psychology – Page 2 – Tony Gentilcore

Trashing the Word Can’t: Why It’s Either You Will, or You Won’t

Today’s guest post comes courtesy of TG.com fan-favorite, Justin Kompf. And by “fan-favorite” I mean his one fan, his mom.

Just kidding.

Justin’s my good friend, occasional training partner, and has written a ton of content for this site, but it’s been awhile…

…and I was excited to see this article waiting in my inbox this morning. The title of the email was “really, really good blog,” and, begrudgingly (because Justin is the opposite of modest when it comes to E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G), I have to admit, he was right.

It’s superb.

Trashing the Word Can’t: It’s Either You Will or You Won’t

Only twice in my life have I deadlifted 600 pounds.

I cannot do that now. There remains a plethora of other feats that I cannot do. I cannot run a five-minute mile. I cannot bench double my body weight and I cannot jump four feet in the air.

However, I certainly can deadlift, I can run, I can bench press, and I can jump.

Saying you cannot do a behavior is like saying you cannot ask out a person you like. You can, but for any number of reasons, you’re just not going to.

In fitness, there are outcome goals and there are process goals. Process goals lead to outcome goals. Deadlifting, the process goal, leads to the 600-pound deadlift, the outcome goal. Reducing calories, the process goal, leads to a lower body fat percentage, the outcome goal. Processes cause outcomes.

Outcome goals are not plausible in the here and now.

You cannot achieve them now because they are in the future, and often far away. Process goals are here and now, and they are plausible.

You can do them today.

For process goals, cannot is often a misused word.

It sets up a false narrative that allows for stagnation. Yes, with 100% confidence you can go to the gym and lift. Yes, with 100% confidence you can eat vegetables. Once cannot and can are used properly and the right words are used instead (“I don’t want to”, “I don’t feel like it”) you can actually move forward to different options or maintain the status quo.

Your choice.

A Clear-Cut Definition of Can and Cannot

Any student who has spent a semester in an introductory psychology class has inevitably heard of the importance of self-efficacy, a person’s confidence in their abilities to execute a task. Confidence in abilities plays a pivotal role in whether a behavior is initiated. For example, even if I wanted to Salsa dance tonight, I couldn’t because I don’t have the skills to do so.

I could dance or move my body in a way that someone may be able to make an educated guess that I am dancing. But it’s not Salsa.

In a 2016 paper, Ryan Rhodes, a researcher out of the University of Victoria, dived into how can and cannot are misinterpreted. Participants were asked to rate their confidence that they could do resistance training two times per week for at least 20 minutes on a graded percent scale where 0% meant cannot do at all and 100% meant definitely can do.

After they recorded their answers can and cannot were properly explained.

Cannot was described in a similar way to my 600-pound deadlift or 5-minute mile example. No matter how hard I try, I would have no confidence that I can run a 5-minute mile. Can was explained similarly to the asking a crush out example.

The capabilities are there, you just aren’t going to do it.

Once can and cannot were properly explained, confidence values for resistance training increased. Nothing really changed though, other than the understanding of the word can. They realized they could do it; that is, they have the capabilities.

Prior to the explanation capabilities were considered the same as motivation. Stated otherwise, they had the capability; they just weren’t motivated.

There we have it, can and cannot.

If you have done resistance training or exercised within the last year even once, you certainly can do it. If you have had a single bite of broccoli you can eat vegetables. While the skill set may not be there to do a back squat or make a ratatouille casserole you certainly can do a leg press and put baby carrots into your mouth. It just might be hard, but entirely doable.

Moving on, it’s best to trash the words “can’t” and “cannot.”

What Can I Do That I Am Willing to Do?

As a disclaimer, there are real “cannots.”

You cannot do a back squat unless you have a gym membership or a squat rack. Nor can you go for a run without running shoes.

Limitations are real but only exclude a small percent of us from exercise and improvement.

“What can I do?” is going to be the first question, immediately followed by “what am I willing to do?”

Goals necessitate a willingness for change. An opportunity-cost will always exist in a change effort. What am I willing to give up to get what I want? Drinking 30 beers a week is counterproductive to a weight loss goal. If you are lifting weights for 90 minutes you cannot simultaneously be watching Netflix on your couch for 90 minutes.

Opportunities have a cost.

If you’re not willing to give on anything, be honest with yourself, it’s a motivation issue not a capability issue. If you’re willing to give on something, then it’s time to design your change menu.

Design Your Change Menu

Your change menu is composed of what you can do AND what you are willing to do. If you don’t know how to do certain exercises it can’t be on your menu.

Your menu would need to say “learn how to do X,Y,X” instead.

via GIPHY

If you don’t know how to write your own fitness program you cannot say “write my own fitness program.” It needs to be “hire someone to write my program” or “hire someone to teach me to write a program.”

If you can do it, what are you willing to do? How much time are you willing to dedicate to it? Are you willing to go faster? To lift heavier?

If you can run, what are you willing to do? How far, how fast, how many days?

If you can lift, what are you willing to do? What exercises, how long, how many days?

We often have lofty fitness goals, abstract visions of six pack futures, jaw dropping physiques.

For the most part we are entirely capable of doing the things that would lead us to get there.

We can cut calories.
We can push ourselves to lift heavier, to accumulate greater training volume, to learn new exercises.
We can persist year in and year out.

Match your goals to what you are willing to put on your change menu.

I realize it’s just vernacular, but it’s words that tell us the story we follow. It’s rarely an issue of if you can do it. Arguably, most reasonable fitness goals can be chipped away at with time and persistence. It’s all a matter of picking what you can do right now and choosing goals that match what you are willing to do.

About the Author

Justin Kompf is doctoral student studying exercise and health sciences. He is a personal trainer in Boston at CLIENTEL3.

You can follow Justin here and here.

(He’s obsessed with his girlfriend’s dog).

January 23, 2020 Tony

psychology

3 Psych Skills for Strength Training

Copyright: tonobalaguer / 123RF Stock Photo

Don’t Roll Your Eyes. This Stuff Works

It was a beautiful Fall day in Boston. My wife and I were walking home one night after running a few errands and she could sense I was a bit “off.”

I hadn’t spoken much, which, in of itself wasn’t unusual. But as we were crossing the street, infant in tow, her Spidey-sense psychotherapist intuition kicked in:

Her: “Okay, what’s on your mind?”

Me: “It sounds silly, but I’m nervous about my lift tomorrow. It’s THE day.”

Her: “The day?”

Me: “Yeah, I’m testing my deadlift tomorrow and making a go for 600 lbs. I’m just really nervous and anxious about tomorrow.”

[SIDE NOTE: The 600 lb deadlift had been a long-standing goal of mine and something that had been alluding me for a few years. I finally hired my own coach – Greg Robins of The Strength House – to take over my programming and it was time to test the fruits of my labor).

Her: “What are you nervous about?”

Me: “That I won’t hit it, that I won’t hit my goal. I’m nervous about failing.”

Her: “Have you worked hard?”

Me: “Yes.”

Her: “Have you followed your program?”

Me: “Yes.”

Her: “Have you hit all your reps leading up to this point?

Me: “Yes.”

Her: “Then what’s the problem? You’ve prepared. You’re ready. You’ve got this.”

