2022 as simply been an incredible cluster f*#k to almost all of us! But we know 2021 and 2020 were too, situations outside our control, an pandemic, the cost of living, I am seeing so many people in absolute crisis mode! Trust me I truly understand, my husband was made redundant after the first lock down and in my own business I can’t tell you the hours I have lost and my clients have lost from training, due to illness, and so many other issues. One thing I have really focussed on learning to do well is self care, and not the type where I meet my girlfriends for a glass of wine that turns into 5! and yes the is lovely but true self care: focussing on sleep (yes at times missing out on fun), eating well, nutrition, exercise… dealing with the shit in your life… its not pretty but I am determined not to crawl to the end of 2022! So my question to you my dear reader… are you doing the same?
Put your hand up if you have ever half arsed an exercise class be it Spin or Hitt class? Have you ever logged a 400 cal workout on My fitness Pal when you have barely dragged yourself round the block? Have you ever cut short your reps when you were working out by yourself? You know what, we have all done it! I challenge anyone to say hand on heart that you have never dropped your form during a workout to get it done!
The question here though is who are you cheating? Do you really think that your class instructor or that friend who follows you on My Fitness Paul cares if you completed that set of reps in record time? No of course not, the instructor cares that you challenged yourself and the you are keeping yourself safe during your workout (poor form increases the risk of injury), and your friend just wants you to be healthy and happy! The only one you are letting down is yourself!
I want you to remember you are challenging yourself because you had a goal as to why you are exercising…. everyones is slightly different but whatever that goal is you are most probably not going to get there unless you are challenging your body and constantly changing it up!
So I want you to ask yourself….. Could you be training harder? Answering this question requires a bit of introspection and self-honesty, but its likely that you know whether or not you are hitting your limits. If you are not sure, try slowly increasing the intensity of your exercise until you reach your maximum exertion level. A good rule of thumb for say High Intensity Exercise is that you shouldn’t be able to hold a conversation so if you have no trouble chatting to your friend on that walk or run then you want to bump up your effort. in Strength training a good rule of thumb is if you struggle to complete the last three reps in a set….. if you aren’t struggling there is a few ways to increase, you can increase the weights, increase the amount of reps… or another great way is to change the tempo (this requires a whole different blog)!
I recommend experimenting with different levels of exertion until you can recognise high, moderate and low intensity and what it feels like for you. If one of your fitness goals is continual improvement you need to be constantly challenging yourself. If its been a while since you have altered your workout; increased your weights or changed up your program, its possible you are maintaining your strength or level of fitness but not improving it. Your progress may be static and this can happen with both strength and cardio.
Try challenging yourself with new exercises, often times people plateau in engagement and intensity because they need to stimulate adaptation with new movement pathways and neuromuscular connections. For example if you are a seasoned pro at the Bulgarian Split Squat try a Walking Dumbbell Lunge to boost your effort level.
With strength training you generally want to be upping the amount of weight you are lifting by a small percentage every 1-2 weeks. One telltale sign that you are ready to increase the weight is if you can bang out 12 or more reps without breaking a sweat. Aim for a weight that allows you to lift 6-12 reps before fatique sets in, one of the best ways to know whether you are improving is to track your workouts, you can do this by filming yourself (remember its only for you) or to note down what you are lifting, comment also how you feel, this is something I have been doing over the past week and phewwwy I am noticing a big difference! By tracking you can look at trends over time, particularly if you are affected by hormones in any way.
Now is the big BUT and this is something I am see a lot, often our clients are beating themselves up because they just can’t find it in themselves to push further or are flogging themselves in all aspects of life to exhaustion with no gains! At times like this you need to consider a break, in strength training we have a de load week, every 8 weeks or so. A de load is a short planned period of recovery and I truly believe our bodies need recovery, it comes in many forms- but that is a whole other blog post.
So ion you are struggling in exercise stop and reflect; Do you need to reassess your goals? Do you need to engage a trainer? Do you need to challenge yourself a bit more? Do you need to take time to recover? And remember this…. if you are cheating yourself you are only cheating yourself… you get out what YOU put in, not one else!