Is Your Workout, "Working?"
Is your workout "working?"
A client came to me once saying that her workout didn't "work." She twisted her hair around her fingers, obviously nervous to say so.
"I love the feeling I'm getting during our sessions & in my own gym time," she said. "I feel stronger. I push myself harder, and I love feeling accomplished. I can lift more weight. I'm having fun. But it's just not...working."
Of course, because I am a fan of questions more than most other things, I asked what she meant.
(I'm sure you can guess the answer. I like to hear people share their thoughts out loud.)
We put so much pressure on fitness programs to end in fat loss, but is that the only answer? Does a lack of dramatic fat loss REALLY mean your program isn't working?
This is primarily a facet of diet culture:
"a system of beliefs that:
Worships thinness and equates it to health and moral virtue, which means you can spend your whole life thinking you’re irreparably broken just because you don’t look like the impossibly thin 'ideal.'
Promotes weight loss as a means of attaining higher status, which means you feel compelled to spend a massive amount of time, energy, and money trying to shrink your body, even though the research is very clear that almost no one can sustain intentional weight loss for more than a few years.
Demonizes certain ways of eating while elevating others, which means you’re forced to be hyper-vigilant about your eating, ashamed of making certain food choices, and distracted from your pleasure, your purpose, and your power.
Oppresses people who don't match up with its supposed picture of “health,” which disproportionately harms women, femmes, trans folks, people in larger bodies, people of color, and people with disabilities, damaging both their mental and physical health."
(from Christy Harrison, RD, article linked above)
I'm not comfortable with the idea that fitness exists primarily to shrink our bodies. I mean, does Serena Williams play tennis because it makes her a size 2? I think the fuck not.
I'm also not comfortable simply swapping the focus: you are more than a body. Whether you are focusing on what your body looks like or what it can do (today, because that may change tomorrow--or even this afternoon!), you are still worthy, capable, respectable, brilliant, magical; reducing yourself to your body does not do enough to accurately describe or contain you.
Using the numeric results of a program (however you measure: weight on the scale, jean size, your squat PR, etc.) to gauge if a program is "working" diminishes your work.
Fitness can do so much more than shrink you:
Your fitness program can make you feel capable. You learn that you can complete a task: you can do what you set out to do.
Your fitness program can make you feel joy. You learn that you can surprise yourself; you can play.
Your fitness program can make you feel strong. You learn that you can listen to your body; you can trust yourself; you can do hard things.
Would that work for you?
You're allowed to try a new approach: if you needed a permission slip, consider this yours, signed, sealed, and delivered.
(and, as always, if you're looking to unpack this further, feel free to send me an email.)
xoxo,
Steph
