How Do You Know What Your Body Needs?
This is something that I’ve struggled with for many years. This is what my clients struggle with. This is what I struggle with as a trainer/ yoga instructor.
How do we know how intense to be pushing?
How do we know how much is too much?
How do we know what’s not enough?
How much rest should I take?
Simply knowing your body isn’t all there is to answering these questions. And, after trying periodization (which will work), I don’t think it’s a great model for healthy living. You do need to have a good general awareness of your body, BUT, what people also tend to forget is the component of the mind!
The time spend pondering these questions and my opinion in answering these questions shifted dramatically when I read the book “Body, Mind and Sport: by Dr. John Douillard.” I was already a yoga instructor at the time, who had learned the basics around ayurveda so I loved the fact that he recognized differences in body types and how that can effect exercise. I had also been working as a personal trainer with a kinesiology degree for 3 years at the time, so I was fully indoctrinated and delivering western style “no pain, no gain” workouts to all my clients. I never really though about bringing yoga and ayurvedic principals to any and all forms of exercise.
The thing I love most about ayurveda is that it recognizes that our ‘body type’ and our ‘mind type’ can be totally different. Aka. you can be the laziest person around but still be stick thin. The other thing that I appreciate with ayurveda (which is really ancient Indian medicine) is that this 5000+ year old practice recognized the importance of diet and movement in health. So what does that have to do with knowing when you should be resting and when you should be pushing super hard? You need to respect your body type (especially in choosing your predominate type of activity) AND you must respect your mind type. That means if you’re stick thin and lazy, the western culture might say “wow, that person is healthy and has a beautiful body” but, according to me- you have to get off your ass and bust our some high intensity work every once in a while.
Ok, so more specifics, enough jabber.
How do we know how intense to be pushing?
Dr. Douillard states in his book that your should gauge your intensity by the ability to maintain a slow nostril breath throughout your workout. This should be true for any sustained exercise. This should not be true for short, burst or interval work. When engaging in burst activity, you should come back to this slow nostril breath between bursts (6-12 bursts per workout is a good aim for intervals.)
Most people focus on how many “workouts” they are doing a week and completely ignore what they are doing the other 23 hrs of each day. There is a lot of focus on intensity these days. In North America, and in Alberta we completely buy into the phrases ‘more is better’, ‘the harder the better’ and ‘no pain, no gain.’ I’m convinced that somehow it ties into the fact that most of us come from DNA and genetics that decided to cross an ocean and leave family to work hard, push boundaries and leave a legacy. Generally, we should all be focusing on moving more during the day so that our workouts don’t have to be so time consuming and we can engage in 3-4 days of scheduled activity living at our healthiest. As for how intense, a good place to start is knowing…
How do we know how much is too much?
High intensity workouts (aka. 20 min interval style workouts) should only be done a MAX of 3 times a week. That goes for someone starting out (really 2 is better for you) and someone who is in impeccable shape. Going hard more often might give you better short term results but will almost always lead to burnout, body breakdown and performance decreases in the long term (or at very best, no growth). Trust me on this one, I’ve been there- working hard for nothing and eventually gaining weight and dealing with injuries.
On the flip side, if you are someone who really struggles with exercise motivation, one high intensity interval training (HIIT) session can give you motivation and energy to keep moving through the week. This can be really beneficial for productivity and emotional health (http://articles.mercola.com/peak-fitness.aspx).
How do we know what’s not enough?
Your mind is a great gauge for this. If you’re either not getting enough or getting too much, exercise tends to feel daunting and like a huge burden. Not getting enough exercise dampens your overall “zest” for life. Even just a little bit of movement in the morning (Aka. 5 sun salutations) can totally change your need for morning coffee and an afternoon nap. So… if you’re at 0 scheduled activity, start by doing 5 sun salutations a day (check out our video Sun Salutation A’s For Beginners) & make a point of setting an alarm every 30min to get off you butt and either walk around or do a 30sec burst of activity (aka. running on the spot, air squats, jumping jacks… as hard and fast as you can. Max of 12 per day.) This doesn’t seem like a lot of “exercise” but 5-10min of daily moderate movement (Sun Salutations), multiple daily bursts and more general active daily movement really adds up. I went from double workouts 4 days a week plus single workouts 2 days a week (1 day of rest ‘cause I thought that was enough) to 13 months of being a new mom. I snuck in some mild yoga, tended to a baby and snuck in a few bursts. When I ran a 5k, (13 months after baby plus 4 months semi-bed rest) I expected my time to be much slower than my days of super periodized training but not so much the case. I ran the race in about the same time and felt fantastic the whole way through and after (I had much less perceived energy during and after when I was training 10 sessions per week).
How much rest should I take?
If you’re consistently sore between workouts, your body is telling you that you’re not fully recovered. If you’re not fully recovered, you won’t be getting the full benefits of your workout. Paul Chek is a firm believer that every time you step into the gym, you should be improving by at least 1%. That means, according to him, if you’re too sore to lift the same or more weight than the day before, you need to rest (or you shouldn’t have pushed so hard in the first place). I think this is a really good gauge. Do some restorative stretching and meditation work if you’ve booked in exercise time but feel too sore to complete what you had planned. Just know that rest doesn’t equal being a couch potato and eating crappy food. Rest means, focusing on great nutrition to help your body recover (Aka. lots of greens), finding some time for gentle movement (aka. restorative stretching or a casual/meditative walk) and engaging in some body care practices (aka. massage or salt baths..try ours:)
Why do we ask these questions in the first place?
It’s because we all intuitively know or know from experience that exercise make us feel good. It makes us feel more vibrant, more alive and really clear in our thoughts. For many of us, movement is meditation. Meditation allows us to separate ourselves from our constant inner chatter of things we need to get done. It also gives us space to transcend our identities (aka “a mom”, “an instructor”, “a wife”, “a 30yr old”…(this is me) or any other way people tend to describe you) and just feel like a living, breathing soul. Dr. Douillard shows us research that clearly shows engaging in meditative activity (also known as the athlete “zone”) produces a different pattern of waves in our brain!
In the end, the answer to “knowing what your body needs” lies a lot in your mind personality. If you tend to push really hard, and block off signals of pain.. you’re probably doing too much in general. If you’re the type that always makes excuses for reading another book, or watching another episode on Netflix, you probably need to find a workout buddy, trainer or health coach to help you get up and move more. Whatever your general mind type, you’ll probably make mistakes and fall back into old patterns… don’t let this get you down. Be aware of it and course correct when you need. Having accountability partners, coaches and trainers around is a great way to get you back on track when you start to slip. Keep us on your list and don’t be afraid to leave comments with your personal experience with exercise. Sharing stories is a powerful way to empower others 🙂
