Well, Warriors, it is check in time. And I mean that in a few different ways. It’s time to check in with your previously made New Year’s plans. This is usually about when attrition starts to set in. Maybe you were overly ambitious, or your best laid plans ended up being out of alignment with your life. It’s also time to flip the script and use some different check in metrics to help.
My background is in exercise and fitness and I have spent most of my working years training, coaching, and teaching. Which means I like me some hard numbers. I want to see the scale moving in the direction my clients want, too. I plan programs and workouts based on testing data that I carefully gather and client stated goals. Good trainers don’t just pull these numbers out of thin air. We use actual algebra.
But as I’ve learned over the years, there is also much more to exercise benefits than just the hard numbers. There will always be a plateau that sticks around for a frustratingly long time. There will always be the nagging doubt that progress is actually happening. Your body is most likely making physiological adaptations that take longer to show up in the numbers.
This is time critical. As I’ve stated before, there is absolutely nothing wrong with short term goals, but you need to find your own deeper why. Using some Intuitive Exercise questions can help keep you moving (hah!) when you are ready to quit. (You can read the Intuitive Exercise series, starting here, for more info).
1. How does this exercise (broad type like strength training or particular exercise like walking) benefit my physical body from a long term health perspective?
It is awesome when the exercise(s) we are engaged in have immediate benefits that we can see and measure. But exercise should have the purpose of long term benefits, too. Squats are an incredible lower body exercise. And if one of your short term goals is to grow your glutes or to be able to run a faster 5K squats are one exercise to help you get there. Squatting is a foundational motion, though. Do you want to be able to carry groceries up the stairs? Get in and out of a chair without help? Go on hikes with your grandkids? Squats serve us long term, too!
2. How does this exercise benefit my Mental Health, and other Dimensions of Wellness?
Exercise and physical activity will inherently affect your Physical Health. But, staying with my squats example, when we are racking the same amount of weight week after week we feel stuck. And most of us fixate on that feeling. How about the feeling of accomplishment when you re-rack the weights? Or the satisfaction that comes from knowing you powered through all your sets with great form? It takes a lot of mental fortitude to remain consistent in the face of challenge. Heck, focus on the fact that you made a new gym buddy (Social Health)!
3. Can I modify or tweak the exercise to re-engage my Physical and Mental energy?
Exercisers love their routines. I mean routines help us figure out what we should be doing when. A good routine will also make hiccups easier to work around. But routines get routine. And we get bored. Re-imagine, don’t re-invent. There are about a billion ways to modify or tweak squats. If you’ve been doing back squats, head to the Smith Machine and practice front squats. Or goblet squats. Engage your legs in a different pattern with split squats or Bulgarian split squats. You are one little tweak away from enjoying your workout!
4. Would another form of the exercise or a completely different exercise feel as good or better?
Sometimes you really do need to re-invent a bit. Even if it’s just for a workout or two. That’s completely okay. Or perhaps, your body is asking for a bit more rest (we’ve all been there). It is better in the long run to honor what your body needs. Your physical body will thank you by working harder. And you know your mental self will thank you. So if you aren’t feeling squats, maybe hit up the leg extension/leg curl machines. Try some Romanian deadlifts or just straight up rest if you are legit tired.
5. How will this exercise leave me feeling post workout?
There is a bit of extrapolation required for this one. A chicken and egg scenario if you will. But there are certain instances when you know that a particular exercise or workout is going to leave you feeling more depleted. I don’t mean post workout tired, I mean this will leave you feeling worse physically and mentally than you currently feel. This usually happens when you are dealing with injury, illness, or your body is straight up begging for more rest. If you find yourself in a situation where you just can’t imagine slogging through any version of something, take a break. You won’t lose everything in one day.
Motivation is fickle and tends to lag when the hard numbers aren’t moving in the direction that we’d like to see. So, rather than focusing on the short term goal, we need to take a step back. We need to look at the Monet from 12 feet away, instead of two.
Asking questions about how we are feeling about our workouts before, during, and after can shift focus to that bigger picture. Shifting that focus can allow us to look at exercise as part of our lives. It changes the internal dialogue from, “I workout to -fill in the blank-,” to, “I am someone who exercises.”
