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#107 - Balancing Summer Fun & Fitness, Beating Rest Day Guilt, and Ending Self-Sabotage
25 Plays12 days ago
In this Q&A episode, I’m answering some of the most common questions I get—from struggling with rest days to staying on track during summer without missing out. If you’ve ever felt like you're doing too much or not enough, this one’s for you.
In this episode:
- Why taking time off is actually what you need
- How to stay consistent without sacrificing your summer social life
- When to push harder in the gym—and when to pull back
- Why self-sabotage happens (and how to break the cycle)
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Transcript
Introduction and Listener Engagement
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome back to the Fit-ish Project with your host, as always, Lathan Bass. We make fitness and health simple for regular people like you and I. We got another weekly episode coming at you before I get into this episode. If you have not already, if you can leave a review, continue to get this out to more people. I really, really do appreciate that.
Podcast Format Explanation
00:00:22
Speaker
But the topic of this week, I like to do a Q&A every month or so. If you've been listening for a while, you know that I get questions from clients, questions from listeners, from you guys. And so I like to be able to dive a little bit deeper on some of these questions and answer some more specific topics and get into the nitty gritty of it. And so that is what we are doing with
The Role of Rest in Fitness
00:00:44
Speaker
today's episode. I have five different questions and some of the topics that we're going to cover today, diving into some things like how to get over being guilty or feeling guilty on those off days or those recovery days or even just some of those periods of time where you have to take some time off finding some balance especially with summer coming up a balance between fun and sticking with your health goals some muscle building tips three of my favorites navigating self-sabotage kind of an interesting topic that we'll dive into a little bit and a few other things so
00:01:16
Speaker
Getting right into this one. Question number one. I know I need rest and recovery days, but I struggle mentally with taking time off and feeling like I'm going backwards when I do. Any advice?
00:01:28
Speaker
So the first thing I think you have to realize when it comes to this is that rest does not equal losing progress. In fact, rest is a crucial part of actually making the progress that you want to make, because if you are not resting and recovering, then you are not making progress. You might have heard the saying that your results actually take place when you're outside of the gym, and there's a lot of truth to that.
00:01:49
Speaker
Obviously, you need a solid stimulus in the gym in order to create that change, in order to create that adaption that we want to see. But ultimately, most of your time is going to be spent outside the gym doing other things besides for exercising and training.
00:02:04
Speaker
And so making that little reframe and understanding that a lot of your progress is actually going to come from those things outside of the gym, I think can be helpful with this and understanding that I can put a little bit more focus on the things that I'm doing in the kitchen with my meals and getting enough protein and making sure that I'm getting all the nutrients and micronutrients that I need to fuel and facilitate my goals.
00:02:24
Speaker
Am I getting enough sleep outside of the gym? Am I managing my stress throughout the day, staying hydrated, just getting some regular activity and steps in my day? Because these are a lot of the things that are going to help to get you the best results.
00:02:37
Speaker
A lot of times we put an overemphasis on the things that we do inside the gym, thinking that's where all of our progress come from. But in reality, even if you work out every single day, let's say you work out every single day for an hour,
00:02:49
Speaker
you're still spending 23 hours outside of the gym. And so for most people, they're working out anywhere between three to four times a week on average, maybe an hour at a time. That's three to four hours of your week is spent in the gym. The rest of that time is outside of the gym. It's literally like it's less than 2% of your entire week. It's a very, very small percentage.
00:03:08
Speaker
And so understanding, yes, that time in the gym is important, but we also need to have that balance. And when we think about it from a more scientific explanation, there's actually what's called super compensation. And that's just a really fancy way to say how we make progress when it comes to training and when it comes to hitting the gym. So basically you train, you create a stimulus, which also creates fatigue and a temporary drop in your performance.
00:03:32
Speaker
So we start out at baseline, we go in the gym, we hit it hard. We actually have a dip in our training, in our recovery, in our, how we feel in, in order to get that back up in order to get out of that dip and actually make some progress, we need to do those things
Training Recovery Concepts
00:03:47
Speaker
outside of the gym. So we need to get a good night's sleep. We need to be making sure that we're eating the right things, managing stress, all those different things. And when you do that, you have what's called super compensation. So you start at baseline, you have this little dip.
