It really Is Mind Over Matter

#2

So here is a strange one.

Last week I thought I’d do a workout with my kettlebell. I’ve got a good DVD that I’ve used in the past, and it has a good twenty minute routine on it. I pick up my 12kg kettlebell and off I go.

As the twenty minutes, passed I was finding the exercises harder and harder to do. The 12kg seemed to be getting heavier and heavier. My brain was telling me that I had managed heavier weights than this without quite as much effort, but another part of the brain wouldn’t quit about how heavy it seemed. In the end the negative thoughts dominated. I finished the workout and felt frustrated that it had been a much harder effort than on previous times. I decided to put a post on Instagram telling my experience, but when I took a picture of my kettlebell I got a real surprise. As I focused on the weight to take a picture I saw that it was not my 12kg kettlebell, but was in fact my 9kg one.

Throughout the workout I had been thinking what a struggle this 12kg weight was, when in fact it was 3kg lighter than I had thought. My brain was unaware of how much it really weighed, but had decided that it was more difficult than it really was.

Now I am aware that there are other factors to why the workout was harder work than it should have been. I had done a class the day before, and maybe muscles were tired from that, but what really interested me was how my brain created a story and negative thoughts on what it thought was reality when it actually wasn’t. If I had known it was a 9kg weight, would I have found it easier?

More importantly, this is a lesson learned in mind over matter. Now I know that no matter how many positive thoughts I have I will not be able to lift a car over my head, but it really  does show that our mindset can greatly affect an outcome on what we are doing. When I started the routine I thought my mindset was good. I was actively wanting to do it, but as soon as it felt a bit difficult my brain started telling me how difficult it was, and, as soon as I was hearing that, it just became harder and harder.

And this has always been my greatest challenge, and struggle; mindset.

Quite frankly, losing weight and getting fit is simple, from a biological, mechanical point of view. Eat less processed food. Eat more whole foods. Exercise more. A really simple equation. But it only works when our brain is working with us. How many times have we looked at that equation and that voice in our head has gone “No. Can’t do that! Too difficult!” Mine has, and more times than I’d care to admit.

So that is why as I make my journey to transformation, a big percentage of what I am doing is reprogramming my brain. Now that is where the real effort is taking place. For every bad habit my thought process has there are a whole bunch of them running that I have been oblivious to, and it is when I identify one, or have it pointed out to me that I can take action on it.

I’m getting there, day by day, but I have realised that this is the most important thing that I cannot let slip. Having the right mindset is the biggest hurdle. conquer that and all my goals are possible. Will every day be me bouncing out of bed, The Eye Of The Tiger by Survivor playing in my head as I smash a hundred press ups and burpees? Not yet. But if I can programme my brain with that message, those images, I wonder how long will it take? (I think I may have just set myself a challenge!)

Anyway, my key takeaways from this; my brain will try and sabotage what I’m doing. It’s nothing personal, it’s designed to do that and keep me safe, but if I am to achieve my goals I have to override those thoughts. It’s all about letting the ‘Good’ brain get to dictate the thought processes and not the ‘Bad’ brain. Something that I have been learning, and it is a key to change, is that you cannot control that ‘bad’ brain, but you can manage it. It all comes down to the story we tell ourselves.

This is something I’m sure I’ll talk about again.


UPDATE:

I started writing this blog post a week ago, and since then I haven’t lifted a car over my head, but I have pushed one through the snow! Now, I’ll be honest, it’s motor was running, but the car’s tyres had barely any traction at all so a good part of it maneuvering around a car park was due to my pushing it. Now, I’m not saying this to brag (well, I am a bit), but I thought it funny how I’d mentioned about positive mindset allowing me to move a car and there I was doing it, and under hard conditions.

The other, and far more important thing to have happened, was when I got the opportunity to do a one on one weight training session with Andy. It was meant to be a group class, but I was the only one to manage to get there through the snow. So Andy suggested hitting the weights.

Anyway, had a good session lifting weights and trying things for the first time. But here is the thing. We thought I’d try doing some bench presses, increasing the weight as I went along. The weight I stopped at, before my arms gave out, was 70kg! Yep, 70kg, and here I was a week earlier struggling with 9kg. So the proof is there, with my mindset in the right place, and Andy’s encouragement definitely helped here, I was able to lift a weight that my ‘bad’ brain would have done it’s best to talk me out of. Now that I have lifted that kind of weight, I can NEVER complain about lifting 9 or 12kg again (Take that doubting brain! Love to hear what your excuses will be now!).

And just once more, I lifted 70kg, and I AM totally bragging about that!

Mindset and strength working together.

I’m rather proud of myself on that one.


Iain


You can also find me on Instagram -

@iain_m_transformation



You can find Strive Fitness at -

www.strivefit.co.uk

Facebook - strivefit11

Instagram- @strivefit11