Why You Need to Change Your Perception of Fitness
What makes a good workout? Is it the amount you sweat? How about “the burn”?
Over the years I have coached so many people with a jaded perception of what makes a good workout. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve heard even Professional Trainers boast about making their clients vomit or how they couldn’t walk the next day. No wonder fitness is so intimidating!
Just like anything, we formulate associations to the experiences we have. If you have ever tried to exercise without proper guidance (or the wrong guidance for that matter) you could experience pain or an injury. What type of emotions do you think you then associate with fitness? Chances are, when you experience “pain” with fitness you’re less likely to return to it. This sets in motion the “yo-yo” effect, propelling us further from the ever so desired healthy lifestyle.
So how do we overcome the social conditioning of what “fitness” feels like? Let’s break it down to 3 Easy Steps:
Manage your expectations.
You have a goal. But do you know how to reach it? First things first, if you don’t know how, don’t beat yourself up for it! Do you know accounting or how to build a house? If you haven’t been taught properly how to do something, you won’t know. No biggie! You simply need to have the right resources.
Awareness.
Become aware and appreciate what your body already does know. Ask yourself, what positions are you exposing yourself to on a daily basis? How many hours (reps) and days (sets) are you teaching (training) those muscles to hold you in those positions? These exposures formulate habits and your brain now has favourite muscles to call on, that it’s used to. Now take those favourite muscles in the gym… Which muscles do you think you end up using the most? Our body only knows what we teach it.
Adjust.
Now that you can appreciate certain things in your body, like my shoulders roll forward because I sit in front of the computer all day. You adjust your exercises to correct those imbalances. If your chest and front of your neck muscles are pulling your shoulders forward, I recommend NOT doing a chest exercise to start – it will make that posture worse! Adjust your program to loosen and lengthen tight areas and strengthen and tighten the weaker. These are called Corrective Exercises and happen to be my forte. Muscles only pull after all, they do not push! Try this on for size: Bend your arm... which muscle pulls to do that? Now straighten it. Which muscles do that? – knowing the name doesn’t matter... appreciate that each muscles has a responsibility.
Now that I have you here, imagine what you and your body could accomplish?! Visualize yourself going to do an exercise, say a squat for example, and realizing, wow my hamstrings are really tight from sitting all day. So instead of plowing through the exercise to feel pain or vomit, you adjust your program! You learn corrective exercises to loosen the hamstrings allowing your glutes to fire more so your legs are now functioning properly! BOOM! Instantly you feel less pain and recover easier so that you see results faster!
