When I first started lifting weights, the first thing I learned was to add more weight or keep going for more reps, because of course, progressive overload was key to building muscle! Skinny as I was; I wanted to grow! But then, I also learned that it was important to lose fat aka getting lean.
I would make faces and I would get out of breathe to go hard!! “Going hard was key for getting results”.
Then, I couldn’t understand how if I knew to count macros, I knew to count calories, I knew sugars weren’t bad.. I was still struggling with binging!
Clarifying...
I’m using "knowing" as I understood the exact way of how our body works... I knew what reaction our body could do with our specific diet...
As a psychology student (neuroscience), a major I started pursuing after I noticed how our muscles didn’t only respond to our conscious movements.
My life is based on observation!
A lot of the things I have used aren’t just from my experience, but from what I have observed.
We know eating is a real issue!
Specially after the pandemic.
Weather from eating disorders or disordered eating...
Not just because of the behavioral anxiety that comes from it, but because of food..
Food isn’t just what satisfies our hunger or what tastes good.
Food and movement is the whole command for our body’s system.
I moved away from progressive overload, but all that was important for you to see where I came from so I can help you understand my point.
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Cognitive dissonance:
“The inconsistent thoughts, beliefs or attitudes to our behavioral decisions”.
Like for example; when you say; “working out isn’t for me”, but inside you; you know you should start working out and you have been thinking of a way to workout..
Or when we say; “we don’t have time to workout”, and you immediately get that image of what you do on your free time.
There are many others; not exercise related...
Sometimes we don’t pay attention to what we say or the way we talk, but our words build our whole personality and they make our life; our choices. Like many times we don’t want to fit in with society's last trend, so we behave in the other way.....
When we say something not in accordance with what we do or we do something not in accordance with what we said; there’s anxiety!
This anxiety gets misinterpreted with our environment...
There are only 2 ways to heal anxiety:
You make A match B “you start working out,
Or make B match A. You don’t make Plans to workout. The strongest feeling and emotion wins (what’s on the unconscious). Our body fights reality!
(A. “Working out isn’t for me”. B. You have been planing to workout. )...
...
Exercise: each individual movement is also a behavior!
Let’s think of progressive overload as this;
When energy is high and motivation is up we can do big things correct?
If we lift 225 lbs on deadlifts, a day we were motivated, but then we can’t when we are not..
our body will try to match our conscious with reality and will do one or the other: A. It will require more food to make up for the 225 lbs your body couldn’t nearly do few weeks ago. (Some kind of good when man want to get big ) Our body will fight to meet that requirement.
So then we don’t understand how we can't control our eating behavior..
Or B. our internal process will change its direction: we might breakout, have problems sleeping, breathing problems, etc.
Getting stronger wasn’t the problem
The problem was that there was no conditioning..
Conditioning isn’t only about doing x many reps by x amount of sets. Conditioning is a behavioral response. When your reflex movements are trained, getting stronger or making progressive overload can be healthy!
And your body can transform as second nature.
For results to flow !
(Internal peace)
This kind of issues do not happen only on people who exercise "lift weights".
This happen can happen while pregnant, after having a baby, surgeries, fast weight gained, fast weight lost.
Any change that happens in our body requires a harmonic balance. It will not always be stable, but we can always work to keep it on the wave.
This is how exercise is so important. It takes care of all the things we do not have time to be micromanaging!
More than our ego..
