explains ‘hope molecules,’ aka myokines, and how you can tap into them

BY LISA FELEPCHUK  BEN KRANTZ Lisa Felepchuk has been playing and working on the Internet from the moment her parents brought home an IBM desktop in the ’90s. Today, she makes her living online as an editor and writer and is based in B.C..

LISAFELEP LIETCO

It shouldn’t surprise readers of this magazine that the more we move, the better off we are. Science has proven this. But when health psychologist and author Kelly McGonigal stumbled across a simple phrase that eloquently described how exercise has the power to heal, she decided to make it her personal mission to spread the good word.

The phrase that stopped McGonigal in her tracks? The “hope molecule.”

Also a lecturer at Stanford University, McGonigal was deep in the exploratory phase for her book, The Joy of Movement, when she read a 2016 paper published in the journal Physical Therapy that named the hope molecule. The authors were referencing a secondary study that used mice to demonstrate how chronic stress, which can cause depression, made the rodents “lose hope.” But the findings also suggested that “the release of ‘hope molecules’ from the skeletal muscles of rodents influence mood disorder symptoms” in a positive way, thus helping to build hope and resilience.

Those two words, “hope” and “molecule” were so casually written sideby-side in the paper that McGonigal says they could’ve been easily glossed over. But they stuck with her.

In short, hope molecules, which are more commonly known by their scientific name, myokines, are a way to personally give yourself an intravenous dose of “hope” through exercise, says McGonigal. “You’re literally supplying your bloodstream with these hope molecules every time you move your body.”

We now know that muscles are like endocrine organs, she explains, and each organ has the ability to produce chemicals whose functions are to communicate with other systems in our bodies. Muscles can do the same. They produce proteins and molecules that can specifically target the immune system, cardiovascular system or even the brain—essentially any metabolic system.

“The body stores these molecules and then releases them based on how you use your muscles,” she says. “Your muscles use movement as a signal to basically unleash this cascade of really important chemicals that help keep you healthy and help you thrive. Being sedentary, on the other hand, actually shuts them down. ”

When muscles are contracted during movement, be it from lifting weights, swimming laps, or anything in between, they send a signal to release a wide range of chemicals into the bloodstream. These chemicals are incredibly powerful in supporting overall health, both mentally and physically.

While myokines are an important component to achieving optimal health, the word itself doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. Instead, more simple language like “hope molecule” means “people are so much more likely to be able to understand it as a direct experience,” says McGonigal. It’s an interesting commentary on language and how using basic words to describe something more complex can make it easier to apply to one’s life.

When it comes to movement, it doesn’t have to be extreme in order to reap the benefits of the hope molecule. It’s about finding a type of exercise that suits your body as much as your lifestyle. For McGonigal, her fitness journey has almost always had an element of play and she thrives on the community that fitness fosters. She teaches group fitness classes, favours HIIT workouts and practises yoga often.

The research doesn’t say you have to run a marathon, McGonigal explains, but you should be doing something that’s hard for you, a challenge. “I’ve always emphasized that all movement is good and there’s no dose too small to make a difference. But I also want to encourage people that if there’s part of you that wants to take on a challenge, do it. It can really amplify all of the emotional and social and mental benefits of movement.” 

COLD WATER KING

For the past two decades, Tofino, B.C. local Pete Devries has been blazing a trail for Canadian surfing

BY MARISSA TIEL  MARCUS PALADINO IMPACT Magazine guest editor, freelance writer and photographer based in Campbell River, B.C.

MARISSATIEL MARISSATIEL

Pete Devries’ home smells like pine trees, woodsmoke and wet dog. Located on Tofino, B.C.’s ample waterfront, it’s a stone’s throw from where he grew up playing in the sand and watching his dad surf in front of their home on Chesterman Beach.

Devries, 39, has been shaped by these waters. When he won the Cold Water Classic more than 10 years ago, the Tofino streets were empty. Everyone, it seemed, was at the beach to cheer him on. ➝

Before Devries, Canadians didn’t have a roadmap to professional a little older as an athlete,” says Devries. “Not too much, not too surfing success. For the last 20 years, he’s been drawing the path little. You can maintain and sustain.” that others are starting to follow. His off-water workouts are all about improving strength, but

“He set the gold standard of how to be a professional surfer in while balancing. BOSU ball movements feature heavily in his Canada,” says Dom Domic, executive director of Surf Canada. home-gym routine. “Everyone’s been modelling their career after Pete.” Also important, especially when the water is so cold, is the

Devries first hit Domic’s radar in 2000. Back then, Domic was warm-up Devries performs before each surf session. He gets his working for Surf BC and was impressed with the then 17-year-old’s joints—ankles, knees and hips—loosened up. riding at a local competition. “Anytime you’re landing an air on water, you’ve got an

“He was really young and going up against the big dogs,” recalls unbalanced surface, especially once the wave is broken and it’s Domic. While Devries didn’t win, he was runner-up in a challenging turned into whitewater,” he says, “so you’re always kind of off field featuring other Tofino surf legend Raph Bruhwiler. “From then balance, even as you’re solidly on your board.” on, he was pretty much unstoppable… he went on a pretty lengthy tear.” While he has travelled extensively to warmer waters, and says it’s

