I recently got off a six month "break" from working out (translation: I just stopped slacking off). This time I'm going about it rather differently than before. It's teaching me a thing or two about motivation. I'm much more motivated this time, it's almost scary. Last night I had an urge to go lift, even though I'd already worked out yesterday and if I'd gone and lifted (somehow, breaking into the gym after hours...) I'd've risked overtraining. That's how motivated I am this time around.
First, let me start by talking about how I got into lifting originally. I was invited by a friend who's deeply into powerlifting. In case you don't know, powerlifting is where you lift to become stronger, not to look better, so there are lots of powerlifters who don't look all that impressive (relatively speaking) even though they can lift many many times their own body weight.
I'd done workout before, but never lifting, so I pretty much let my friend handle all the planning. This had a bunch of side effects.
Disadvantages Of Letting My Friend Plan All The Lifts
GETTING MY MOTIVATION UP
AFFIRMATIONS
Once I determined to get back into lifting, I knew right away that motivation would be a major factor. So, I used a trick used by pro athletes, positive affirmation. That means, once a day, I write a few affirmations on paper, like "I'm incredibly strong and sexy", "I maintain my body with care and love", "I'm excellent at weight lifting", etc. Actually, I do these affirmations for a lot of different things, so the new lifting affirmations were simply added to the list.
The idea behind writing affirmations is to imbed the affirmations into the subconscious mind. We have a mental image of ourselves, and we'll tend preserve that mental image. That's why if you're trying to lose weight, you need to adjust your mental image. You can't look inconsistent with your mental image for very long. If you do, one or the other has to change. In many cases, it's easier to change the activity than to change the image. Thus, if an overweight person somehow loses a bunch of pounds, it's easier to adjust the activity (eat more food to pack it back on) than to change the self-image.
Self-image is so strong, I notice that for me, it even goes into memories. If I think back to my junior high days, for example, I don't see a preteen version of myself on the lunch court, I see my current, grown-up self there, and my old schoolmates adjusted accordingly. I don't know whether everyone remembers things like that, I've asked some people and some agree, some disagree. But it's a powerful illustration of the stubbornness of self-image.
Affirmations are a way of changing that self-image by gradually wearing away at them.
In my case, it took a couple weeks for the affirmations to really settle in, but now I'm really surprised by their potency. Before, lifting was always a chore, but now I feel compelled to go lift. When I first decided to get back into lifting, I thought it was going to be a test of my self-discipline. Not at all: right now, it would take more self-discipline for me not to lift. I'd have to deliberately force myself to stay away from the gym. It's amazing and I'm really happy about it.
Interestingly, my diet is changing as well, without any conscious effort on my behalf. All of a sudden, I've started to lose interest in a lot of old foods that weren't very good for me. It's like the affirmations reached further than I even planned. Maybe it's the affirmation, "I maintain my body with care and love". Again, it has nothing at all to do with self-discipline. I'm just as stunned to observe it in myself as you might be to read about it, but lately I've actually felt urges to eat things like salads, fruits, vegetables, and natural food. And the last time I ate a fast-food hamburger, it tasted good but it left me literally feeling sick.
The diet change could also be related with my recent trip to Japan, where I spent a month eating Japanese food, much of which tends to be a lot more natural and wholesome than American food. So from a scientific-method standpoint, there are conflicting variables at work, and I can't absolutely give all the credit to the weight-lifting affirmations.
In addition to the added motivation, I also seem to be doing a lot better when I actually go to the gym. At this early stage, it's hard to tell for certain, because I am lifting lighter weights than I was before, and they say old strength comes back quick. But recently I've been surprising myself with how well I can lift. I guess I'll have to wait 'til I've surpassed where I was before, in order to accurately judge how much of this is motivation and how much it's old strength coming back.
MY OWN PLANS, MY OWN INVESTMENT
This time around, it's all up to me. No mentor pushing me along. Consequently, I feel a lot more "invested" into working out. Kind of like it's a part of my life now, instead of a part of someone else's life.
Last time when I was lifting, if something happened so I had to miss the lift, logically I knew that it was a loss. But emotionally, it felt like, "yay, a day off". The logical, reasoning mind is a terrible motivator, isn't it! We are emotional creatures at the core. This time around, by making the decision on my own to pursue a godlike body, I have emotion invested in it. In fact, now the emotions are going beyond the logical mind, like last night when I had the urge to go lift even though my logical mind knew that it would be overtraining and that the gym was closed anyway.
