I woke up today feeling really good. My mobility feels more connected, my weaknesses I have been working on are improving, but I still have some stiffness in my neck on the occasion.
Due to this I felt like it was a good day to throw out an article on why we cannot ignore these simple things our bodies are telling us.
Before we get into that I want to discuss the time I ignored everything my body told me.
The summer after my first year of college I was working as a landscaper. Along with that I was playing hockey 3-5 days a week and still going to the gym 5-6 days a week.
At the time I thought nothing of it, these were all things I needed to get done during my day. I HAVE to work, I HAVE to workout, and I HAVE to play hockey. That was the mentality at the time and I stuck with it.
The high amount of activity began to take its toll on my body pretty quick. I was losing weight, losing strength, started feeling pain, and always felt exhausted.
So what did I do?
I kept doing everything and told myself I would get used to it. Looking back at it now it is clear that my body was sending me every signal it could to slow down and I ignored them day-in and day-out.
Our bodies are adaptation machines and equipped to adapt to some extreme situations. Our bodies are also unique in the fact that they will give you notice when they don’t think something is benefitting you.
I stated earlier that I was feeling some pain and exhaustion during that summer. These were signs from my body asking what the hell I am doing and attempting to veer me in a better direction.
Staying on this same path more signals were brought to my attention without change. My issue was being too hard headed to take a step back and assess what my problem was.
DO NOT IGNORE YOUR SIGNALS
When training, there are so many question directed to the clients and we are always focusing on HOW your body is moving during each rep. As trainers we need to get as much information as we can because we are not able to feel the signs your body is giving you.
We may notice your core is not engaged after a few reps of heavy reverse lunges or you are unable to keep your shoulders pulled back during a set of rows. These are both signs from your body that can be observed, telling us that you are unable to keep proper form throughout a particular exercise.
Why you can’t keep form is what we must work towards and figure out.
This could be due to a handful of reasons; instability in a particular area, load being too heavy, supporting muscle groups not being prepared, non-beneficial breathing techniques. The goal of observing these signs is to assess why they are there and what we can do about it.
In most cases your body will give you many warnings before throwing a big wrench at you. Do not ignore these warnings. You do not have to shift an entire program but you should put some extra work in to correct the issues.
Let’s throw an example out there:
On thing that I see often in my clients who are 45 or older is wrist and elbow pain. Pain is a great indicator that something needs to change. For a majority of these people the pain has been going on for months and maybe even years.
The number one thing I see people do to address this signal is get a cortisone shot. The elbow/wrist feels great for the next 2-3 months, no limitations and then it wears off. Now the pain has been magnified because we just put 2-3 months of excess stress on that area without fixing the root cause.
Instead of a shot we need to address why your elbow pain is there. We can check the shoulders, thoracic spine, wrist, scapula, bicep, tricep, pec, lats we can check everything!
Find the issue, work on the issue, clear up the pain, get stronger, and stay healthy.
Signals do not always come with pain or weakness they can also come in the form of progress. That summer I was losing weight, losing strength, and felt week. My goal was to gain weight, gain strength, and get faster.
So I had to address why my program was not yielding the results I wanted. It took some time but what I found out about 4 months later was that the program was fine; it was my daily routine that was causing the problems.
When you start working with a trainer there will be your goals and their goals. They should work together to come to a great outcome.
This follows the same rules as above; find out how you are progressing towards your goals. If you are closer to them then you are doing great, if you are going backwards then you must re-assess. Something is not working and you must find out what that thing is.
It could be over-training, under-training, poor programming, poor nutrition programming, stress, or anything else this world can throw at you.
These signs won’t be put on a silver platter for you. They are kind of like an experiment. You have a starting point and you have an idea of what the outcome should be. Now you have to put in some effort and see if it works out. If it doesn’t work, then re-asses and give it another shot.
Now I made a post last week regarding that first day back in the gym. As I said in that post, there are going to be a lot of people over-doing that first session.
So please, listen to your body. If you feel pain, unstable, weak, whatever the case may be, do not ignore those signs.
Work with your body not against it, it’s the only one you got so might as well do what you can to make it happy.
Jeffrey Nagle
Coach || OPEX South Shore
