What “type” are you when it comes to exercise?

Awareness

Sometimes it takes something big to make us stop and take an in-depth look at what we are doing and why we are doing it. Maybe it’s a pre-diabetes diagnosis, high cholesterol levels, weight gain, menopause, or a chronic condition that forces us to reassess. When this happens, we go from being bystanders to critical thinkers about our health and wellness, gathering as much information as possible. The big question is why do most of us need these wake up calls in order to be aware and engaged in our health practices?

When we’re comfortable in our fitness routines, environments and communities, it’s easy to just keep showing up and doing the same thing even if we’re not progressing or even maintaining our fitness levels. Comfort and community are important and they are powerful! But as aging fitness consumers, we have to be more aware, more engaged and more knowledgeable so that we can continue to be fit and active as we grow older.

Being around professional athletes has given me insight into the instinct to welcome discomfort as part of the growth process. One of the most commonly identifiable traits of the best teammates and athletes is that they have learned to look forward to challenges and discomfort because they know it makes them better and brings out the best in them. A good competitor thrives in discomfort and adversity because they want to take on the challenge. The greater the challenge, the greater the reward.

It’s the same with fitness. It requires grit, determination, and hard work to make fitness work. Notice I said nothing about athleticism or ability. You don’t need to be able to run an 8-minute mile or do twenty-five burpees in a minute. That’s great if you can, but it’s not really about those results; it’s about your willingness to deal with adversity and challenge. Not everyone steps into their fitness journey with the skill of hard work, but it is something that you can learn.

It’s helpful to know what type of person you are when it comes to training. There are basically two types of people: the overtraining type and the undertraining type. The people who overtrain tend to get stuck in a pattern that is never high-reaching enough to force change. These people usually function at a pretty high level, but they are stuck. I know it sounds contradictory that the overtraining type never reaches high enough, but they usually overwork themselves so they are never fully rested and ready to train, thus they are not able to reach high enough intensity in their exercise. This group doesn’t feel they need rest because they never actually get the intensity intended and they have forgotten what it feels like to be rested and ready, so their intensity scale is off. This cycle leads them into the black hole of training, and nothing ever changes.

Often, the people in this category are addicted to doing some form of exercise almost every day. Many are former athletes who grew up in athletic environments where the message was “more is always better.” This category also includes people who were once sedentary and unfit, then had a fitness awakening that helped them get out of that slump, but they never were taught that eventually what they were doing would have to change, so they just keep driving deeper and deeper into their commitment and the thought of recovering in order to reach higher is too scary because they don’t want to risk taking a day off because they fear they will go back to their old sedentary ways.

The undertraining type differs from the overtraining type, but the outcome is similar; both have very little change in performance or body composition. The driving factor behind the pattern, however, is different. The undertraining type is usually unaware of their ability and/or they have a lower tolerance for intensity. They have not yet tested the boundaries of their capacity regarding exercise intensity. Not knowing how high they can actually reach, they will never get to the high peaks of intensity where they teeter on failure and experience true discomfort, so they never need recovery time. They, too, go through the motions, but for different reasons than the overtraining type.

Often, people in this category don’t have a background to pull from that allows them to connect to intensity. Maybe they didn’t play sports or they aren’t used to going outside their comfort zone. Maybe they never had to deal with discomfort and don’t recognize that feeling, or conversely, maybe they have experienced a great deal of discomfort–physical or emotional–in their lives and they are extremely adverse to putting themselves back in that physical and emotional state.

Whereas the overtraining types are limited by lack of rest and recovery time, undertraining types are limited by the lack of intensity that they pull into their fitness routine. Do not confuse this with a lack of athleticism. It’s easy to think that the overtraining type is athletic and the undertraining type is unathletic. That’s not accurate. Regardless of athleticism, genetics and experience, you will be successful in chasing fitness if you can learn to do hard things. Not hard things in the gym, not great-feats-of-athleticism-hard-things, just the ability to push through. If you have drive and determination to get through hard things, it makes this journey easier.

Knowing who you are regarding training is a great place to start. It will help you understand what might be keeping you stuck or preventing you from starting in the first place.

Let me help! Schedule a Free Consultation to figure your path forward.

See you in gym,

Aaron Leventhal CSCS, PN1