Therapy or Therapeutic?

Ask a lot of people who are into fitness why they train and you’ll get an answer that refers to mental health. There’s been a massive shift in recent years from people training purely for aesthetics to people training for how it makes them feel.

Exercise is a great stress relief, moving more literally releases endorphins, it can improve confidence, possibly get you outdoors and getting fresh air. So yes training can be incredibly beneficial to your mental health.

Viewing training as what your body can do and something that makes you feel better makes exercise a positive action rather than a form of punishment, where you train to eat more or change your appearance and size.

What exercise isn’t though, is therapy. It can be therapeutic of course it can. If I’m a bit stressed or anxious going to the gym or for a run can help alleviate the symptoms. If i don’t train for a few days I can feel the difference to my mood, largely because I actually enjoy the time I’m running or lifting, it makes me feel good, is a break from whatever is going on and a chance to blast some music and focus on me.

But exercise can’t replace therapy or solve actual problems. If training is literally the only thing keeping you sane or making you feel better it’s time to look at the issues exercise is acting as a sticking plaster for. The issue when you get to this point, is if you can’t train for whatever reason, you end up feeling terrible. When you feel like training through an injury because that would be better than how you’d feel if you took some time off, or rest days sound like a terrible idea because even though you’re knackered and burnt out a day off would make you feel guilty.

The benefits of training for mental health can’t be denied but we always need to remember that for it to be a benefit it needs to complement our life rather than dominate it, which means knowing when to rest even if you really want to train, when to pull back, when to take it easy and then appreciate what you are still able to do when you can train.

Being Kinder To Yourslef

This week I’ve only trained three times (about 30 minutes), run three times and taught two classes. That’s not much for me. This isn’t because I’ve been lazy (well not totally) works just been a lot.

I’ve also not really paid any attention to my eating. Some meals I’ve prepped and taken with me to work (perhaps 60%) but others have been more convenience.

These two things combined have left me feeling a bit sluggish. Logically I know it’s stupid. I’ve still done about 5 hours exercise and statistically I’ve eaten vegetables more times than I’ve eaten chips. But I’m sometimes guilty of very much being an all or nothing person.

One bad week won’t undo months of hard work in the same way one good week won’t immediately turn you into an Olympic Athlete. The brain, however, isn’t always a muscle that reacts logically to events.

When I feel like this I often instinctively think, right I need a really ‘good’ week next week and I’ll do every training session planned and eat perfectly and not eat cake and so on and so on.

But, this isn’t good for me either. We are only human. We need to know that when we have weeks where we do a little less or eat a few too many calories it’s ok as long as we don’t let it continue for too long. I know that if I feel ‘fat’ because I’ve not had a perfect week of eating or training then there’s something wrong with my own mindset towards my body. Nobody can be perfect all the time and trying to be just sets us up for failure (and there we have that never-ending circle of feeling bad about ourselves).

Of course this is easier said than done and writing this doesn’t mean I suddenly feel great and healthy and happy with how I look today. Knowing something isn’t logical and not letting it bother you are two different things and overcoming those little demons in your mind isn’t always easy and even when you do overcome them sometimes they can creep back in!

But I’m not fat – a ‘bad’ week hasn’t made me fat. I’ve put a little weight on recently, yet in faculty I’m fit, I’m healthy and I’m in a much more positive position than I was. It’s ok to have a little wobble at times but we need to be kinder to ourselves in terms of our own expectations. Because if someone else outlined my week to me as their own I’d be pointing out all the positives, but because I’m looking at my own week I’ve focused on all the things I haven’t done.

Most people are kinder to others than they are to themselves I’m pretty sure I’m not the only person reading this to need to be reminded of that.

Plan B

Where do you stand on Plan B? Do you have one?

When you plan to do certain workouts one week and then something happens on Tuesday that stops you getting one done how do you react. Do you get disheartened and feel like you’ve failed or do you go to Plan B? Plan B could be you squeeze a walk in instead or a 10 minute run instead of your gym session . Not what you wanted and maybe not ideal but it’s still moving.

