Something happened this morning that I wanted to share with you because I think it might be helpful.
If you don't already know, I do not write my own workouts (meaning, workouts I'm doing myself).
I mean, I do this for a living for other people, so I want someone to do it for ME.
Anyway, I've been following this strength training program for about 6 months now, so this morning I was like "let's see how much my biceps grew so far." I sashay to the mirror, "make a muscle" and yanno what I saw?
Not much lol.
No meatball popping.
No little mountain of muscle bulk.
NOTHING (well, obviously I still have a bicep, it just wasn't as prominent as I hoped it would be).
"This isn't working" I muttered under my breath.
And then I stopped the spiral. Cuz if a client EVER went down this path, I knew exactly what I would do with her.
So I did it with myself.
I went back to all my old workout notes (because yes, I keep notes on myself to track progress just like I keep notes for my clients to track progress) and yanno what I saw there????
Progress.
I had increased my weights across the board: in some cases as much as 50%.
HOLY SCHNIKIES!!!!
And while I might not "look" any stronger, I actually did get stronger.
And the whole point of training the way I did, my goal, was to gain strength in the first place, not to look a certain way or have crazy definition or anything like that.
So why am I telling you this?
I think when we embark on any exercise journey, we lose sight of what our goals are and instead start to focus on what our bodies look like vs what our bodies feel like.
Whether you're exercising to build strength or reduce your prolapse symptoms or stop leaking or :insert any reason here:, it's so important to remember where you started and what your starting goal is, then analyze whether you're closer to THAT goal vs some BS "goal" that you've been told to have (in my case, it was having a bigger bicep muscle pop when I flexed: a "goal" that was never mine to begin with).
I think part of the frustration with building strength is that we equate strong with chiseled, and that just is not the case.
Add to the mix an unconventional muscle group that lives where you can't actually see it (ie the pelvic floor), and this idea of strength becomes even muddier.
The best course of action for exercise consistency and knowing whether something is working is to understand where you started, be honest with where you want to be, and pay attention to the journey along the way.
For example, let's say you're leaking with jumping jacks, like, immediately. Your goal is to do 15 jumping jacks without leaking. After 3 weeks of purposeful programming, you can do 5 modified jacks without leaking. After 6 weeks, you can do 5 "regular" jacks without leaking. Sure, you're not yet able to do 15 BUT you came from not even being able to do one to now being able to do 5!!!
See how this works?
You might have to check yourself as you travel along the path every now and then, but keeping your eye on the destination instead of the distraction will take you to places you never thought you would be.
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