Me: “I am so turned out right now. Let’s go make out.”

Okay, that last part didn’t happen.¹

But what did happen was that my psychologist wife punched my proverbial negative self-thinking asshatedness in the mouth and I went to the gym the following day and did this:

3 Psych Skills for Strength Training

We’re often our own worst enemy. We humans have a knack for playing mental mind-games with ourselves that can ignite all sorts of clusterfuckery into the mix.

It can stagnate and impair progress.

It can suck.

My wife is the shit (<– I’m biased) and she’s awesome at what she does. A meathead and former high-level athlete herself she has a unique way of incorporating her expertise as a mental health therapist and applying it towards enhanced performance in the weight room.

I can attest that this stuff works.

Check out her latest article on T-Nation.com which goes into more detail – HERE.

December 5, 2019 Tony

The Road to Recovery Is Paved With More Training

Today’s guest post comes courtesy of trainer, writer, and guy I hate because he is waaaaaaay too good looking, Michael Gregory.

Michael wrote an excellent post on nutrient timing for my site last year which you can check out HERE. He’s back again discussing an important topic: “reframing” injury and how to use (more) training to aid recovery.

Warning: Avengers: End Game spoilers ahead.

But come on: It’s been three weeks for crying out loud. If you haven’t seen it by now it’s your fault.

The Road to Recovery Is Paved With More Training

Let’s talk about acute injuries in your clients: those accidents that leave a scar in the shape of a teddy bear.

“Oh! What a cute injury!”

Allow me to elaborate, for those of you who aren’t a fan of Dad jokes.

If you hurt yourself, the best recovery plan you can follow includes continuing to train and actually treating the injury as if it is less egregious than it may actually be.

I’m not suggesting that you act as if nothing happened, but I am suggesting that you only adjust your training as much as you have to in order to work around the pain.

As a coach, you aren’t a doctor, so don’t act like one. You are, however, in the chain of recovery, and may be the only fitness professional around when an injury first occurs.

Know your role Snoop Lion

How you react matters to your client more than you realize.

The Assumption Is You Know What You’re Doing

You’re a shit hot programmer that doesn’t plan anything your client isn’t ready for because you follow the principle of progressive overload.

One-rep maxes are not a spontaneous event that you perform when the sunset is a particularly auspicious color. They are planned for and prepared for, for weeks or even months in advance.

Because you program smartly, you know that any injury a client sustains under your care isn’t going to be a career ender.

It’s simply a kiss from the weightlifting gods that initiates them into the barbell illuminati.

If you train hard you will have battle wounds. That being the case, it’s time you learn how to get your clients past their injuries in the most economical way possible.

The Biopsychosocial Model of Pain for Acute Injuries

This framework comes from Dr. Austin Baraki over at Barbell Medicine. It applies on some level to every injury you or a client may sustain.

This entire process is about facilitating the best environment for healing. That means not freaking out and quitting, but rather, changing training only as much as is needed.

Step 1: Reassure AKA “Don’t freak out.”

Even if someone’s eye is hanging out of their skull, the best thing you can do is keep your cool. The power of positive thought is a hot topic these days.

There’s guys healing broken spines with just their minds, supposedly.

Even if those stories are only 10% accurate the power of the placebo effect is a wildy useful tool to have on your side. Keeping your cool and addressing unhelpful thoughts and fears are the first things you can to do to help your clients harness the effects of the placebo.

This is the psychosocial aspect of the model. It is the most important to get right the first time. Poisonous thoughts are really hard to uproot once they’ve been planted.

This whole step is the opposite of what my Junior Varsity football coach did to me and my relationship with the 2-plate bench press.

He told me I’d never be able to bench 225 with my long-ass arms unless I weighed 300+ pounds and the gravitational pull of the moon was twice its normal strength.

(Brief aside: Of course, the world’s weather and tidal patterns would be thrown into absolute chaos if all of a sudden the moon was twice as strong. So the joke’s on Coach J, because we’d all be dead before I could even make it to the gym. Try to remain calm after that sick burn.)

Regardless, I struggled for years with that negative reinforcement (nocebo effect) in my head. I could rep out 205 for sets of 5 but as soon as that second plate went on the bar “it was too heavy.”

Step 2: Assess the Situation

Like a good cub scout that just stumbled onto the remains of a deer that had been hit by a car, you’ve got to get your bearings.

Should you help it?

Put it out of its misery?

Add it to your Instagram story?

He already knows he messed up. Overreacting isn’t going to help the situation.

Start by asking the trainee what they were attempting and what they felt.

Remember, poker face: don’t let ‘em see you wince.

This is the first two “O’s” of the OODA loop, something that fighter pilots and military tacticians love to reference. Observe and Orient to the situation. (DA is Decide and Act, but you have to orient first).

No need to jump to any reactions here or start calling people lower life forms.

Be a professional.

Step 3: Move Forward by Reintroducing Movement in a Non-Threatening Context

Your special snowflake of a client is down, but not melted. You can still fix this and get them back to lifting heavy and kicking in doors faster than you can say “rubber baby buggy bumpers”.

Arnold said it first.

Your goal is to work your way backwards from the exercise that caused the injury in as short a distance as possible.

Start by asking these questions:

1st Question: Load. Is there a weight you can use that does not hurt?

If you can just reduce the weight of the exercise and the client no longer feels pain or discomfort then… do that.

If your client felt a “tweak” (technical term) in their mid-back while deadlifting, deadlift day isn’t over. Just take some weight off the bar. If it still hurts with 135, use the bar.

If it still hurts with the bar, use a PVC pipe.

The goal here is to show your client that the movement isn’t inherently dangerous at all weights.

2nd Question: Range of Motion. Where does it hurt?

If your client is still in pain conducting the movement with only their bodyweight, the next thing to adjust is range of motion.

In deadlifting, for example, if their pain is in the first two inches off the floor, elevate the bar until you are out of the danger zone.

No, this isn’t perfect form, for you deadlift sticklers out there, but your client isn’t going to be doing deadlifts from the rack or with the high handles on the trap bar forever. Pretty much as soon as you adjust the range of motion of a movement you should be planning for a progression to get the trainee back to the full movement.

If you haven’t seen it, consider this your warning.

Secondly, who the fudge decided what “full range of motion” is for any given exercise?

If your client isn’t a competitive lifter, it doesn’t actually matter.

I promise you won’t cause a rift in the space-time continuum resulting in an alternate timeline where Thanos succeeds in destroying half of all life in the universe and it stays that way. (Okay, that’s not really a spoiler so much as conjecture. Hey, spoiler warnings entice the reader to finish the article).

3rd Question (well, statement): Exercise Selection. If decreasing the weight and range of motion still results in pain, work your way backwards down the line of exercise specificity.

Only now should you be thinking about changing up the exercise entirely. This is assuming that you chose the initial exercise because it is the one which most completely trains you client to achieve their specified goal. If you just chose the exercise because it makes the vein in your biceps pop when you apply the Clarendon filter on Instagram I ask you the following question. How did you get this far in this article?