If you were going to cook super healthy meals this week but then Thursday at work is awful and you are late home and haven’t had time to go shopping do you just order a takeaway and be done with it and berate how your life stops you from ever being healthy, or do you Plan B it? Maybe that means you take a high protein ready meal you keep in the freezer for such occasions and have that instead. Not what you planned but still it’s lower calorie than a Chinese (and cheaper).

The reality is you will never have a clear run on fitness or weight loss. Unless your life is highly dull you won’t have a training period for a race without Saturday night plans hindering Sunday’s long runs or birthdays and catch ups where you will not want to eat salad and drink mineral water. You will always have bad days at work where the idea of a run followed by chicken and veg post 5pm will make you want to scratch someone’s eyes out. When this happens you have a couple of options, you can think sod it and just go all out with a pizza and a night on the sofa or you can have little Pan B options in place that whilst not perfect are not the same as just giving up.

Sometimes Plan B’s are mental, they require you to change how you view and react to a situation and adjust your own expectations. Sometimes Plan B’s are having back up things in place for when things don’t happen as you meant, like having some emergency meals in the freezer, some healthy snacks in the cupboard, some go to options you can grab from local shops on the go. It’s taking the view that consistency will always beat short bursts of perfection so when things don’t go perfectly looking to mitigate things and find a middle ground rather than saying well I didn’t do my plan A so I may as well just give up. For instance I’ve recently started keeping some of Iceland’s new My Protein range in the freezer because they’re pretty decent size wise and high protein. I’ve also been buying some of Aldi’s Protein desert range (Protein Puddings, Granola yoghurt and Mousse), some of these taste better than others but in terms of getting protein in when I’ve fallen sort they’ve been useful.

Motivation, Consistency and Habits

Motivation as a concept really is rubbish.

The idea that people manage to do amazing things or get impressive results because of amazing motivation is ridiculous. Even when someone is really fired up to do something there will be times when the desire wanes and they just don’t feel like doing whatever they need to do.

Motivation is also pretty hard to get in the first place. The desire to want something is easy to find but the actual need to do something about it is a lot harder to find.

What does get results is creating actions that become habits, to the point where you just do those things regardless of what you feel like. You don’t only go to work when you can be bothered, or clean your teeth when the mood strikes you. These things are habits, you just do them almost on auto pilot, and that’s how you need to be with the things you need to do to achieve your goals.

If you want to run a marathon you need to make running several times a week such a habit that you get up and go for that training run regardless of the weather, what’s on TV, how heavy your legs feel. If you want to go to the gym three times a week you need to make it such a habit that you get there and get changed and get on the gym floor without even thinking about it.

The process of getting started with things, making them such an integral part of your routine you will barely even think, will allow you to start. Normally once you start something you will find you can get into it enough to get it done. That’s where the motion of ‘Just Start’ comes from. Motivation will always be up and down, yet just doing one little thing again and again and again will bring the consistency required for results (and ironically the motivation we all think we need)

Project 40- Week 12

I’ve not felt great this week and it’s affected what I’ve eaten and how often I’ve trained.

Mentally I’ve just not had the inclination to stick to the meals I’ve planned and a few times I’ve talked myself out of going to the gym or for a run even knowing I’d actually feel better if I did.

Mindset and training are so very linked for a lot of us. People often say they train for their mental health and I don’t think I’m alone in knowing that I feel better when I train or move daily and worse when I don’t. I also don’t think I’m alone though in saying that if I’m stressed and tired it’s sometimes really tempting to just skip a workout which can end up being counterproductive.

One thing that I have in my favour though is that, by and large, training is a pretty well ingrained habit for me. Whilst I’ve had a couple of days where I’ve dropped the ball a bit I quickly got back into my routine and got some movement in. Generally, during the week, come 1pm I get up, grab my bag and go to the gym. Often I’m in gym kit before my brain registers I’m about to move. By that point it’s kind of irrelevant whether I feel like training or not. I mean, you know how hard getting in and out of a sports bra is? If I’ve dealt with that hurdle, I may as well train.