00:03:58
Speaker
And then if you recover well, you actually go a little bit above baseline to where we started. And if you do this right, if you balance it right, you continue to have a little dip and then you go up a little bit. You have a little bit of a dip, you go up a little bit.
00:04:09
Speaker
But what happens if you don't ever take the rest and recovery part of this serious is you have that little dip and you don't recover well. Maybe you have crappy sleep. You're not eating well. You're not doing the things that you need to do outside of the gym, outside of your training.
00:04:23
Speaker
You just continue to have a dip, dip, dip, dip. And so you're digging yourself in this big hole and you're not actually seeing any of the progress that you want to see. And this will start to show up in a lot of different negative ways in You're not going to be able to build strength, build muscle, feel good, any of those things that we're actually in the gym for.
00:04:41
Speaker
And the longer that you create or dig yourself into this hole, the harder it is and the longer it is to get out of that hole. And so we wanna make sure that we're having this nice balance of rest and recovery. And I think just understanding these things and understanding the importance of that rest and of the rest days and of recovery and how that is part of the process and how that is how you actually make the best progress.
00:05:04
Speaker
is the first step to this. Once you found this nice little sweet spot, once you understand, okay, I need to train, I need to recover so that I can adapt. And then I just kind of repeat this. If I'm doing this at too high of a level, I'm either gonna burn out or I'm gonna plateau and I don't want that to happen. So I need to make sure that I'm finding this balance.
00:05:22
Speaker
You also don't wanna be on the opposite end of the spectrum where you're not doing anything and you're just really inconsistent because you're not gonna see progress on that either. So you wanna find that that Goldilocks zone, that sweet spot where like you have that nice balance.
00:05:34
Speaker
because too much of anything is never gonna be good. It's in the same way of like, if you're working all the time and you're working Monday through Friday, and then even on the weekend, Saturday, Sunday, you're working every single day, you're just really getting after it 70, 80 hour, 90 hour work weeks, like doing just insane type of stuff.
00:05:50
Speaker
You're probably going to reach a point where you burn out unless you have planned schedule breaks within that time period. And the same exact thing goes for working out. And these things will start to show up in different ways. So like if you are not listening to your body, your body will force you to listen. And this is a lesson that I've learned a lot over the years and trying to just keep pushing and pushing and pushing and doing more and more and more. And if you're not listening to your body and really prioritizing that rest and recovery, your body is going to force you to slow down and listen. And with injury, with illness, you'll start to really just have zero motivation or any kind of want to be in the gym.
00:06:28
Speaker
Your strength levels will start to go down in the gym. Your energy levels will start to go down. You can start to affect hormones. So now like your mood is off. And so you're really overdoing it, you're going start to see some of those negative side effects start to show up. And so again, we want to make sure that we are having this balance.
00:06:44
Speaker
and so if you are one of these people that tends to overdo it but you still want to feel like you're doing something on your off days on your recovery days one thing that i found that was a really good alternative to this was just to find different ways to get some active recovery in and so think of any sort of activities where they're like lower intensity things and they facilitate recovery rather than hindering it so like if you're hitting it hard in the gym every single day even on your like supposed it rest days you're just getting after it and just like just really pushing yourself you're not allowing yourself for that recovery but there's a lot of different things that you can do to still be active but you're also allowing your body that rest and recovery so simple stuff like low intensity walking it could be low intensity cardio stretching yoga anything that's like pretty low intensity and not really stressing you out or like stressing your body stressing your nervous system is going to be
00:07:37
Speaker
a thing that you can do and this allows you to feel like you're still doing something but you're also still allowing your body to recover so like a simple example would be like in between on your rest days rather than going to the gym or like doing some intense cardio you could do like going bike ride or going to walk or do some yoga something that's really simple but still allows you to move your body and still feel like you are doing something Question number two, with summer coming up, that usually comes with more social events and I struggle to find this balance between fun and health.
Balancing Fun and Health Goals in Summer
00:08:06
Speaker
Any tips on this? I think going into summer, we're really just going into any sort of time period where things might start to change a little bit, like different seasons are going to look a little bit different. I think the biggest thing is just having a plan going in.