As an example, let’s say you were doing conventional deadlifts with your client. In my mind, the regression looks something like this:

Conventional deadlift
Snatch grip deadlift
Sumo deadlift
Straight leg deadlift
Romanian deadlift
Trap bar deadlifts
Rack pulls
Dumbbell deadlift variations
Single-leg DB deadlift variations
Single-arm DB deadlift variations
Single-arm single-leg DB deadlift variations
Good mornings
Cable pull-throughs
Hip thrusts

Okay, I digressed quite far there, but I think you get the point.

There are lots of exercises you can try with your client to teach them that they are not only not broken, but in fact still strong even with pain.

There is no excuse for the countless number of trainees doing leg presses and camping out on the stationary bike in the name of recovery.

Training is recovery.

It’s All Really Just Reassurance

This entire process of managing acute injuries is really just reassuring people that they aren’t fragile.

Some of our fellow humans, some of them your clients, have spent their entire lives avoiding pain at all costs. As a result, they’ve never had to learn how to overcome true adversity. By teaching this process to your clients, you are giving them the gift of self-reliance.

Resiliency is something most trainees are looking to build, mostly in the context of making their muscles more resilient. As far as I’m concerned, tenacity, fortitude, resilience, and mental toughness are all muscles. Each and every one of those is embedded in this process, and they are all made stronger every time someone learns to overcome something you or the barbell throws their way in the weightroom.

Does that tempt you to injure your clients on purpose now so that you can teach them about mental toughness?

Don’t do it.

But do be prepared to react calmly and with precision when accidents happen.

About the Author

Michael is a USMC veteran, strength coach, amateur surfer, and semi-professional mushroom connoisseur. As an intelligence officer and MCMAP instructor Michael spent the majority of his military career in the Pacific theater of operations.

He now lives in Bali where he writes, trains, and has had multiple near-death experiences in surf that is much too heavy for him.

For more by Michael check out his Instagram, Facebook, or his website www.composurefitness.com.

May 21, 2019 Tony

coaching personal training psychology

The Subtle Art of Shutting Up and Listening

Today’s guest post comes courtesy of TG.com regular, and my 1-day-per-week training partner², Justin Kompf.

Listening, I mean really listening, is a learned skill and takes a lot of (purposeful) practice to master. Those who are able to so, however, are often the ones who separate themselves from the masses in the fitness industry.

This is a quick read, but worth your time

Copyright: aaronamat / 123RF Stock Photo

The Subtle Art of Shutting Up and Listening

I take a deep breath before I knock on my advisor’s office door.

“Keep it together Justin, whatever you do don’t cry”

I take a seat in his office and immediately start crying. We don’t need to go into details, but I was in a tough place.

Fine, my girlfriend broke up with me and I had no idea where I was going with my career. Okay, great, sharing feelings, my favorite.

Can we move on?

I’m sitting in his office, which mind you is surrounded by other offices, just balling.

But as I’m talking, I’m starting to feel better.

Why?

Well, here’s what he was doing. Just listening, providing me with enough silence to think thoughts and say them out loud. He asked me open ended questions without giving advice. That was special for me because up until then I don’t recall ever really being heard like that.

via GIPHY

Of course, there are friends I could say anything to, but I never really had this kind of experience before. This experience profoundly changed the way I interacted with people and even changed my approach on coaching.

Empathetic Listening

The other day in a lecture I hammered home the importance of forming relationships with the people you coach.

Given enough time in anyone’s life, something stressful (which is not necessarily bad) or crappy is bound to happen with different magnitudes of crappiness.

Sometimes I like to think of God as Donkey Kong from Nintendo just throwing barrels filled with crap (like bad or stressful events not actual poop) at people. It’s not a bad thing, that’s just life and it happens to everyone but it’s nice when you have someone to help you work through it.

Low levels of crappiness might be failing to get a promotion at work whereas high levels of crappiness might mean going through a divorce or a death in the family.

Many of the clients I train I’m close with, especially those close in age to me. I’m sure lots of other trainers are the same. Over time, trust forms and when things that bother them come up, they know I’ll listen.

This isn’t to say that a lift should turn into a therapy session, because it shouldn’t. But imagine how much a client would appreciate it when something came up and you just said:

“Hey, it sounds like you’re going through some tough stuff, let’s grab a coffee after the session”

How to Do This Empathetic Listening Thing

I don’t have set in stone guidelines on how to accomplish this, but I know when I’ve done it the right way and I know when I’ve failed.

I think one of the biggest issues people have in conversations is that they wait for their turn to talk. They have already concluded what they are going to say next even before the person in front of them has finished talking.

Yes Karen³, you’re guilty of this so pay close attention.

As soon as you’re thinking about what you are going to say next, you’re not fully engaged with the person, so that means you’re not listening.

Side Note: This is also super important for a successful initial consultation with a client if you want to truly understand their goals and why their goals are important.

If you’re going to be a good listener, you need to suspend your thoughts.

via GIPHY

Good listeners don’t jump to give advice or relate their experiences to the person in front of them. If you feel like you have something that the person can relate to, try saying:

“You know, everyone’s experience is different, and I don’t want to pretend like we’ve gone through the same thing, but I’ve got a story that I think you might relate to.”

People don’t always talk to get advice back.

They just want to talk because things are tough, and they want to get it off their chest. If they want advice, they’ll probably say “what do you think I should do?”

The last thing that I know for sure is that if you want to be a great listener you need to put your phone down.

All the incredible memes will still be there when your conversation is over.

The Subtle Art of Shutting Up

Listen…

Listening is incredibly important. Yea, sometimes it can be just about as comfortable as being single for the third year in a row at your families Thanksgiving get together.

Right…

But in order to be a good listener, you need to shut up.

Something great happens when a person feels accepted and can speak their mind. You might find out way more about the person you are working with, whether it’s about their goals or about their life, by saying nothing.

Just like lifting, writing, or slipping high brow poop jokes into casual conversations with your highly successful clients, listening is a skill that needs to be practiced.

So, I would encourage all of you to go out their and in the appropriate times, just shut up.

About the Author

Justin Kompf is doctoral student studying exercise and health sciences. He is a personal trainer in Boston at CLIENTEL3.

You can follow Justin here and here.

December 3, 2018 Tony

personal training psychology

Why Is It So Hard To Be Healthy?

Being or not being healthy, by and large, is rarely an information problem. Most people know regular physical activity is good for their health, as is not crushing an entire bag of Doritos right before bed.

Why, then, are so many of us struggling with attaining a “healthy” lifestyle?

Simple (but not really): Lack of behavioral interventions.

In today’s guest post strength coach and PhD to be, Justin Kompf, discusses the dilemma.

Copyright: paulgrecaud / 123RF Stock Photo

Why Is It So Hard To Be Healthy?

Four facts keep me thinking on a consistent basis.

The majority of us are overweight or obese
The majority of people who lose weight will gain it back
The majority of us are getting insufficient amounts of exercise; and
The majority of people who start an exercise program will quit within six months

Physical inactivity contributes to 9% of premature deaths.

Maintaining a healthy body weight and exercising regularly are two of four health behaviors (the other two being not drinking your face off and not smoking) that can extend a person’s life by over a decade.⁴

Mathematically, the odds of a person doing two behaviors is lower than doing one behavior, and the percent should keep getting smaller as more behaviors are added on.

Still, the number is staggeringly low.