I might even have to tamp down the emotion a bit before I end up some kind of muscle freak! ;)
BALANCING LIFTING WITH OTHER WORKOUT
Before, when I was lifting with the power lifter, workout out was basically all-lifting-all-the-time. This time around, I'm being much more balanced about it, spending about half my time on the treadmill or bike. (By the way, if you haven't done treadmill before, you've gotta do this at least once: run on it for half an hour, gradually building the speed as high as you can feel comfortable with. After, slow down before getting off so you cool off, but do your slowdown period fast, like over a 5 minute period. When you get off the treadmill and walk around, you'll feel like you are "floating". It's literally like flying.)
I'm also doing a bit more stretching, though that's one area I should do more. But the point is, balancing lifting with the other types of workout seems to be much better for me than just lifting and nothing else. I end up feeling better once the workout's done.
The amazing thing is, I still get about the same amount of lifting done. In part, it's because I'm not spotting a friend all the time.
The non-lifting parts of workout are also good because they give me something to satisfy my urges to work out, when I've lifted too recently to safely lift again.
CONCLUSION
Lifting for me isn't primarily about getting stronger or sexier, even though both are very pleasant side effects! Primarily, I lift to feel better. Lifting does things somehow to the body's chemicals (I don't know exactly, I'm not a doctor) and it makes you feel really good. And it's a lasting boost, it's not like the temporary state boost you get from listening to music.
Here are some other articles I've written. You can print them all out, bind the pages together, and use them as an improvised weight.
The Throw: Reactivity Vs. Responsiveness
Fighting Music Addiction: An Experiment
Air Force Core Values: Excellence, Integrity, and Service Before Self
The Golden Rule Of Language Learning
First, let me start by talking about how I got into lifting originally. I was invited by a friend who's deeply into powerlifting. In case you don't know, powerlifting is where you lift to become stronger, not to look better, so there are lots of powerlifters who don't look all that impressive (relatively speaking) even though they can lift many many times their own body weight.
I'd done workout before, but never lifting, so I pretty much let my friend handle all the planning. This had a bunch of side effects.
Disadvantages Of Letting My Friend Plan All The Lifts
- My lifting routine was heavily influenced by powerlifter philosophy, even though that isn't really what I would've chosen. It's great to lift more, of course, but if I'd put the same amount of effort into a bodybuilding-for-looks program, I would've come out a marbled Greek God. (Well, more so than I am now... ;)
- We were lifting on his schedule, not mine
- Whenever we were at the gym, I was his bitch
- Imbalance: my friend is extremely hardcore about lifting. It's his life. That means, we'd spend three or four hours in the gym each time. That's not really congruent with me. Lifting isn't such a big deal to me that I need to spend so much time. My friend is really good, he competes in competitions and so on. It's like sending an amateur football player to train with the NFL.
- I didn't learn about the planning aspects of lifting. For example I didn't read lifting forums, didn't lead other friends to the gym, and only did research when my friend assigned it.
- But most important: because I wasn't doing it on my own decision, I was much less motivated. Sure, I had the temporary motivational boost of my friend's helpful nudging, but that would fade fast any time he went out of town. It's similar to how college students often report more motivation when they pay for their own tuition
GETTING MY MOTIVATION UP
AFFIRMATIONS
Once I determined to get back into lifting, I knew right away that motivation would be a major factor. So, I used a trick used by pro athletes, positive affirmation. That means, once a day, I write a few affirmations on paper, like "I'm incredibly strong and sexy", "I maintain my body with care and love", "I'm excellent at weight lifting", etc. Actually, I do these affirmations for a lot of different things, so the new lifting affirmations were simply added to the list.
The idea behind writing affirmations is to imbed the affirmations into the subconscious mind. We have a mental image of ourselves, and we'll tend preserve that mental image. That's why if you're trying to lose weight, you need to adjust your mental image. You can't look inconsistent with your mental image for very long. If you do, one or the other has to change. In many cases, it's easier to change the activity than to change the image. Thus, if an overweight person somehow loses a bunch of pounds, it's easier to adjust the activity (eat more food to pack it back on) than to change the self-image.