Creating habits is the best way to create change. If you can get so used to doing something you do it without really thinking and then you’ll keep doing it regularly (think brushing your teeth every morning and night, how often do you think about doing that? You still do it though). Motivation and enjoyment will always ebb and flow so relying on those to train or eat well is a risky business. Making training and meal prepping and drinking water and going on a little daily walks are simple habits to get into which make it more likely you will just do them regardless (and if you do have a few bad days makes it much easier to get back into the habit quickly).

I might find that I don’t see great results this week after a few less than brilliant days, but I have limited damage ad made sure I don’t end up spiralling for days or weeks or months.

2023 Goals

If you’re looking to make changes or set yourself some challenges for 2023, it isn’t enough to just want things to change, you need to work out what actions you need to take to make those changes happen.

Here’s a podcast all about goals, what, why and how…

https://anchor.fm/heather-sherwood/episodes/Goal-Setting-Your-Why-and-How-e1pver7

What do you need from a PT?

In the past when face to face was really the only way people saw a PT you’d have one or more sessions a week, maybe get a plan to follow in sessions alone (or perhaps you only trained with your PT), you’d discuss nutrition perhaps with them, maybe they’d measure body fat.

Lockdown did a lot to speed up changes in the way PTs can work though, online coaching was already starting to develop but the need to communicate remotely sped up the process of people realising they didn’t need to physically see a PT in order to get results.

Of course there are still benefits of seeing a PT in person, improving forma and technique, not to mention motivation, but in reality what you can get with online training brings a whole new element into coaching.

You will have heard PTs say what you do outside your one hour of exercise a day matters more than what you do in that hour, what you eat across a week matters more than one ‘off plan’ meal and other such variations of the same. In other words, what you do consistently matters more than any on moment, however good or bad.

So here’s where online coaching can be beneficial. Unless you have a very specific goal, are very new or nervous in a gym or really really lack the motivation to go, you don’t necessarily need someone by your side as you workout. What can be more beneficial is having someone in your corner to give you the push when you can’t be bothered, aren’t quite sure, are having a wobble. To answer the random questions when they come to mind (before you forgot them by your next session), to keep you on track every day not just one hour a week.

Getting fitter, stronger, leaner, whatever goal you have, unless it’s incredibly specific. I’m telling you it’s more about your headspace and consistency than it is your rep range or workout split or exact macros.

That isn’t to say face to face PT isn’t great, but really in the current world your face to face PT should be offering the online support the rest of the week as part of your package because success comes from much more than that specific training session.

How Big Is Your Goal?

What does fitness success and progress look like to you?

Is it losing 2 stone? Running a marathon? Dropping 3 dress sizes?

Whatever it is one thing many of us are guilty of is not feeling like a success until we hit that goal. Goals are great motivators and having a strong reason why can be the difference between having a dream and making that dream a reality. What we need to remember though is to celebrate and feel good about all the other achievements along the way.

Because if you want to drop 2 stones in the process you’ll lose your first pound, first half a stone, a stone. When you are one pound lighter you might not be where you want to be yet but you’ve started and made a step towards that.

If you want to run a marathon at some point in training you’ll run 5km, 10km, a half marathon, Again these are all massive achievements in their on right and using them as reasons to celebrate can help keep you motivated towards reaching that ultimate goal.

I think the key is to keep in mind that your progress might not be perfect, instantaneous or linear but changes are all positive, whether they have a big or small impact. If for instance your doctor has said you need to lose weight for your health, they may well have an ideal weight in mind but as a starting point a reduction of any size is still better for your health than staying where you are. If you currently do no exercise three sessions a week may be the ideal but even if you only manage one you’ve still increased your activity 100%.

This goes beyond fitness too.

