One thing some of my clients need to work on when they start with me is their inner voice. There are a million videos out there with workout routines you can follow along to, but if you are telling yourself whilst you're doing them: ‘this hurts, ‘I'm not good enough’, ‘I can’t do it’, ‘what’s the point’, it’s unlikely you will stick with that exercise routine long term.
What I have realised recently is that I spend the majority of my sessions saying positive things to my clients such as ‘well done’, ‘great set’, ‘nice form’, ‘strong finish’, ‘that looked great’, ‘huge improvement’, ‘best one yet’.
How often do we as adults spend an hour of our day with someone telling us how strong, great, and fit we are, and how much progress we have made? I mean, I usually spend an hour a day with my 5 year old telling me how I don't know anything and that he is much stronger and faster than me. Which will probably be true in a few years.
Don't get me wrong, I'll tell my clients if they need to improve their speed, form or effort, but genuinely I’ll say something nice during most sets.
I’m lucky that I spent a lot of my childhood running cross country shoulder to shoulder with my friend and we used to breath down each other's ears in training saying ‘come on Izzy’ ‘come on Sophie’ ‘come on Izzy’ ‘come on Sophie’. i truly believe that is why to this day when I run, or do other hard stuff, I often say to myself ‘come on sophie’ and it always gives me a boost.
What can you take away from this?
Next time you are exercising or trying something new, or something hard, listen to your inner voice. What are you saying to yourself? Are you putting yourself down? If so, can you think of a new positive phrase to repeat and see how that makes you feel and perform?
Scientific research strongly links the impact of our psychology on our physical ability. Don't just trust me, trust science:
Researchers carried out a study where a group of people performed a treadmill test. The individuals were then split into two groups. Group 1 were told they had a gene which meant they would be good at running, group 2 were told they didn't have the good gene for running. They were randomly assigned to group 1 and 2. There was no specific ‘running gene’ actually tested. They then repeated the treadmill test.
The study found that merely receiving genetic risk information changed individuals’ cardiorespiratory physiology, perceived exertion and running endurance during exercise for the second test. Those who were told they had the good gene performed better and the even responded better physiologically; those who were told they didn't have the good gene performed worse and the even responded worse physiologically. Effects of perceived genetic risk on outcomes were sometimes greater than the effects associated with actual genetic risk.
You are what you believe.
References:
Turnwald, Bradley P et al. “Learning one's genetic risk changes physiology independent of actual genetic risk.” Nature human behaviour vol. 3,1 (2019): 48-56. doi:10.1038/s41562-018-0483-4
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