00:08:19
Speaker
Because if you go into something and you don't really have a plan and you just kind of wing it and you're kind of one foot in, one foot out type of thing, like you have certain goals that you might be thinking about, but like you don't really have a certain plan going into these different seasons, it makes it really hard. And so what I mean by that is like, let's say you have weight loss goals and you're going into summer.
00:08:38
Speaker
Maybe going into summer, you realize that, okay, I'm going to be a little bit more lax about it. I'm going to allow myself a little bit more indulgence. And that means that my progress is going to be a little bit slower. And maybe this is going to be more of a maintenance phase rather than like me getting a ton of fat loss and really dialing in my things over the summer.
00:08:56
Speaker
Or maybe you're somebody who your weight loss goals are more important to you right now. And you're okay with like, keeping it a little bit more tight and dialed in throughout the summer. And you know that you're just going to keep it super strict. And you're going to just really dial things in and just stay on top of it. And then later in the year, maybe you'll go into a maintenance phase or Next summer comes around, you feel good, you've lost all your weight and like you're maintaining and you feel in a good spot and you know that down the road you're going to be able to enjoy those things.
00:09:22
Speaker
Neither one of those things are wrong, but I think it just having some sort of plan going in is really important because what I see a lot is people get stuck in this middle ground and then they start to feel guilty about it. So they like have these certain goals, but then they find themselves kind of like straying off the path. They're not as...
00:09:39
Speaker
diligent with their goals and with the things that they need to do in order to see the progress that they want to see. And so they feel bad about it. And then ultimately, like once they start to get into this like really bad spiral, they're like, well, screw it. I can't stay consistent.
00:09:50
Speaker
I'm not doing the things I should be doing and they feel bad about it. So now not only are you not making progress on the goals that you have, now you're not even fully enjoying the events that you have. Like you're not enjoying the the barbecues or the vacations or things like that because you feel guilty that you're not doing these other things. And so have a clear plan going in. Like, am I still really focusing on these fitness goals that I have?
00:10:12
Speaker
And am I okay with that? Or do I want to take maybe a little bit of a break, maybe more of a maintenance type of phase throughout the summer or throughout a period of the summer and stick with that? And so to give you a little bit of an example of what I'm doing right now, in the past, I've had times where like weight loss was more of a focus and throughout the summer, that was something that I wanted to continue to focus on.
00:10:33
Speaker
But most times, like now I'm at a point where like maintaining or like losing a bunch of fat or like these big weight loss goals, they aren't really a part of like what I'm doing anymore. I'll go through certain fat loss phases And that'll be that.
00:10:45
Speaker
But I'm not like I don't have this like big overarching goal that I'm really trying to hit. And so for me, like staying super dialed in or trying to lose a bunch of fat throughout the summer doesn't really make sense to me. And so what I like to do is before summer, I'll go into a little mini cut like that's exactly what I'm doing right now for the next four weeks. I'm doing a little bit of a mini cut just because I want to lose five to 10 ish pounds.
00:11:06
Speaker
And then once summer comes around, I know that I'm not going to be super like dialed in. I'm not going to be tracking every single meal. I'm going to allow myself to indulge a little bit more. I'll probably drink a little bit more, have a little bit more food, go out to eat those sorts of things.
00:11:19
Speaker
And I'm totally okay with that. Like I know that once I get into the summer, I'm probably going to gain a few pounds and that's okay. And again, there's no right or wrong answer. Like some people choose to continue to diet, continue to focus on their goals throughout the summer, and that's perfectly fine. But have some sort of plan going in is probably the biggest tip that I would give you.
00:11:37
Speaker
And that way you're not feeling guilty about things. You're not one foot in, one foot out with it. And then the other thing I would say about summer as well is like lot of times people will think of these like seasons as like this has to be like this four week, this eight week, this three month long thing of where like I'm just like not doing anything that I should be doing or that I want to be doing.
00:11:58
Speaker
But when you really boil it down, like when you think about it's like, OK, summer is like you know three months long or whatever. Throughout the summer, like you might go on vacation once, maybe twice. You might have, you know, a couple different barbecues. There's a couple holidays in there. But if you like really count up the days of how many days it is, like it's not that many, maybe like 10 days, 15 different days where like you're doing different things outside of that, like your days are just regular days.
