Is The Gym Really Serving You?
When a new client comes to me and they are unhappy with their bodies they normally fall into one of two camps; either they have never or rarely trained before and not getting the results they want (because they are not training) or they are training too much and not getting the results they want (because they are overtraining).
Most of my clients being driven corporate females fall into the latter, they come to me with some form of experience in the gym, but are frustrated at their lack of results, or have plateaued for a number of months if not years. The problem is these women believe they deserve results as (they think) they train well and eat well so frustrated and demotivated by their situation.
There is one key element which unites these women….they are over worked, over stressed, over training and normally under eating. Yet they don’t have the knowledge that training is just another stress placed upon their bodies resulting in completely the opposite result to what they are hoping for.
Our Clever Selves
Let me explain. The body is a self-regulating organism, which is always trying to find a level of homeostasis in order to survive. They have an inherent ability to change and adapt to their environment, which means that when confronted with a perceived threat, they react with a specific stress response that allows them to adapt and survive.
We are constantly trying to live in a state of equilibrium, our bodies have both the ‘destructive’ side which is responsible for breaking down our muscles and tissue to survive, and our ‘regenerative’ side which is responsible for regeneration and recovery such as building and constructing this broken muscle and tissue. Our catabolic or ‘destructive’ side is better known as the ‘fight or flight’ state in which the body recognises danger and responds accordingly with a stress response. We need both of these states in order to survive; the key is finding a balance between the two.
But What is Stress?
Stress can be extrinsic (e.g. injury or training for example) or intrinsic (e.g. anxiety or fear). Regardless of the stress the response from our bodies is the same.
What Happens to Our Bodies
In order to understand why it is so important to manage stress we must first understand the physiological response stress has on our bodies. Firstly (and I’ll try not to get too nerdy here) our bodies go into a state of panic; our adrenalin rises and the fight or flight state is activated. Adrenalin is the hormone that tells every cell in our body we are in danger and as a result our bodies shut down all non essential functions such as the digestive and reproductive systems, and focus purely on the immediate requirements.
If this stress persists our bodies are forced to figure out a way to deal with it so next release our stress hormones; mainly cortisol. The problem with cortisol is that it releases glucose (sugar) to be used by the brain (ever wondered why you get sugar cravings when you are stressed out? This is the reason).
So How Does All This Relate to Training?
Now lets imagine this scenario …… Woman A: a fit and healthy woman who walks into the gym to train. She has just returned from holiday and is in a state of pure Zen. She loves her job, is financially secure, has a partner she loves, gets 8 hours unbroken sleep a night, energy is good and she has a healthy relationship with food and eats well; there is literally 0 stress in her life. She trains. She puts her body under stress. It’s controlled and regulated stress. She eats according to what her body requires, sleeps well and her body adapts to the stress and recovers stronger.
Now imagine this, Woman B: Walks into the gym at 6am in the morning to do a High Intensity HIIT class or heavy weights session. She had 5 or 6 hours broken sleep, feels exhausted, she is already feeling anxious about the day she has ahead of her at work, she is worried about the argument she had with her partner the night before. She is also stressed about not being ‘good enough’ in the gym and not getting results she craves. She wants to take a break and have a lie in but she forces herself to go and ‘smash out’ a workout as she has to if she wants to feel good and get results. But she doesn’t have time to eat before training and has to rush to work, grabs a coffee and doesn’t eat until lunchtime.
Her body was already spiking in cortisol before she went into the gym, in fact her stress hormones have been chronically high for a while. She then put even more external stress on her body through training and bam – the result is an exhaustive state where the body can no longer cope. This may manifest in chronic low energy, a low immune system, unable to get results in the gym, poor digestion, poor sleep – the list really does go on. Her body is now in chronic state of degeneration and no matter how much she limits her calorie intake or the amount of exercise she does nothing will make her look – or more importantly, feel better.
So What Does This Even Mean?
It’s actually very simple, our bodies need a period of recovery and restoration after bouts of stress; both external and internal. The more stress the body is put under, the more emphasis must be placed on recovery and restoration therefore removing as much stress from our lives is paramount for success in health and body composition.
Don’t kid yourself into thinking you are the first woman A – we all know when we are feeling anxious and have a lot on (who doesn’t?). The key is to stop thinking more is better with training and less is more with food. Its time to prioritise rest and restoration over placing our bodies under constant stress. Put simply, stop doing and start being. I cannot tell you how many of my clients have said to me how amazed they are that doing less and eating more can actually get them the results they want physically but more importantly mentally too.