Only 4.8% of us do all of these health behaviors. Stated otherwise, 95.2% of people either have a poor diet, are insufficiently active, drink too much, smoke, or do some combination of the four behaviors.

Why Don’t People Do These Health Behaviors?

I was recently at an interview for a new training job and my interviewee asked me why I train people.

It’s because we sell time. We can give people additional high qualities years on their life so that they can continue doing what they love to do.

The question of why; as in, “why don’t people do these healthy behaviors” sits around in my mind a lot. The question of adherence also hangs out up there.

The environment exerts such a strong influence on us that it makes it challenging to be healthy. I would also say that most people lack an appropriate plan and a strong enough form of behavioral regulation.

Environmental Influence

We live in an ‘obesogenic environment’.

The term “obesogenic environment” refers to an environment that promotes gaining weight and one that is not conducive to weight loss. This environment helps, or contributes to, obesity.

So, quite literally when we try to lose weight or exercise there is a fight against the environment.

Imagine going to work, trying to get a project done but Jim the cubicle invader keeps barging into your office to talk about his weekly Tinder dates. Then, because he thinks it’s funny, he flips your desk too.

That’s what weight loss is like in our environment, keeping focus despite distractions and going back to work despite setbacks.

What to do Then?

Full disclosure, I don’t have all the answers. Everyone is different so a one size fits all answer would be a disservice. All I have is experience and a decent understanding of behavioral research.

So, what to do?

In my opinion, the best thing a person can do no matter what is to simply start.

That being said, as people start, there are things I would encourage them to do in regards to their behavioral regulation.

Whenever someone sets a goal, they have a motive.

For example, “I want to lose 20 pounds” or “I want to gain 10 pounds of muscle” are both motives. They are a person’s WHAT and are a part of a person’s goals.

WHAT’s also have WHY’s.

A person’s WHY is their form of behavioral regulation.

People can be extrinsically motivated or they can be intrinsically motived.

Intrinsic motivation refers to doing an activity out of sheer enjoyment. But, let’s face it most people won’t always run, lift or eat broccoli for sheer enjoyment.

Within extrinsic motivation are four different categories. They are (see chart above and below) external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, and integrated regulation.

Regulation type	Description	Example
External regulation	Achieve an external reward or avoid punishment Compliance with demands from others	Exercising because of doctor’s orders
Introjected regulation	Avoiding shame, enhancing ego or pride	Exercising to avoid feeling guilty
Identified regulation	Acceptance of the value of the behavior	Exercising because it is important to do so
Integrated regulation	Behavior is congruent with a person’s values and needs	Exercising because the outcome is valuable Being fit is part of one’s identity

Behavior Change is Like Battle

Recall, the obesogenic environment is programmed to make us fat. In order to overcome it there must be a ‘fight’ against it.

Most behavioral theories discuss a motivational phase and a planning phase.

Motivational phases are the precursor for a planning phase. A person has to have some form of motivation (i.e. not be amotivated) to make a plan.

However, it certainly helps in the planning phase to have a strong form of behavioral regulation (why you are motivated to do a behavior).

Here’s how I think about it; when a person goes to battle they have their own strengths as well as a weapon of choice.

Thor doesn’t go into battle without his hammer (RIP Mjolnir), Luke Skywalker doesn’t leave his light saber at home, and the Punisher (watch this series⁵) is always packing.

These heroes also have their plan.

The Punisher doesn’t just go in guns blazing, he’s tactical. Luke Skywalker blows up the death star with a good plan (Thanks Rogue One) but gets his hand cut off when he takes on a challenge that is too big for him.

Think of motivational regulation as a person’s strength and think of the plan of attack as the strategy for success.

The more powerful your weapon (or the weaker the adversary), the less necessary a specific plan becomes.

If a person loves weight lifting (intrinsic motivation), they wouldn’t really need instructions to make a specific plan because nothing can stop them. Odds are they would make plans with no help.

In geek language, Superman wouldn’t need a plan to beat a common criminal. His strength is sufficient to just get the job done.

Strength and Plans

Any form of motivational regulation is enough to get a person started. However, there are some forms that are more likely to keep a person going.

If motivational regulation is closer to the extrinsic side, the challenge shouldn’t be made too hard. Barriers are likely to derail people like this.

To me, having external regulation to fight the obesogenic environment would be like Luke Skywalker going to fight Darth Vader with a rubber chicken.

He’s going to need a damn good plan to win, and even then, it’s likely that he will get his other hand chopped off.

Regulation type	Description	Metaphor
External regulation	Achieve an external reward or avoid punishment Compliance with demands from others	Rubber chicken
Introjected regulation	Avoiding shame, enhancing ego or pride	sling shot
Identified regulation	Acceptance of the value of the behavior	One of those laser guns Chewbacca has
Integrated regulation	Behavior is congruent with a person’s values and needs	The force and a lightsaber

On the other hand, if a person wants to achieve a goal because the behavior is congruent with their life values (i.e. to be a better parent) that’s the same as going into a fight with the full use of the force and a lightsaber.

You still need a plan, but you’re better equipped to win.

Planning Phases

Planning phases dictate specifically when, where and how a behavior is going to occur.

For example, if someone decides that eating more vegetables will be beneficial to their health, they should plan exactly when and where they are going to eat vegetables.

These plans are called implementation intentions. They link situational cues to desired behaviors.

If a person wants to eat more vegetables they might say “when it is my lunch break I will have the bag full of baby carrots I brought to work”

I propose that a stronger motivational foundation when paired with specific planning will contribute to more favorable outcomes.

Motivational foundation	Planning phase	Predicted behavioral outcome
External regulation		Weak
Introjected regulation	Implementation intention formation	Moderate
Identified regulation		Strong
Integrated regulation		Very strong

What to Do?

With a weak foundation (i.e. external or introjected) plans are more necessary but still likely not as effective as if they were based on a strong foundation (i.e. identified or integrated).

There are many reasons why people fail but I consider behavioral regulation to be an especially important one.

Changing motivational foundations is challenging. A weight loss goal is great. However, as people go through the process they should try to find activities that they love doing. For example, they could do the following:

Try a variety of exercises and see which one makes you feel great, ones you love
Set a small goal: (1) do 1 pull up (2) do one perfect push-up (3) run a 5k (4) learn how to master a squat or a deadlift
Learn to make new foods that taste good and are also healthy
Try connecting your goal to a different value. Sure, losing weight will make you look better but it will also make you healthier which means you will have better quality time to do the things you love doing. Try making the link between your goal and life values.

Reference

Ford, E.S., Zhao, G.Z., Tsai, J., Chaoyang, L. (2011). Low-risk lifestyle behaviors and all-cause mortality: Findings from the national health and nutrition examination survey III mortality study. American Journal of Public Health 101(1): 1922-1929.

Author’s Bio

Justin is a PhD student in the exercise and health sciences department at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. He is a certified personal trainer and certified strength and conditioning specialist. Justin blogs at Justinmkompf.com.

You can follow Justin on Facebook HERE.

December 4, 2017 Tony

coaching fitness business Motivational

3 Tips For Personal Trainer Personal Development

Today’s guest post comes courtesy of good friend and Jedi strength coach, Todd Bumgardner. Many don’t know this, but Todd was one of the people who encouraged me most when I was thinking about leaving Cressey Sports Performance and going off on my own.