Having a chat with a fellow fitness professional the other day we touched upon the idea of success within our field. There’s the idea I think we all subconsciously have that there is one end point within our corner of the industry by which our success is measured, whereas in reality what we get value and a sense of purpose from is actually very different, and whilst it’s good to have things to aim for sometimes this can cause you to lose sight of achievements which actually mean a lot (even if there’s less public glory associated to them) and you can end up judging yourself harshly. The fact is there may be things we will never achieve but focusing on those suggests we’ve failed whereas in reality the impact we have made has made a difference.

For me the key is of course striving and setting the scary goals but also being kind enough to yourself to notice the small wins that happen along the way, because when you do reach that big goal that won’t be the end, you’ll find new goals or bigger goals so when you think about it, only ever looking forward can end up being tiring and leave you always feeling like you aren’t enough.

So it isn’t case of don’t aim big just don’t forget all the other wins in the mean time.

What should you look for in a PT?

There’s lots of ways you can work with a PT now: one on one, small group, online programming, apps. Beyond cost, what do you look for when deciding who to go to?

Maybe it’s location, if you want to train in person that will be a big factor; but it could also be their specialisms, experience, how fit they look, how comfortable they make you feel, the recommendation from people you trust or their client testimonials.

All of these things are valid reasons, ultimately you’re picking someone to work with based on things that are important and relevant to you is key, and here’s where I think the most important factor in looking for someone to work with comes in.

Do they get ‘you’. Specifically can they understand your pain points, identify how they affect your fitness and help you work around them?

We all have some sort of pain points, whether you think it or not, Some may be more obvious than others.

If you deal with depression or anxiety, that’s going to have an effect on how you train. Shift worker, busy mum, student; all these things can affect your training and diet.

Whether your issue is with fitting in gym sessions in the first place, struggling to focus during sessions, struggling to pluck up the courage to go to the gym or anything else in between; what you want is a PT who can understand that issue and help you with that.

Because in reality getting a gym plan is useful. Having someone tell you what to do in the gym gives you focus. A good PT will programme your sessions to incorporate progression and work specifically towards your goals.

All of that is useless though if it doesn’t work around your pain points. A good coach doesn’t just give you the right exercises for you, they understand the obstacles you face and look at how you can overcome them. That has an effect on what they have you do.

That doesn’t mean they have to have lived your experience, of course that can help but it’s not essential, but they need to be willing to listen, pin point the issues their clients faced and think about how to incorporate solutions into workouts.

If you struggle to stick to workouts or get results, a plan and a coach who can help you work around yourself and the things that keep tripping you up might make a difference. It might not make fitness feel easy but it might make a difference to your results.

Getting Started – An Update

Have you ever noticed how much how you feel about your body and how you feel about you diet / training are interlinked?

When you feel good in yourself training and eating feel good and easy and that tends to make you feel better about how you look at the same time. Equally when you feel a bit rubbish it’s so much more tempting to comfort eat and easier to feel self conscious in the gym and lack motivation. It’s almost like a vicious circle where because you don’t feel great it’s so much harder to stick to the habits which make you fee better.

I’ve really found this to be the case since Covid. After lockdown, changes in my teaching patterns, injuries, changes in my personal life, all coming as a kind of perfect storm, I’ve really struggled to regain strength and lose gained weight and this is largely because I’ve struggled with motivation and body image at the changes to my body shape which I perceive as negative (negative comments from some people haven’t helped here).

I’ve been working on the basis that just getting started helps with motivation and trying to make myself do things regardless of how I feel with the hope that this will start to manifest itself in feeling better. It hasn’t helped that works been stressful but I’ve tried to keep doing small things regardless. It’s been frustrating because I’ve still felt bloated and I’ve had an outbreak of spots. Then this morning I woke up and thought urgh I feel bluegh but then realised I’d started my period, I suppose that explains the bloating and spots! So there’s another thing to remember about motivation and body image, your hormones are going to influence these things as much as your habits so sometimes you can do everything right and still need to accept you’ll have bad patches you need to ride out.

Right now I do feel fat and weak and slow and unfit, I have to accept that whilst I keep rebuilding habits that will help me turn that feel around because the changes won’t happen without me keeping going regardless of how I feel at the time.