HOW LIFTING LEADS TO INNER WORK

Fitness definitely serves as a constant in my life - something I can always go to for an outlet, empowerment, strength, confidence, presence, and embodiment.

My fitness journey started over 10 years ago at age 33. 

It was inspired by one of my best friends - she had started working in the fitness industry as she re-entered everyday life on the heels of recovering from a devastating loss and a battle with addiction & chronic anxiety. I was seeing the ways in which fitness was supporting her on her healing journey, and I was noticing her physique changing.  

As someone who hadn’t felt at home in their body since puberty and felt very disempowered due to a lack of knowledge and discipline in the areas of fitness and nutrition, I found myself inspired.

I remember saying to myself - “I want that.  I want to do that for myself.  I owe it to myself - I deserve health and a positive body image.”  I had work to do emotionally and psychologically as well, but taking the reins of my physical health was an empowering first step.

I began with at home workout videos.  My first program was Beachbody’s Brazil Butt Lift, which I stuck with consistently for about 6 months. The workouts were fun and I started noticing my legs tone up.  I could tell this style of workout wasn’t really for me long term, but I understood the value of consistency at this point and resolved to stick with them for the time being.

Eventually I hit a progress plateau with Butt Lift, and knew there was much more physical potential for me to unlock.  

Then a friend burned me the “Insanity” workout series on DVD (30-55 minute high intensity bodyweight workouts.) 

I reluctantly started doing those workouts.  

The first time I put in one of the videos I think I made it about 7 minutes in before saying “fuck this” and shelving the videos.  

A few weeks later I slowly started breaking them out again, telling myself that it didn’t matter that I couldn’t get through the whole video, to just do the best I could.  Over the course of the next few months I built my endurance and progressed to being able to make it all the way through the longest (55 minute) workout without taking breaks.  Wow!  I couldn’t believe it, I was so proud of myself!

After being hardcore on the Insanity tip for a solid year, my endurance was peak!  But again I felt like I’d hit a plateau, and wanted to continue building strength.  I asked my then partner if he would teach me how to lift weights if I started going to the gym with him.  He agreed.  As a collegiate football player he taught me what he knew, how to lift for hypertrophy, strength & power.  

After a couple months of lifting weights, I was getting stronger and noticing increased muscle definition and changes in my body composition.  Lifting weights felt so GOOD and was such a great energetic outlet for me.  It felt so empowering - I was fucking hooked.  I loved how my body looked and how my clothes were fitting.  I really started gaining confidence and an appreciation for what my body was capable of, and I was so proud of myself for cultivating that level of discipline for myself independent of any external motivation.  This was just for ME and I was showing up for myself CONSISTENTLY.  

Within the first couple months of lifting a friend referred me to a fitness coach she was working with. I contacted him and did a series of one-on-one sessions with him, after which time he invited me to start attending a weekly group class that mainly consisted of other coaches.  It felt great to be working out along side professionals in the industry - it was extremely validating and became even more rocket fuel for my journey.

Then I hit another strength plateau - I was having a really hard time pushing my PRs, especially on bench press.  I talked to my coach about nutrition, and he had me track my food for a few days and report back to him, after which time he recommended a few nutritional adjustments and BOOM I started to push through my strength plateaus almost immediately.  I learned how to track my macros, plan my meals and vet my food with intention.  Another level of empowerment  - yes!

About 3 years into my lifting journey I took an InBody Scan to find out my BMI and was bummed with the results.  It was right after the holiday season, I had been doing a lot of baking (which for me includes a lot of taste testing) and wasn’t feeling great about my physique. I decided to adhere to a strict 2 month lifting and diet protocol.  After two months I shifted ALL my markers - my body fat was down, my weight was down, and my strength was up.  I was blown away at what my body was capable of, and wanted to dive deeper still.

However - I also noticed that I had become attached to a physical version of myself that was not reasonably sustainable long term.  A version of myself that felt too restrictive to maintain, and subsequently potentially unhealthy, physically and mentally.  A version that I only embodied when I was on an extremely discipled workout and low-fat nutrition plan, or when I was severely diet restricted, intermittent fasting, and purging in plant medicine ceremonies for 2-4 weeks in the jungle. Ha!

I am still working with this.  The experience revealed many ways that I didn’t accept myself. It revealed ways I believed and attached to stories that say I’m only worthy of love if I look a certain way.  

I no longer choose those stories.  Parts of me want to attach to them still, and the stories still hook me often and I become consumed by these parts and stories. I feel blended, like I can’t access a sense of Self independent of their emotions, criticisms and addictions.  

I’ve believed these stories for so long - sometimes it feels like an impenetrable Goliath.

But I’m seeing clearly what’s happening, and at the core of my being I know the truth of what’s in my best interest.  I trust in that part of myself to guide me and stay the course, one step at a time.

In 2019, I decided to start pursuing certifications in the wellness arena.  I started with a nutrition coaching certification, followed by a personal training certification.  I wanted to shift away from my tattooing career because of my stress levels and the damage tattooing was doing to my body.  It wasn’t feeling sustainable anymore, and with my new found passion for health I wanted to work in an industry that was more congruent with my long term vision of physical durability and longevity.  