He’s a no-bullshitter and someone who tells it like it is. There’s a reason why 100+ fitness professionals trust him and the other coaches of The Strength Faction to help separate themselves from the masses; to get their shit together.

It’s because of articles like the one he’s sharing today.

3 Tips For Personal Trainer Personal Development

As personal trainers, we’re like de facto members of the personal development industry. God, it feels weird to say that it’s an industry…almost spewing sacrilege. But it’s a reality. We spend a lot of time, and money, on personal development—and we really should. It’s worth it—it’s the sole reason Chris Merritt, Mike Connelly, and I run Strength Faction.

Commitment to personal, and professional, development has set all of our lives on an upward trajectory, and we want to help as many fellow fitness folks hit that same upward spiral.

I’m sure that you want the same thing for yourself and for your clients—a gradual ascension that carries everyone forward. Well, here’s some pretty goddamn obvious thinking: you can’t help your clients ascend unless you’re committed to the process. It’s a long game, and it’s worth playing. Here are a few tips we’ve found helpful for staying in the game and moving toward the goal line.

1) Realize That It’s Important

Let’s start here.

We love the X’s and O’s of our profession. We want the answer when someone asks us how many sets we should be doing for hypertrophy (there is no real answer, by the way), and we love being able to pontificate with each other on the virtues and vices of a given energy systems development strategy—when in reality ninety percent of our clients wouldn’t be affectively able to use it.

Professional development is important, so please, don’t take that as a slight.

We have to be good at what we do, and we have to get results for our people. But most of our impact, and our money, is made by being a human that’s worth being around. Granted, we all start with different raw materials—some folks have natural propensities for human connection, others have a difficult time. Some, yet, are born assholes and have to learn how to be someone worth being around. I mostly fall into the latter category.

Aw, come on: does this look like the face (or body) of an asshole?

In the context of our careers, personal development is the scaffolding that allows us to display our professional development.

Being a growth-centered human being gives people cause to feel attracted to us—people like people headed in the right direction. It also gives us the chance to actually connect with the people that want our help. The New Zealand All Blacks live by the value that “better people make better All Blacks.” The same is true for personal trainers.

Beyond the toil of our work, personal development, in my limited understanding of life, is what we’re here to do. By the time the casket closes and the loved ones that we leave behind say their goodbyes, we should be the best possible thing that we could evolve into. I believe that’s the most important thing in the world.

2) Decide What You Value

“I really need help with time management. I’m not always sure what I should be doing, and I waste a lot of time. I feel like I never get done all of the things I should get done.”

The quotation is a conglomeration of three common statements I hear on coaching calls. Most folks feel like they need to do a better job managing their time—and they’re not wrong. But I don’t think the main problem is time management, it’s value management.

It’s tough to use time wisely if we don’t know what our aim is, what’s most important to us, where we’re trying to go.

I think we just try to be busy because it seems like everyone else is busy and that’s what we’re supposed to do. It’s the illusion of hustle perpetuated by guys that are really good at marketing on social media. They convince us that if we “grind” and follow their lead, we’ll get all the shit we want.

It’s circular, empty promise.

But it does lead us back to the starting line, the initial question: what do you want, and what do you value above all else?

Having the answer to that two-part question will give you the best insight into how you should manage your time.

Personally, I value human development for development’s sake above all else, so I don’t mind busying myself with it. But it also helps me order how I should spend my time each morning, each afternoon, and each evening.

It decides who, and what, get my time, and most importantly, my attention.

You don’t, however, have to hustle and grind if that’s not what you value—fuck the Jones’. If you value living in rural America and raising chickens, figure out how to do more of that.

If you feel aimless with your time, work through what you value you most. That will give you your aim. Then, when you have an aim to develop yourself toward, you’ll be better able to manage your time doing the little things that take you closer to that aim.

3) Just Have Good Friends (Forget About Your Goddamn Network for a Minute)

Psychological safety, unbridled truth—it’s a concept we use to guide our actions as leaders at our gym and as leaders of Strength Faction. What it means is we create a consistent, supportive environment that allows people to be themselves and feel like they are safe. Once this happens, people usually open up enough to hear the truth—from themselves and from other people. But the environment has to exist first.

That’s what a good friendship is—an environment where you feel heard and understood enough to let people tell you the truth.

And a good friend will tell you the truth, not just pat your ass and tell you that you’re special.

They’ll unconditionally show you that they love you while also holding up a mirror so you can look at yourself, recognize your faults, and do something about them. That’s the community we’ve created in Strength Faction. Our members have become friends. They look out for each other. They support each other.

And they tell each other the truth.

Here’s an example from the Summer ’17 Faction.

One member posted a poll to gather strength coach’s opinions on yoga.

At the end of the questionnaire she included a question that quite a few members thought was off-putting and unnecessary—so they told her about it.

She, then, engaged them in dialogue and explained herself.

The conversation went on, and everyone expressed their opinions, their truths, without attack. They stayed in dialogue. They were friends…even though many of them had never met other than in our private Facebook group and on our weekly ZOOM calls.

That’s what a web of friends does for your development. There’s not a lot of talk about that in our industry. Mostly the conversation centers on expanding our networks.

Don’t get me wrong, that’s important. But if you want to develop, networks need to evolve into friendships, or sometimes you have to prioritize friends over networking. Each needs to exist, but a web of friends in a community that’s moving in a good direction will do more for your life, and development, than an expansive, superficial network.

Personal Trainer, Personal Development

It’s a long game, folks. But when we commit to ourselves, and the process of personally developing over the long haul, this strange thing happens—things get better. Make some time for personal development, prioritize based on values, and make sure you have the right people around you. You’ll keep inching toward the goal line.

Enrollment for the Fall ’17 Strength Faction is currently open!

If you dig learning more, or enrolling, check out the link below.

—> Fall ’17 Strength Faction Enrollment <—

August 28, 2017 Tony

psychology

The Opportunity Costs of Healthy Living

Today’s guest post from regular contributor, Justin Kompf, discusses a phenomenon everyone deals with on a daily basis: opportunity costs.

For example, the opportunity cost of me posting pictures of my cat in different outfits everyday is that I don’t get invited to public gatherings all too often.⁶

In the health & fitness realm we battle opportunity costs all the time. It drives why we may hit up the pizza buffet rather than make an omelet, or why we’d choose to go exercise over going out drinking with our friends. Opportunity costs very much play a role in our ability to make healthy decisions and differ person to person.

I hope today’s post helps shed some light on a very important and relevant topic.

Copyright: christianchan / 123RF Stock Photo

In college, I had a roommate who would tag along with me to the grocery store. He had this habit of always performing the mental arithmetic to determine how much chicken he could get for the price of any one item.

“Hmm this bacon is $6.00 but I could get 2.5 pounds of chicken for the same price.”

“Well, I like steak but I could get double the amount of chicken for this.”

What my friend didn’t know was that he was demonstrating, nearly perfectly, an economic principle called opportunity cost. The text-book term for opportunity cost is “the unrealized flow of utility from the alternatives a choice displaces” (Frederick, Novemsky, Wang, Dhar, & Nowlis, 2009).