00:12:20
Speaker
And so if you're staying on track, if you're staying locked in on those days and doing the things that you. want to be doing. Like you have those daily disciplines, you have those weekly disciplines on those days where like you're not on vacation or you're not doing these social events and you're staying locked in with your workouts throughout the week, you're eating fairly well, like you're getting your steps and you're doing those little things like a majority of the time on those just normal regular days.
00:12:44
Speaker
you're going to easily be able to continue to balance what this healthy lifestyle should look like. And I think that's important to realize like summer is a great time to start to implement these things and start to really incorporate what it is to be balanced with a healthy lifestyle. Because I think people, they get pinned in these different thought processes where it's like, I either have to be super dialed in or I'm in just like screw up mode where like, I don't care about anything.
00:13:09
Speaker
For a very, very large majority of people, and especially the people who you see are like pretty fit and pretty healthy all year round, they find this happy middle ground where like, they're not quite as dialed in certain times of the year, but like they always have this minimum standard of like, I'm doing these certain things most of my days. And when you do those things, when you have that nice foundation, you can continue to maintain and in some cases you can and even continue to make progress when you have this good foundation of like these are my daily disciplines these are my weekly disciplines to make sure that i'm getting these things in and i found this is really helpful with the mental side of things and it's what i call like mental momentum because
00:13:48
Speaker
Physically, you need to be doing these certain things in order to like stay on top of your fitness goals. But I found that if you can continue to show up and do these things on a regular basis, it really helps to keep that mental momentum going, which I think is the thing that people really, really struggle with. Because if you find yourself like you get off track for a while, let's say you know you go on vacation, a lot of people really struggle to get back on track. And it's not really from a physical standpoint. It's just from a mental standpoint. You get out of routine, you get out of your normal structure, and people start to overthink it. You start to feel like you...
00:14:17
Speaker
like went backwards or you missed out on all this progress. And like, it's just a big mental head game. And so when you can continue to show up and like get your workouts in and like do these little things, it just keeps that like fitness and healthy balance top of mind. And you can continue to do all these things that you want to do. And now you're not worried about regressing or like losing all your progress and you still feel good. You're still able to like maintain your physical body. You're still able to like work towards your goals.
00:14:43
Speaker
And I think it's just a much better overall approach than like being all in or all out. And so couple tips there. Hopefully that helps you as we start to head into summer. Got to love the warmer weather coming along. Cannot wait for those higher temps here.
00:14:57
Speaker
Question number three. How do you know when to ramp up the intensity versus when to dial it back? Sometimes I feel like I'm doing too much and other times not enough. This is a pretty popular question. And the best thing that I can tell you is start to listen to your body.
00:15:13
Speaker
And so with that first question, kind of talked about this a little bit, but using what's called biofeedback, basically like your energy levels, your sleep, if you're sleeping well, or if you're having crappy sleep, your soreness, your mood, your motivation, whether or not you're recovering, because Your body is going to be able to tell you a lot more than like an outside source like myself or anybody else could tell you because you actually know like when you can actually push it versus when you can pull it back or need to pull it back.
00:15:42
Speaker
And by listening to your body and really trying to tune into those things, you can get better at this over time. And especially it's not something like if you're like first getting into this and like maybe you haven't been at it too long, I think having a plan and just really sticking to that plan and understanding like it's going to be a little bit tough, especially at the beginning and you start to build more discipline, more resilience and you start to like recover better and you gain a better capacity to like handle just the physical and mental struggles that come along with.
00:16:07
Speaker
just the whole fitness journey but as you get more more and more into this as you get deeper into this you really start to learn to listen to your body and if you start to tune into that a little bit more you start to realize okay like i could probably pull it back on this day or like this is a day where i could really push forward and start to make a little bit more progress but it's not just something that like you automatically know you'll get better at doing that over time and i think another question to ask yourself is like whether or not you should be ramping it up or pulling it back is like are you continuing to make progress if you're not making progress, then like more doesn't necessarily always mean that that is the answer.
