What you may not know about me because most of my posts and content have been about nutrition and mindfulness, is that I was a personal trainer for many years and I actually still work as a Kinesiologist. I worked in a Women’s gym for many years, I had some amazing clients and I totally loved my job.
I don’t think I was like a lot of other trainers though – and that’s ok. I was not one of those super intense trainers who knew how to get their client’s shredded, or who pushed them through pain to do one more rep (when the last 4 reps had disastrous form) just so they could hit their numbers. I was passionate about helping people. I wanted to support people in learning to move better, learning to love their body not for what it looked like on the outside, but because of what it could do. Most of all I wanted people to have fun – personally, I think I succeeded best at this. I was more like a personal cheerleader, who happened to know her way around a gym! And seriously, who doesn’t want a personal cheerleader.
The thing about gym culture, and the thing that I always struggled with as a personal trainer, was measuring improvement and progress based on waist line, body fat, and overall body image. I always struggled when people came to me and said that their goals were to get a 6-pack, become “beach ready” or to spot reduce to fat on their arms. For the record, you cannot spot reduce the fat on your arms. Sorry peeps. It didn’t vibe with my perspective on wellness and the massively impactful role exercise and fitness can have on our overall health and well-being.
I want to make this clear before I go forward – I am NOT bashing people who have these goals. I think goals are great, period. I think that goals motivate us, and inspire us to get up, get moving and live a healthy lifestyle. However, I encourage you to question what’s behind your goals, and ask yourself why you make the goals you do. Why do you want that 6-pack? Why is spot reducing the fat on your arms so important to you? Do these goals help build your health (from a holistic perspective) or are they harmful to your health? Are your goals rooted in fear and insecurity? There is absolutely nothing wrong if they are – its just something to ask, and notice for yourself. We often make goals and don’t question what our intention is; we don’t think about the “why” behind the goal. There is so much magic in the “why.”
But before I go any further I want to talk about what health actually is.
The World Health Organization defines health as: “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
Pretty holistic definition of health if you ask me. It actually touches on Mind, body and spirit.
Go World Health Organization! Woot woot!
Exercise and fitness regimes are meant to support and build our health – in all aspects – rather than break it down. It is important that when we are looking at our physical fitness goals, we address them from this holistic perspective, keeping in mind the mental, emotional and social elements of health.
Where I really struggled in the gym setting was that it seemed to me like the motivation for all these people was rooted in how they looked. How much weight they lost. How many inches. How much body fat. I could see my clients were so upset when they didn’t hit their goal weight, or waist circumference by their goal date. They would become frustrated and a-motivated, even if they had been lifting more weight, running longer on the treadmill, or feeling better throughout their days. Sometimes client’s would come in feeling amazing, happy, and totally inspired telling me they were feeling so much happier. But when the scale showed they did not hit their goal, they shrunk back down – as though the numbers on the scale were all that actually mattered.
It had me ask this question:
Why are all these superficial items the one’s we look to when measuring success in the gym?
I guess the numbers are concrete, and they are a reliable way to measure our success, and I will not deny the important role numbers like waist circumference, body fat percentage, blood pressure and other health measures have from a chronic disease perspective, so please be mindful that I am speaking about general population individuals here. However, in my oh-so-humble opinion the emphasis on these numbers out weigh (pun intended) the impact exercise has on our self-esteem, how much we’re enjoying ourselves, our energy levels throughout the day, our mood – the list goes on. There are so many other amazing benefits to exercise above and beyond how we look, and how much weight we’ve lost yet often, this is our main focus.
So what if we shifted our focus? What if the most important thing wasn’t about how we looked, but how we felt? What if we went back to our “why” and really asked ourselves why our goals are important to us. I can almost guarantee you that what’s behind “getting a 6-pack”, “spot reducing fat on my arms”, and “getting skinny” is some version of feeling good. What’s beneath all of those goals, is people wanting to feel good.
So what if rather than measuring body fat, we measured how we felt ? What if rather than waist circumference we measured how much fun we were having? What if rather than body weight, we measured self worth, and self-confidence?
What if exercise occurred for us as empowering and uplifting rather than something to do in order to:
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Get skinny
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Get a 6 pack
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Spot reduce arm fat
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Become beach ready
I think sometimes the impact of the current exercise paradigm, is actually more harmful to us, and our health from a holistic perspective, than it is helpful.
I’m not saying all of this as an outsider who has no idea what it feels like to struggle with body weight, and body image issues. I have struggled. I still struggle some days, but I am proud of how far I have come. My “why” used to be rooted in how I looked, or when I was playing rugby, it was rooted in trying to be better than everyone else – it was not a healthy place to be. Competitive, and often self-deprecating, constantly unsatisfied with how I looked, always comparing myself to other people, insecure, starving for affirmation; looking back it was a nightmare. Now it is very much rooted in how I feel, in challenging my body to go beyond it’s limits , and to see what I am capable of. I have found something that brings me joy, that I actually like doing (and actually do everyday), that challenges me, makes me feel good and brings me a sense of calm amidst the chaos of life. Inside of my preferred method of exercise (which happens to be Ashtanga yoga) my body has shifted, become stronger, and more flexible (yay me – I was never very flexible). Inside of my new “why” the thing I was after all this time, came as a natural consequence. Of course there are days where I struggle, when I don’t want to go, I feel tired – the list of excuses doesn’t change – but my “why” remains the same, and so everyday, I go.
The first step is in acknowledging your “why” – in determining for yourself why it is you do what you do. The next step is to find something that is in alignment with your why. I’m not sitting her advocating for yoga (though I think it’s pretty awesome) I’m here advocating for you to find out what it is you love – what it is that sets your soul on fire, and to inspire you to do that thing. Whether it’s cross-fit, yoga, kick boxing, rec sports, running, Olympic lifting, Zumba, bike riding – I could go on forever really – it just has to be something you love, and let it be in alignment with your why and you can’t go wrong!
I hope you enjoyed, and I hope this inspires you to participate in something you absolutely love!
I would love to hear and read your comments so please feel free to write something in the comment box below.