To a money saving 21-year-old, opportunity cost begs the question; is 2 pounds of chicken plus an extra four dollars more valuable than eating steak?

Opportunity-cost dictates that anytime we make a decision between several choices we give up the benefits of the alternative choices.

People do not implicitly think about opportunity-cost when making purchasing decisions (Frederick et al., 2009) and I would argue that they fail to as well with health decisions. Further, most people limit themselves in their decision-making process to usually one of two choices (do this or that, pick this or that).

Identifying the opportunity cost of healthy decisions in a similar way to economic decisions may prove beneficial. In order to do this, one would simply replace a dollar amount with a caloric amount or replace lost time amounts that could be used on activities other than exercise (i.e. family time vs gym time).

Opportunity Cost Application to Health Decisions

It would be useful to identify opportunity cost to help resolve ambivalence in the healthy decision making process. Competing demands often do exist between a person’s desires to be physically active and to be sedentary (Smith & Biddle, 1999).

Similarly, anyone that has attempted to lose weight likely understands the competing demands between the desire to be lean and the desire to eat tempting food.

Taking part in one of these pursuits inherently means foregoing the other (i.e. you cannot be sedentary and exercising at the same time) and therefore not realizing the benefits that each activity provides.

Opportunity-Cost Scenario 1

Take for example, one scenario where an individual has strong beliefs that if they exercise their fitness can improve; thus, reducing the risk for cardiac disease. They also hold a competing belief that if they exercise time will be taken away from their family (Godin, 1993).

Perceived cost: lost health benefits vs lost time with family.

Perceived opportunity: improved health vs more time with family.

Opportunity-Cost Scenario 2

In another example, if a person has the option between a fast food dinner and a home cooked meal they must decide between the hedonic pleasure and convenience of the fast food meal and the health benefits of eating the home cooked meal.

Perceived cost: high calorie foods can lead to weight gain vs loss of pleasure and time.

Perceived opportunity: improved health vs pleasure and more time.

Reframing Choices and Resolving Ambivalence

In scenario 1 it is perceived that time can only be spent exercising OR with family. Pursing one choice will remove the benefits of the other.

Many people examine the decision-making process as the choice between one of two options (Heath & Heath). However, this is rarely ever the instance in any decision.

In the case of the potential exerciser, the opportunity-cost may seem relatively salient (this is likely different in food choice as most people do not naturally consider opportunity cost, Frederick et al., 2009) yet they remain indecisive.

The individual in this situation is likely feeling ambivalent about the decision process. They want to exercise, but at the same time they don’t want to exercise because of the cost.

This person may be falling into a decision-making mistake called the ‘limited search trap’. In scenario one the best solution would be to help this person ‘widen’ their options (Nutt, 2004).

Rather than limit the decision-making process to two options this person should think of other ways they could be active without losing out on family time. Some of these options might include:

Option 1: Exercise with the family by recruiting family members to go for walks after dinner to discuss the day.

Option 2: Exercise for 30 minutes during a lunch break. This time would not be spent with the family anyways so this time is not being taken away from the family.

Option 3: Evaluate how other time is spent. Perhaps this person spends an hour of time before they go to bed watching TV. They can cut their TV time down to 30 minutes and replace the other 30 minutes with 20 minutes of cycling, walking or running and the remaining 10 to shower.

In scenario 2 an individual is faced with the decision of eating a fast food meal or a home cooked dinner. This would be an appropriate scenario to help increase the salience of opportunity-cost to aid the decision-making process.

This person might compare the calories (1,050 vs 550), they might judge what would taste better based on the mood they are in, or they may factor in time constraints. But they don’t see that they could (1) double the healthy meal and still have nearly the same number of calories or (2) save those extra calories for something else such a 300-calorie popcorn during the movies (still 200 calories less).

They were already willing to ‘spend’ 1,050 calories. By utilizing this opportunity-cost strategy they may be able to more readily observe what other foods or ways that they could ‘spend’ their calories on.

Conclusions

If a person is struggling with making the best possible decisions for their health and well-being they may benefit from a thorough examination of the opportunity-cost of their behavior.

In other cases, opportunity-cost may seem explicit, as in the case of the exerciser but only when trapped in limited searching.

For ambivalent individuals who seem to have clear opportunity-cost increasing the number of available options can help in the decision-making process.

About the Author

Justin is a doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts Boston where he is studying health and exercise sciences. Justin writes at www.Justinmkompf.com.

References

Godin G. Theories of reasoned action and planned behavior: usefulness for exercise promotion. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 26(11), 1391-1394, 1994.

Frederick S, Novemsky N, Wang J, Dhar R, Nowlis S. Opportunity cost neglect. Journal of Consumer Research. 36(4): 553-561, 2009.

Nutt PC. Expanding the search for alternatives during strategic decision-making. Academy of Managment Executive 18(4), 13-27.

Smith AR, Biddle SJ. Attitudes and exercise adherence: Test of the theories of reasoned action and planned behavior. Journal of Sports Sciences 17: 269-281, 1999.

August 21, 2017 Tony

mindset Motivational psychology

The Powerful Perfectionist

I have a BIG treat for you. My wife, Dr. Lisa Lewis, is making a much anticipated cameo on my site today. People loooove when she chimes in and writes an article for the site. Tony Gentilwhonow?

Enjoy.

She trains. Hard. Makes progress and achieves goals. Inspires and impresses others. She balances work, finances, family, friends, food, and her fitness. The fact is: she’s amazing. But the feeling? It’s often something quite different.

Copyright: <a href='http://www.123rf.com/profile_ammentorp'>ammentorp / 123RF Stock Photo</a> — Copyright: ammentorp / 123RF Stock Photo

A woman wrote to me several months ago about being stuck. She explained:

“[Lifting] is hard, I put in tons of effort and I struggle to be ok with this…the fact that it doesn’t come easily to me despite all my hard work, sweat, and effort. I struggle with feelings of disappointment and feeling like I am letting myself down and my trainer down if I do not perform to MY unrealistic expectations… I fall into the comparison trap and thinking I “should” be like some random girl I will follow on Instagram. It SHOULD be easier. I SHOULD be squatting 225 for reps. Sometimes I struggle to celebrate the small victories and instead get down for the little things I didn’t do… the doubtful voice in my head or other distractions/stressors of life (work, relationships, etc)… still creeps in there, especially mid set if 1 of my reps wasn’t “easy” or “perfect”.

Sounds sad. Sounds frustrating and lonely. Sounds like a fun-sucking, comparison-focused, judgmental, negative, cycle.

Sound familiar?

Perfectionism has been defined in many ways. The “refusal to accept any standard short of perfection,” means that the perfectionist rejects any outcome or effort that is devoid of flaws… less than The Most… secondary to superlative. And in order for the perfectionist to ‘accept’ an outcome, it must be possible for there to even be such a thing as “perfect” in the first place.

What About the Strength Training Perfectionist?

Perfectionism can be viewed as a personality strength in athletic contexts (Hill, Gotwals, Witcher &

Leyland, 2015). As you might imagine, dedication and intense pursuit of success bode well for those in pursuit of a lofty (or in this case, heavy) goal.