00:16:43
Speaker
Sometimes it's less and sometimes it's more. So you really need to think about your goals and are you progressing towards those goals? Maybe you're not doing enough, or maybe you're inconsistent. So you do need to add more, but maybe you're doing too much and you're not allowing your body that rest and recovery.
00:16:56
Speaker
And so it really is like a case by case basis. And also I think the last thing to talk about here is recognizing that things come in different
Fitness Periodization
00:17:05
Speaker
seasons. So in strength and conditioning and like workouts and training, this is what's called periodization.
00:17:11
Speaker
Basically, you have different phases throughout the year where like you're really pushing it hard. And then you have other phases where like you're recovering and then you have other phases where you're more maintaining. It's the same thing with like weight loss and and fat loss and and that sort of thing. Like there's different phases. It's not always 100% in. It's not always like we need to just push it as hard as possible. Sometimes there's different phases like where we do need to pull it back. Maybe you're not working out quite as much. And This will change based on the things that you have going on in your life, like your stress levels, things that you have going on at home ah with work.
00:17:43
Speaker
Like all those things may affect what you're doing in the gym and what your fitness process actually looks like. And again, I think this is where it really helps to have those daily or weekly disciplines, because when you're creating those, the way that I think about those is you want to have things that you can do even on your worst days, like even on your hardest days.
00:18:02
Speaker
those weekly and daily disciplines are things that you can do no matter what. And when you have those things, when you have that, that certain level, when you have that certain standard, it's easy to stick to. And then on the good days, like in the good phases where you're really pushing it, like you might be way above those, those daily disciplines, those weekly disciplines. But like, if I know if I'm going into a really stressful, like,
00:18:21
Speaker
Work is really stressful. Like maybe i have some things going on at home and like fitness is going to take a little bit of a backseat, like have some sort of daily disciplines in place that might be, okay, I'm going to get 6,000 steps in my day and I'm going to get two solid workouts in per week.
00:18:35
Speaker
That's not very much your time. Like you can get two full body workouts in maybe 45 minutes a piece throughout the week. You're walking 6,000, 7,000 steps a day. And then I'm going to make sure that I get protein at every meal because I know if I get protein at every meal, I'm just generally going to eat a little bit better and plan my meals.
00:18:51
Speaker
a little bit more efficiently. And so maybe those are your three daily disciplines or your three daily slash weekly disciplines. And you do those things when things are a little bit more stressful. And then like when things are going good and you have a little bit more time, you know, you're not as busy, maybe you're not as stressed out, you don't have as much going on, well, you can ramp those things up a little bit. But just having those in place, I think sets a good foundation for you to, again, keep that mental momentum going, but also just make sure that you are making some progress from a physical standpoint as well.
Muscle Building Strategies
00:19:21
Speaker
Question number four, when it comes to hitting the gym, what are some of your best muscle building tips? All right, this is a question that I like. I like to train, but I think I talk a lot more about nutrition than I do about training and exercise, just because training is something that,
00:19:38
Speaker
there's It's very advanced and there's a lot of different things that you can do, but at its most basic level, it's pretty simple. But I think when it comes to nutrition, that's the thing that a lot of people really struggle with. And that's the thing that is also going to help people get to their goals because a lot of people have goals around like,
00:19:53
Speaker
how they want to feel, how they want to look, especially. And so a lot of that is going to come from nutrition. And so I feel like I talk about nutrition a lot more, but I do really enjoy training and I like to talk about it a little bit. So I'll give you three of my favorite muscle building tips or things that I've been focused on or just thinking about lately. And so I think the first thing is like, you just focusing on progressive overload.
00:20:15
Speaker
It still drives me nuts. I shouldn't say it drives me nuts, but when I see people that like, I know their goal is to change their body it is to build muscle, it is to get stronger, like they want to look better, and they want to feel better. And then they do these certain types of exercises that like, it's just a million reps, it's a ton of different variety, there's no progressive overload, I just, I feel bad for them, because I like, I know what their goals are.
00:20:38
Speaker
And they're not going to get to their goals, they're not going to be able to change their body and like, achieve all these things that they want to achieve by training in a certain way. And I'm the first to say like any kind of exercise is great exercise.