Initially I thought I’d just be a fitness and nutrition coach.  But as I deepened in my own journey and started to draw on my years of deep inner personal work, I realized that getting optimum results from lifting requires more than a myopic focus on fitness and nutrition.  Taking this kind of commitment seriously involved way more than eating right and going to the gym consistently. I started to see how this journey required me to dig deep to address the following:

• Self-imposed limitations - mental and emotional. Beliefs, addictive tendencies, fears, ways we give our power away, make excuses, procrastinate.

• Accessing the courage to LOOK at these obstacles, take ownership and push past my COMFORT ZONE consistently!  PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD.

• Efficient, healthy processing of and moving on from setbacks, injuries and failures, and the subsequent self-judgement, clubbing (negative self talk), and punishments. 

• The ability to listen to your body and properly interpret it’s messages - intuition, baby!

• Rest, recovery and nervous system regulation.

• Awareness and regulation of all manner of consumption (physical, energetic and environmental) as well as the people I chose to surround myself with.

• How to connect with discipline when motivation is lacking.

• The amount of faith and consistency required on the front end BEFORE seeing results (this is where most people give up) - trusting yourself and the process and sticking with it.

• Learning how to access and balance flow with discipline - or discipline with flow!  Mobility, training functional movements, expressing for the sake of expression, and balancing rigidity with fluidity.

Incorporating lifting as a durable, beneficial, sustainable lifestyle habit requires you to take a good look at yourself and get your shit together!

Sure we can get results in somewhat “abusive” ways, but these approaches aren’t sustainable or durable, and are often ultimately detrimental.

When progressive overload is approached with respect, humility, intuition and consistency, it can be a bullet-proof tool for growth on any level.  How amazing is that!

Progressive overload, when incorporated properly, looks like the following -

Identify your current situation and goals.

Assess whether your goals are REALISTIC given your circumstances, capacity, resources, support system, level of willingness and self-awareness.

Establish goals based on the above discoveries, and create a plan.  With lifting this might look like:

Lifting 4 days a week for 4 weeks straight, every week increasing your volume slightly from the week before.  This is the stage where we are micro-tearing our muscles (stretching our container, building resilience.)

In order to ensure that our results are beneficial and sustainable, we must fuel ourselves properly through this process on ALL levels of our being, not simply physical.  This means eating to support our level of physical activity, getting appropriate rest and hydration, working on mobility and flow, surrounding ourselves with people who support our path, and tending to the parts of us that are resistant, overzealous, critical, scared, doubtful and/or discouraged.

After completing 4 weeks of overload, taking a DELOAD week to give the body time to rest and recover. Too much too soon or for a prolonged period of time can lead to injuries and setbacks - we can end up doing damage and hindering our progress going forward.

Once we’ve afforded ourselves sufficient time for recovery, WE GET AFTER IT AGAIN.

This is a slow, progressive and sustainable approach towards growth when done properly.  It requires sharpening our skills of self-awareness, personal integrity and smelling your own rat - cultivating the willingness and courage to see when our stories, beliefs and habits/behaviors aren’t congruent with our long-term vision, and making the necessary adjustments.  

All these tools can be applied to any aspect of your personal development and healing journey.

• Assess your situation

• Set realistic goals

• Stretch your container gently while staying connected with your intuition and boundaries 

• Give yourself time to rest and heal from that stretch

• Repeat.

The more I started to explore all these facets of overall well-being, the more I realized that I wanted to expand the scope of what I could offer people through coaching.  I decided to shift my coaching offerings from just fitness and nutrition to lifestyle coaching.  I was seeing so clearly how our tendency to chase goals really comes from a deep desire for a particular way of being.  Furthermore, a goal of any kind must be reverse engineered to be broken down into smaller, digestible daily tasks - hence, the lifestyle piece.  

I started approaching coaching from a holistic perspective - looking at things in terms of what kind of person you want to BE in order to help narrow down what you need to DO.

I started to see how the tenets of progressive overload could be applied to every component and stage of a person’s personal growth journey.  I followed this approach to engrain a meditation and journaling practice, and to further my growth in the area of relationships with myself and others.  All this work continues to benefit me in and out of the gym.

In conclusion, I’m not saying that you have to commit to a weight lifting routine in order to understand the value of progressive overload, but I would absolutely recommend it!  Nothing feels more empowering than showing up and being accountable to yourself, and following this protocol in relation to physical development can produce easily trackable results which will continue to fuel your confidence and commitment to yourself.   

Want to improve your productivity?  Progressive overload.

Want to improve your relationship with yourself and others?  Progressive overload.

Want to improve your physical fitness?  Progressive overload.

Want to improve your nutrition intake and awareness?  Progressive overload.

Want to improve your sleep patterns?  Progressive overload.

Want to break old habits or build new ones? Progressive overload.

This is the ticket, baby. 

Slow and steady wins the race. 

Consistency over time is where it’s at. 

There’s no time like the present, and no one is going to do it for you. 

Start where you are, learn to listen to your body, stretch your container while honoring your boundaries, know when to shift your protocol, and most importantly - know when to REST, and do it!

Godspeed.