Devries solidified his presence in the surfing community freeing to just surf in boardshorts, Devries always wants to come on a crisp Halloween day in 2009. More than 100 top-ranked home to the cold. Widely regarded as being among the best cold water international surfers had descended on Tofino for the O’Neill Cold surfers on the planet, he’s the first Canadian to be featured on the Water Classic Canada. It was the first time cover of Surfer Magazine and is a stalwart the competition was held in Canada and Devries, a wildcard entry into the event, Before Devries, ambassador of Vancouver Island’s west coast. While the images of Devries surfing was a relative unknown to the field. On that bright autumn day, the pride of Canadians didn’t capture attention, the temperatures keep most away. The waters off Tofino’s coast Tofino made his mark, winning the final to become the first Canadian to win an have a roadmap range from about 7 C in February to about 14 C in August. international surfing event. Earlier in his career, Devries tried to professional In the winter, brave surfers bob in the water, thick neoprene hoods pulled tight. living out of his suitcase to compete in international surfing events. But prolonged surfing success. Their numbers multiply as the days grow longer and the weather less temperamental. life on the road was not for him. His son, Devries’ winter surf sessions last about 1.5 Asher, now 12, was born shortly after his to two hours, and in the summer, they are remarkable 2009 victory. The family, including wife Lisa, enjoy as long as eight hours—if the conditions are right. spending time on the water together—surfing, or paddleboarding Tofino’s waters aren’t even the coldest he’s surfed in. in the inlet from their home at high tide. Earlier this year, on the cusp of travel opening up, he and a group

“He’s a homebody,” says Domic. “His family is everything.” of buddies travelled to an island in the Bering Sea to chase waves.

Instead, Devries found another way: free surfing. Doing what He’s also been to Iceland, which he describes as some of the coldest Domic calls “strike missions,” Devries leaves home for a couple water he’s surfed in. weeks at a time rather than months. “In Tofino, once you have good wetsuit gear and you’re all sorted,

Competitions can help surfers gain sponsor attention but where it’s totally manageable all winter and then going to places like that Devries truly excels—and where he’s focused the bulk of his career— [Iceland and Alaska], it’s kind of like a different level of pain in order is in free surfing. It’s easily compared to free climbing, free skiing, or to get out on the water,” he says. “The waves dictate how long you’re free snowboarding where athletes favour cool projects or challenges going to be out there. If it’s a long session, you’re absolutely freezing over competitions. They’re often accompanied by filmmakers or by the end.” photographers who capture all the action. Devries grew up as a multisport athlete, taking part in basketball,

Many of Devries’ trips—from Haida Gwaii to Iceland, or Chile— floor hockey, soccer, baseball and tennis. He started skateboarding are documented and transformed into films or photo essays. and surfing in his pre-teens and eventually transitioned to surfing

All of this requires Devries to be in peak physical condition. as his full-time sport by age 16.

“He’s not simply a really good surfer, he’s a truly elite athlete,” He’s washed dishes at a local bakery and sold boards at a local Malcolm Johnson, former editor of the now-defunct SBC Surf surf shop. When he got his first cheque from surfing at age 17, he Magazine told Explore magazine in 2012. “The things he does in realized he could make a career out of the sport he loved. But it the water require an incredible amount of strength and balance was a route he had to blaze; for a Canadian, it had never really and flexibility.” been done before.

Devries believes in everything in moderation. He walks his “Surfing wasn’t really a thing in Canada,” says Reed Platenius, dog every morning along the beach, goes for coastal hikes with the 2021 national surfing champion who lives down the street from his family on the peninsula’s many trails, retains his balance and Devries. “The freak [Devries] is, he is so competitive and he just strength in a home gym and spends lots and lots of time surfing. somehow made it a career for himself. I feel like if it wasn’t for him,

“I feel like consistency is the most important thing as you get a career path in surfing wouldn’t even be a thing in Canada.” ➝

Why surfing? It was the most challenging of the sports Devries tried and he was enthralled with the variability.

“The weather systems are constantly changing. It just makes it so challenging,” he says. Surfers have a saying that you’ll never surf the same wave twice. “Everything’s always fresh.”

It takes a lifetime of experience to read the water and know the right conditions that will turn a ripple into a wave.

The coast holds secrets tight, but Devries has charmed it to share and he’s passing that knowledge on to the next generation of Tofino surfers.

“On the west coast, there’s so many different little nooks and crannies where there are waves. They require completely different swell directions, or wind directions, or tide,” says Platenius. “He’s been really generous to pass on that information.”

The missions to far-off, or remote locations alongside filmmakers and photographers are his bread and butter, and a specialty.

“He’s the hardest-working guy,” says Platenius, who has accompanied Devries on a few free surfing missions and has learned that a lot goes on behind the scenes of those iconic shots.

A few years ago, Devries and surfing pals sought remote waves at a river mouth on Vancouver Island. The terrain they tackled immediately after the helicopter drop stopped them in their tracks. They made 30 metres in 45 minutes, lugging their gear up a steep incline into the rainforest. Sun turned to rain and knee-deep mud. They hiked two hours in the dark to their camp, sleeping in wet gear until dawn. When they woke, they discovered they weren’t yet at the coast; a surfer’s false summit. On they hiked, and when they finally made the shore, they were barely able to paddle the currents due to the effort to even just get to the remote break.

Surfing in the wilderness also means that Devries is often away from the technology of modern life.

“Being able to get outside and get away from everything, it clears my mind,” he says. “I’m lucky to have surfing where you’re completely disconnected. If you’re running or biking, you can probably check your phone, if you get a message, get a ding. I feel very thankful to be involved in something where you have no choice but to disconnect and get away from it all.”

But he’s never gone for long. Tofino and his family call him home. His son Asher is a talented surfer, but currently prefers other activities like hockey. He’s getting close to the same age his dad was when he decided to surf full-time. If he decides to follow that route, he’ll have the next generation of surfers, like Platenius, and his dad, still leading the way, legacy in progress.

While he has travelled extensively to warmer waters, and says it’s freeing to just surf in boardshorts, Devries always wants to come home to the cold.