00:20:49
Speaker
But I think if you have particular goals that are actually important to you, you have to be realistic and look at it and look at what are the best activities? What are the best tools that I can use to get me to that goal?
00:21:00
Speaker
And now if you decide that I don't really care about those goals, i don't really have goals around like what I look like or anything like that. And you just want to move your body and exercise. That's awesome. Like do any kind of exercise you want. No big deal.
00:21:11
Speaker
Any exercise is good exercise. But if you have specific goals around like building muscle, and around like getting stronger you have to be focusing on progressive overload and the best way to do that is through traditional strength training and so focus on just finding good exercises that feel good on your body and that feel good on your joints and that you really actually enjoy and look forward to and then just continue to get better at those and as you start to get stronger at those you'll start to build muscle build strength when it comes to these things there's what you can start to add what is called intensifiers. So things like drop sets, rest pause sets, mile rep match sets. These are all things that you can start to add once you have those basics down of really focusing on progressive overload.
00:21:52
Speaker
Things that I will add into my training just to kind of spice things up and add a little bit more variety, not variety with exercises, but just variety with the way that I perform these exercises. So with these intensifiers, something like a drop set is All this is is like, let's say you're doing a weight on dumbbell bench press and on your last set, you're gonna do the 75s and you're gonna do them for eight to 10 reps.
00:22:15
Speaker
You get through it and push it really hard. You go one to two reps shy of muscular failure. immediately after you drop that going drop the weight let's say maybe you go grab the 50s and then you're just going rep out as many reps as you can all the way to muscular failure that would be what's called a drop set and all we're trying to do with these intensifiers is just really push our muscles close to muscular failure and just milk out every little ounce that we can and so these are nice little things that you can add on to the ends of certain sets if you really want to like hit a certain muscle group a little bit harder maybe you're just feeling really good that day you want to add a little bit of an extra challenge these are certain things you can do so that's what a drop set is a rest pause set would be again i like to do these only on like the very last set like if i want to add one of these things in so a rest pause set would be like let's say i grab those same 75s and i'm doing dumbbell bench on my last set i'm going to do eight reps
00:23:07
Speaker
So I hit just shy of muscular failure, one to two reps. I'm going pause for like 15 to 20 seconds. And then I'm going to do as many reps as I can again. And then maybe I do that one more time where I pause another 15 to 20 seconds, do as many reps as I can. Obviously, as I'm working through that, the first set, I'm getting eight reps. I'm not going to get as many on the second set. Maybe I get like five and then rest again. And then maybe on the third set, I only get like two or three reps because my muscles are just screaming and they're burning and I can't get nearly as many, but that would be what a rest pause set is.
00:23:38
Speaker
And then the last one, which is called a mile rep match set. I like to do these on things like a pushups or like if I'm doing anything with a little bit higher reps, all this means is let's say again, where we use the dumbbell bench as an example, I do my bench, I go for max reps and let's say I hit 17 reps. I'm using like the sixties. I hit 17 reps.
00:23:59
Speaker
Well now on my next set on the mile rep, match set, I'm going to use that same weight. I'm going to rest two to three minutes and I'm going to use that same weight. But because I just went to muscular failure, I'm not going to get to that 17 reps.
00:24:12
Speaker
But for my next set of exercises, I'm going to do as many as I can. And then I just take rest as needed to get to that 17 reps. And so it might take me three different sets where I have to set the weight down and get all the way up to that 17 reps. So like, for example, I do 17 reps,
00:24:29
Speaker
seventeen reps On that first set, then I rest two to three minutes. And then when I go back, I know on my first set, I'm not even going to get close to 17 reps because I really just like maxed out my muscles and they're really feeling the burn.
00:24:39
Speaker
And so maybe I only get 11. And so I rest a little bit and then I do another couple rest a little bit, do another couple all the way up until I get to that 17 reps. So that is what is called the mile rep match set.
00:24:51
Speaker
Again, these are a little bit more advanced type of things. And like, you don't need these things to build muscle or build, you know, a ton of extra strength or anything like that. But they can just be a fun way to add in a little bit of extra intensity. If you really want to feel that muscle burn, you can add these in on the last set of your working sets.