Joachim Stoeber, professor of psychology at the University of Kent, recently described perfectionism as a “double edged sword” (2014). On one hand, perfectionism can be motivating. It can help us to feel determined, to fight for our goals and make the sacrifices necessary to progress in our training. On the other hand, perfectionism can fuel our inner-critic. It can keep us focused on our short comings and blind us to any progress we’ve made along the way.

Strive for perfection – but don’t be concerned about past imperfection.

Researchers of perfectionism have described healthy and unhealthy subtypes of perfectionism (Flett & Hewitt, 2005; Stoeber & Otto, 2006). Sometimes referred to as ‘healthy perfectionism’ and ‘neurotic perfectionism’, clear themes have emerged. Striving for perfection means to focus on the process (which I’ve written about in the past).

The striving perfectionist uses her energy to move toward the goal, as opposed to worrying about the outcome. In contrast, the neurotic perfectionist ruminates on past performance that was imperfect. She judges herself harshly, talks down to herself, and ends up feeling defeated, deflated, and less-than. She gets ‘stuck’, and not only does this lead to feeling bad, it has deleterious effects on future performance!

How to Strive for Perfection

Set goals. Don’t shy away from your aspirations – but be intentional. Specifically, I recommend setting a goal, and being as specific as possible. Identify a timeline for your goal, and check in with a friend, gym-buddy, or professional about it – is this realistic?

Set yourself up for a 99% chance of success. If and when life gets in the way (catching a cold, going away for a long weekend, having a “pizza-emergency”) be flexible and adjust your goal so that you can stay on track with progress and continue to move forward. Any thought process or goal that keeps your focus on the past, and makes you feel bad about yourself, is a total waste of your time.

I cannot stress this enough: when you get down on yourself, and stuck there, you are wasting your time, and your energy, and you have nothing to gain. When you do have a setback or a failure, remember it’s just data and use the information to adjust your goals, reframe your intention, and keep it movin’!

Do Not Concern Yourself with Imperfection

Researchers and optimists agree: getting down on yourself for not being “good enough” is useless. Over the years, I’ve heard clients tell me they think it is productive to beat themselves up or shame themselves after a “failure”.

Some describe this as punishment, or penance for imperfection. Punishment is significantly less effective than reward. Reinforcing what you do correctly will keep you on track in the long run; punishment may have some temporary, short-term benefits, but those will quickly lose their power, forcing you to either get meaner with yourself, or abandon your goal altogether.

If you get stuck with perfectionistic concerns, here are some quick tips:

1) Turn the page: Remind yourself you’re wasting precious time and energy! Re-focus on the next opportunity to work toward your goal.

2) Re-frame “failure:” It’s just information. Falling short of your goal doesn’t mean anything about your worth, your value, or your capacity for improvement. It’s just a data-point that is relevant to that particular performance. Process it, consider how it can inform future goals and performances, and then move on.

3) Lighten up!: There are many benefits to being a perfectionist… so maximize the benefits and minimize the drawbacks. If you’re getting all bent out of shape about being 10 pounds short of a PR, or 3 pounds shy of your goal weight, simmer down! Your missing the forest for the trees. You’re missing out of feeling strong, healthy, happy, and fabulous, all because you’re off by a few digits. How silly can you be?!

Good luck!

NOTE: Lisa will be co-presenting with Artemis Scantalides on the I Am Not Afraid to Lift (The Power of Mindset Edition) on Sunday, November 6th at my studio here in Boston. Only 2-3 spots are available.⁷

Citations

Flett, G.L. & Hewitt, P.L. (2005). The perils of perfectionism in sports and exercise. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14, 14-18.

Hill, A.P., Gotwals, J.K., Witcher, C.S. & Leyland, A.F. (2015). A qualitative study of perfectionism among self-identified perfectionists in sport and the performing arts. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, 4, 237-253.

Stoeber, J. (2014). Perfectionism in sport and dance: A double-edged sword. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 45, 385-394.

Stoeber, J. & Otto, K. (2006). Positive conceptions of perfectionism: Approaches, evidence, challenges. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10, 295-319.

About the Author

Dr. Lisa Lewis is a licensed psychologist with a passion for wellness and fitness. She earned her doctorate in counseling psychology with a specialization in sport psychology at Boston University, and her doctoral research focused on exercise motivation. She uses a strength-based, solution-focused approach and most enjoys working with athletes and athletically-minded clients who are working toward a specific goal or achievement.

Lisa is also a certified drug and alcohol counselor, and has taught undergraduate courses as an adjunct professor at Salem University, Wheelock College, and Northeastern University in courses including exercise psychology, developmental psychology, and abnormal psychology. Lisa currently works as the assistant director of a college counseling center in Boston, MA, and she has a small private practice in the nearby town of Brookline.

As a new addition to the “I Am Not Afraid To Lift” workshop, Lisa will integrate mental skills into the physical skills training of the day. Mental skills can enhance performance, maximize motivation and prevent barriers like negative thinking, fear, and self-doubt from interfering with goals.

October 10, 2016 Tony

podcast

The Next Fitness Power Couple?

I think my wife and I are starting to become a fitness power couple.

We’re not quite at the same level (or stratosphere) as the Cosgrove’s (Alwyn and Rachel), but in the past year it’s been pretty cool to see my wife, Dr. Lisa Lewis, gaining some attention from my neck of the woods.

(Not So) Humble Brag Alert

As most who read this website know, Lisa is a psychologist with a doctorate in Sports Psychology. She has a special interest in mindset, mindfulness, and exercise/behavioral psychology, and as it happens this is an area or niche that’s been receiving a ton more attention in the fitness industry of late.

We all tend to be our own worst enemy and Lisa can speak to many of the mental roadblocks and clusterfuckery (<– my words, not hers) that can often hamper progress or even prevent people from starting to exercise in the first place.

It’s been a treat to see people reach out to her for her expertise.

In the past year:

She’s performed several I Am Not Afraid to Lift workshops with Artemis Scantalides (the next one with Lisa is this November here in Boston. You can go HERE for more information and to register).
She and I have been invited to Austin, TX and London to put on our Strong Body-Strong Mind workshop.
She’s also seen her name in print in the likes of Women’s Health Magazine and EliteFTS.com.

And while she’s a doctor, she’s also a doctor who lifts. #fitnessstreetcred

To say I’m proud would be an understatement. And to say I’m excited to see what the future holds for her (and us) would be even more of an understatement.⁸

One of the bigger “events” of late was Lisa being invited onto The FitCast a few weeks ago to record an episode.

She CRUSHED It. I’m totally not biased.

You can listen to her episode HERE (and look for another episode in a few more weeks. She and Kevin recorded Part II a few days ago).

More to come, I’m sure.

September 22, 2016 Tony

Motivational psychology

Ready. Mindset. Lift: Mindfulness For Optimal Workouts

Today’s post comes courtesy of reader’s favorite, and my wife, Dr. Lisa Lewis. Both Lisa and Artemis Scantalides will be presenting their I Am Not Afraid To Lift (the Power of Mindset Edition) at Dauntless Fitness & Health in Severna Park, Maryland on April 2, 2016.

For more information and to register go HERE.

Ready. Mindset. Lift

Your day is chock full of tasks, distractions, and to-do’s. Between family and friends, your work, and your workouts, all those texts, emails, television, and other technology-based diversions force you to focus on one thing while doing another.