Self-image is so strong, I notice that for me, it even goes into memories. If I think back to my junior high days, for example, I don't see a preteen version of myself on the lunch court, I see my current, grown-up self there, and my old schoolmates adjusted accordingly. I don't know whether everyone remembers things like that, I've asked some people and some agree, some disagree. But it's a powerful illustration of the stubbornness of self-image.
Affirmations are a way of changing that self-image by gradually wearing away at them.
In my case, it took a couple weeks for the affirmations to really settle in, but now I'm really surprised by their potency. Before, lifting was always a chore, but now I feel compelled to go lift. When I first decided to get back into lifting, I thought it was going to be a test of my self-discipline. Not at all: right now, it would take more self-discipline for me not to lift. I'd have to deliberately force myself to stay away from the gym. It's amazing and I'm really happy about it.
Interestingly, my diet is changing as well, without any conscious effort on my behalf. All of a sudden, I've started to lose interest in a lot of old foods that weren't very good for me. It's like the affirmations reached further than I even planned. Maybe it's the affirmation, "I maintain my body with care and love". Again, it has nothing at all to do with self-discipline. I'm just as stunned to observe it in myself as you might be to read about it, but lately I've actually felt urges to eat things like salads, fruits, vegetables, and natural food. And the last time I ate a fast-food hamburger, it tasted good but it left me literally feeling sick.
The diet change could also be related with my recent trip to Japan, where I spent a month eating Japanese food, much of which tends to be a lot more natural and wholesome than American food. So from a scientific-method standpoint, there are conflicting variables at work, and I can't absolutely give all the credit to the weight-lifting affirmations.
In addition to the added motivation, I also seem to be doing a lot better when I actually go to the gym. At this early stage, it's hard to tell for certain, because I am lifting lighter weights than I was before, and they say old strength comes back quick. But recently I've been surprising myself with how well I can lift. I guess I'll have to wait 'til I've surpassed where I was before, in order to accurately judge how much of this is motivation and how much it's old strength coming back.
MY OWN PLANS, MY OWN INVESTMENT
This time around, it's all up to me. No mentor pushing me along. Consequently, I feel a lot more "invested" into working out. Kind of like it's a part of my life now, instead of a part of someone else's life.
Last time when I was lifting, if something happened so I had to miss the lift, logically I knew that it was a loss. But emotionally, it felt like, "yay, a day off". The logical, reasoning mind is a terrible motivator, isn't it! We are emotional creatures at the core. This time around, by making the decision on my own to pursue a godlike body, I have emotion invested in it. In fact, now the emotions are going beyond the logical mind, like last night when I had the urge to go lift even though my logical mind knew that it would be overtraining and that the gym was closed anyway.
I might even have to tamp down the emotion a bit before I end up some kind of muscle freak! ;)
BALANCING LIFTING WITH OTHER WORKOUT
Before, when I was lifting with the power lifter, workout out was basically all-lifting-all-the-time. This time around, I'm being much more balanced about it, spending about half my time on the treadmill or bike. (By the way, if you haven't done treadmill before, you've gotta do this at least once: run on it for half an hour, gradually building the speed as high as you can feel comfortable with. After, slow down before getting off so you cool off, but do your slowdown period fast, like over a 5 minute period. When you get off the treadmill and walk around, you'll feel like you are "floating". It's literally like flying.)
I'm also doing a bit more stretching, though that's one area I should do more. But the point is, balancing lifting with the other types of workout seems to be much better for me than just lifting and nothing else. I end up feeling better once the workout's done.
The amazing thing is, I still get about the same amount of lifting done. In part, it's because I'm not spotting a friend all the time.
The non-lifting parts of workout are also good because they give me something to satisfy my urges to work out, when I've lifted too recently to safely lift again.
CONCLUSION
Lifting for me isn't primarily about getting stronger or sexier, even though both are very pleasant side effects! Primarily, I lift to feel better. Lifting does things somehow to the body's chemicals (I don't know exactly, I'm not a doctor) and it makes you feel really good. And it's a lasting boost, it's not like the temporary state boost you get from listening to music.
Here are some other articles I've written. You can print them all out, bind the pages together, and use them as an improvised weight.
The Throw: Reactivity Vs. Responsiveness
Fighting Music Addiction: An Experiment
Air Force Core Values: Excellence, Integrity, and Service Before Self
The Golden Rule Of Language Learning
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