00:25:08
Speaker
This isn't something that you want to do for like every set because a lot of people think, well, dang, I feel like a great burn. Like I should just do this all the time. But when you do these certain types of things, the recovery is typically a little bit longer. And if you're like,
00:25:19
Speaker
just nailing every single muscle, every single set with one of these intensifiers, the amount of time that it takes to recover in between these workouts is going to be a little bit more. And so you have to, again, find that good balance, add these in every once a while if you want to, but you don't want to overdo it.
00:25:33
Speaker
The second tip I would say when it comes to just building muscle is form, control, and intention matter a lot more than just chasing a sweat or ah getting your heart rate way up or different things like that.
00:25:45
Speaker
A lot of times like people really have the goal of like looking a certain way or like building muscle, but then their form is not very good. They're not really controlling the weight. They don't really have like good form or technique or just intention when they're doing their reps.
00:25:58
Speaker
And one of the best things that you can do is just start to slow down, like slow down and just create a little bit more muscle mind connection when it comes to building muscle. There's a time and a place to just push some weight and just focus on just getting really, really strong.
00:26:10
Speaker
But there's also a time and a place to just slow things down, work on technique, work on form, work on control. In a way that you can kind of mix these two, which is typically how I train. So let's say I have three sets of an exercise. Let's say we're back to that dumbbell bench.
00:26:23
Speaker
The first two sets, I'm just going to really focus on strength, still keeping good technique, good form, but I'm really just pushing as much weight as possible. Then on that third set, let's say this is my last set of dumbbell bench. I might drop the weight down like 10 to 20%.
00:26:36
Speaker
and use less weight so that I can really slow it down and just really focus on like a good squeeze, a good muscle connection, and just like really try to milk everything out of those reps. Because the issue is when you're using really, really heavy weights, it's harder to control and keep good form and things like that. And so again, you want to find that happy medium. And this is what I like to do because it allows me to get the best of both worlds like i can still push a lot of weight get really strong but i can also have some of this time where like i'm really focused on like building a little bit more muscle and just like focusing in on just slow and controlled reps and so that's something that you can also try or throw into your training as well
00:27:14
Speaker
And then the last thing I would say, just as far as like muscle building tips is actually nothing to do with the gym, but it's just eating enough and prioritizing your recovery. So getting better sleep, proper nutrition, hydration, getting enough protein, like those are the things that are going to make a huge difference when it comes to like muscle building.
00:27:31
Speaker
Training is the most important when it comes to like building muscle, but like protein and sleep and just like consuming a good amount of calories and consuming quality calories is right up there as well. And so you cannot neglect those things if you really do want to be seeing the results that you want to see.
00:27:46
Speaker
Because I think when it comes to like the separator of people who really do see the best results again a lot of this comes down to nutrition like you need that stimulus in the gym but a lot of this stuff comes down to what you do outside of the gym and so making sure that you really maximize all those things outside of the gym is really important and the last question of the day question five every time i get into a good groove i feel like i start to self-sabotage and i don't know why any insight would be greatly appreciated This is something that I actually see quite a bit when it comes to weight loss. And a lot of times it's because weight loss or just like dealing with weight struggles is something that most people have been struggling with for a really long time.
Understanding Self-Sabotage in Fitness
00:28:26
Speaker
And so a lot of times what will happen is like we have these things going on in our subconscious that we don't even realize. And you have this certain identity of yourself and we like comfort and we like certainty.
00:28:37
Speaker
And so when you start to change, it's uncomfortable it doesn't feel right like it doesn't feel normal and so a lot of times rather than going into that uncertainty rather than continuing to push forward we revert back to these old habits and we don't even know why and like logically it doesn't make sense right because we're like i'm working out i'm eating better i'm feeling better i'm seeing progress why would i ever want to go back and do these old things and get back into these old patterns Well, because that's what we're used to.
00:29:02
Speaker
And we know like what that feels like, but we don't necessarily know what being super healthy feels like. We don't know what being super fit feels like. We don't know what like having more confidence and having better energy feels like. We kind of think we have an idea like and we know that that would be better, but we don't really know. And there's a lot of uncertainty with that. and when there's uncertainty,
00:29:20
Speaker
we have this tendency to pull back and like go back to these old habits. And so practically we want to just understand like, okay, it's normal to feel like this and I'm probably going to have some discomfort. It's probably going to be a little bit uncomfortable as I start to shift this identity and start to make these changes.