Multi-tasking is currently the norm in our busy western lifestyles, and although many of us feel that we’re highly skilled at attending to multiple chores and responsibilities at one time, research has demonstrated were actually not very good at it (Medina, 2014).

While attention deficits are higher and multi-talking is standard, the most popular intervention in psychology today is mindfulness.

Applied to many medical and mental health concerns, Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBI’s) have been used to treat anxiety, depression, insomnia, disordered eating, stress management, (Dimidjian & Segal, 2015) and problems with attention (Zylowska, 2012).

Universally, it seems that regardless of how we struggle, one of the current ways to help ourselves is to get mindful.

But what does being mindful even mean? Good question:

“Mindfulness is about being fully aware of whatever is happening in the present moment… mindfulness consists of cultivating awareness of the mind and body and living in the here and now… while mindfulness as a practice is historically rooted in ancient Buddhist meditative disciplines, it’s also a universal practice that anyone can benefit from… some of the greatest benefits of mindfulness come from examining your mental processes in this way, observing them dispassionately, as a scientist would (Stahl & Goldstein, 2010).”

Now, keeping the idea of mindfulness in mind, let’s take a look at your workouts.

Consider the time just before, during, and immediately after your training sessions.

1) What are you doing on the way to your workout? Singing in the car to the 90’s on 9 XM radio (my personal favorite)? Making a to-do list of things to handle tomorrow at work that you forgot about today? Listening to voicemails or catching up on texts? Worrying? Resenting? Inhaling your lunch?

2) When you arrive at the gym, what your the pre-workout routine? Makeup off, hair up, workout clothes on? Is there a special playlist? Magic lifting shoes? A sexy Zoolander look and pec flex all by yourself in the locker room mirrors?

3) And how about during your warm up? Are you focused on the present, noticing how your body responds to stretches, mobility drills, and foam rolling? Are you using positive self-talk to get excited about your deadlifts, or are you still in your inbox, mentally reviewing tasks and to-do’s?

Are you visualizing a perfect RDL, or the content of your refrigerator back at home?

4) Most importantly, how do you feel while all this is going on?

If you are half-awake, hungry, frustrated, or just downright not-feelin’-it, the quality of your workout suffers. More importantly, you miss the opportunity to be ready and present for a highly valued part of your life!

If you’re reading this article and making it to the gym to train regularly, you care. You’re into it. The point is, your values and goals should be on your mind and WITH YOU before, during, and just after your training sessions.

Mentally prepare yourself for your workouts by getting mindful, and practice staying that way before, during, and after your time at the gym.

Let’s review these four phases of your training, and how mindfulness can apply:

Mental Preparation

On your drive, walk, or subway ride to wherever you workout, begin to think about what you’ll be doing, and what you want out of that time and effort. As one of my private clients once taught me, create a space for the workout, with your thoughts.

If you love music, select a song or playlist that will boost your motivation and energy level. Tailor your playlist to your preferred energy level or “vibe” for the best workout for you (this may include Rage against the Machine or Nora Jones).

Remember your fitness or training goals, and connect with whatever affect you have about that (pumped, fired-up, ambitious, and so on). While you drive, change clothes, and otherwise get ready to being training, tune in to the content of your thoughts and feelings. “Weed out” anything unrelated to training, if you can. Make a conscious decision to be present during your workout, and focused on the processes and sensations of your time in the gym, as opposed to people, places, and things outside of the present moment.

Mental Rehearsal During Your Warm-up

Whatever your warm-up routine includes, consider adding a warm-up for your mind. Mental rehearsal, or visualization, enhances performance (Wilson, Peper & Schmid, 2006).

Used by professional athletes and Zen masters alike, rehearsing in your mind can be just as useful as in-the-flesh deliberate practice.

While your mobilizing and foam rolling, create an image in your mind of your “big movement” for the day. Recall an optimal experience you’ve had with this lift, or mentally rehearse all of the technical components of that lift. In my private practice, I routinely create a “script” with my clients so that they have a written narrative for these rehearsals.

Maintain Mindfulness – Be Ready and Present During Your Workout

As you move through your reps and sets, what’s going on up in that noodle of yours?

If you drift away from your pull-ups and into your upcoming work presentation for the finance team, just notice it, recognize that your PowerPoint slides about the TPS report have nothing to contribute to your goal, and return to the present moment.

If this feels difficult, mentally rehearse the exercise, and use self-talk to consciously think your way through the movement.

For example, you could use one of my favorite coaching cues from Arteims, “Get tight to Get light!, and focus on those words during the execution of your pull up. Remember that mindfulness is a practice – not a perfect state at which to arrive and never leave.

Review the Data

Upon finishing your workout, you may quickly move on to the next task, begin to think about a pressing errand, or free fall into worries and stressors outside of the gym.

As you grab your bag, jump in your car or on the train, and move on with your day, try to take at least 60 seconds to evaluate what just happened.

How did it go? Just like a scientist reviewing the data, you have a fresh set of experiences to observe.

Anything ouchie or awesome today?

Did you increase your weight or reps on an exercise?

If it was a tougher workout than usual, or just no fun, what could have been contributing factors?

These observations can help to acknowledge elements that help and harm your workout quality, and to identify new goals for future performances.

Many of us go elsewhere during our day.

Focusing on the future and worrying about what may happen brings anxiety; reciprocally, thoughts stuck in the past bring us regret, disappointment, and feelings of depression. The present moment is where it’s at!

When you are at work – be at work. When you are with your loved ones – be in the room and tuned into the conversation. When you are at the gym, keep your mind in your body, on your weights, and aligned with your goals and the process of achieving them.

You may be reading this and thinking, “easier said than done!!”

Remember that we are what we practice doing, and so your mind is currently automated to go and do wherever it is going, and whatever it is doing; to change that pattern requires deliberate practice and conscious effort on your part – just like changing a hip hinge pattern.

If you decide to practice mindfulness before, during and/or after your workouts, remember that you are developing your mental muscles. It will take time.

On stressful days, or days when you are hungry, angry, lonely, or tired (HALT), you may return to your automated thoughts and foci. Try not to judge that. It’s just data. You can notice it, let it go, and come back to your present moment and the task-at-hand.

Remember that your workout belongs to you – not your boss, your significant other, your kids, or the other important relationships that often hijack our thoughts. Compartmentalize your thoughts so that you can think about your body, your health, and your fitness while you are actively working on that part of your life. And always, always, remember to enjoy!

Dimidjian, S. & Segal, Z (2015). Prospects for a clinical science of mindfulness-based intervention. American Psychologist, 70, 7, 593-620.

Medina, J. (2014). Brain Rules. Pear Press, Seattle.

Stahl, B. & Goldstein, E. (2010). A mindfulness-based stress reduction workbook. New Harbinger Publications, Inc. Oakland, CA.

Wilson, V., Peper, E., & Schmid, A. (2006). Strategies for training concentration. Book Chapter from Applied Sport Psychology, Williams, J. ED. McGraw-Hill, NY.

Zylowska, L. (2012). The mindfulness prescription for adult ADHD: an 8-step program for strengthening attention, managing emotions, and achieving your goals. Trumpeter Books, Boston.

February 10, 2016 Tony