00:29:35
Speaker
First of all, just realize that and acknowledge that because I think just, Accepting that it is going to feel a little bit hard sometimes and it is going to feel a little bit uncomfortable is a really important part of this whole thing. And then just to continue showing up even when you do feel those things.
00:29:49
Speaker
And then the last thing is just to start to generate evidence that you are that person that you are becoming and you do this through small daily actions. So like. continuing to show up, continuing to work out, continuing to do all the things like work on all those habits that we want to incorporate with walking and protein and hitting your calories and like doing all these little things and like every single day, just stacking these small little boats on top of each other and generating that evidence that you are that person.
00:30:15
Speaker
Over time, you slowly start to shift this identity that you have out of this old identity that you used to have into this newer identity of like, I am this fit person. i am this person that prioritizes fitness and health.
00:30:26
Speaker
And as you start to do that, it doesn't feel so abnormal anymore. It just starts to turn into like who you really are and you start to become that person. And then the last thing that I would say about this is just start to try to get rid of some of that uncertainty by actually really reflecting and thinking about the things that you are uncomfortable with.
00:30:43
Speaker
Because a lot of times we just have like all these ideas going around in our head about like what change is going to look like, what we have to do, like... Is this going change or do I need to do this? Like, am i making the right move? Am I doing the right things? And like, we don't really have a clear vision about things and things are just kind of muddied up and they're just blurry and they're uncertain.
00:31:02
Speaker
And if you just take some time to really think about these things and like think through this and like really start to create like some simple action steps, it starts to get rid of a lot of this uncertainty and a lot of this fear around these things that we have.
00:31:14
Speaker
There's this quote that I had heard recently that I feel like applies to this really well. And it said that fear is an inch deep, but a mile wide. And oftentimes we have like these certain fears or these like, you know, things that we're scared of because it's unknown, it's uncertain. But like when you really actually dive into it and think about it, it's not that big of a deal.
00:31:33
Speaker
And it's actually a lot more easy to do. And it's a lot more logical to figure out than we realize, but we just let our heads spin and we're really good at like ruminating and just like, letting fear take over rather than just like getting really practical and getting really like tangible about these things and just really like digging into these things and figuring out, okay, these are the things that I need to do, continue to show up. I understand it's going to be a little bit uncomfortable, but i can continue to make these steps and do these daily actions and do these things. Eventually I'm going to get to a point where like,
00:32:01
Speaker
I'm doing all these things. I'm hitting these goals. I'm feeling better. I'm shifting my mindset. I'm creating a new identity. And then it just becomes your new normal. Again, a lot easier said than done, but you need to have that self-awareness first and then actually start to reflect and think about what these things are going to look like. And the more and more that you can start to do those things and really push towards these goals, even when it is a little bit uncomfortable, the more that this starts to become easy. And then you don't worry about this self-sabotage and and messing with all these different things that like you're just not understanding like why am i not making progress or why am i doing these things that i know i shouldn't be doing you start to just focus on the things that you should be doing and eventually if you start to have better inputs you start doing those things that you need to be doing on a daily and weekly basis you start to generate that evidence you start to create progress you start to see the path forward and the more and more you do that the more comfortable it it becomes and so
00:32:52
Speaker
Hopefully that is helpful and that's something that you can actually start to think about a little bit.
Episode Wrap-Up and Coaching Offer
00:32:56
Speaker
And with that being said, that is the episode for this week. Got our five questions answered. If you want a question answered in the future, you can always shoot me a message and I am happy to take a look at those. I'm always looking for good questions to bring to the pod.
00:33:08
Speaker
So you can shoot me a message if that is you. Other than that, one-on-one coaching, if you are somebody who is wanting some help with this fitness stuff, specifically this weight loss stuff, you want somebody to help you with it, a little hands-on, some accountability, help with nutrition, training, all that good stuff, you can always check out the link in the show notes.
00:33:25
Speaker
But that is all I have for you for now. I appreciate you listening and we will see you next week.