We’re a fast paced society, which leaves many people feeling like they are going a mile a minute, scrambling to get everything done. It can be very stressful, and stress can have a host of negative consequences. Nonetheless, even knowing that, slowing down can feel undoable. If you ever feel that way you should consider a forray into weight training. Believe it or not, working with weights can be a great way to discover and practice what happens when you slow down, focus on the task at hand, and learn to keep your eye on the big picture instead of getting bogged down in a torrent of tasks.
Lift That Weight! No Pressure…
Imagine for a moment that you are looking down at a couple of hundred pounds at your feet. You want that weight to end up off the floor, or maybe even all the way over your head, preferably without breaking some part of your body. For this to happen, there are quite a few things that need to go right. You need to use your legs, rather than your back, so you don’t end up hobbled. You need to maintain knee alignment so later, you can walk up the stairs. You need your upper back to work so that your chest stays open, rather than collapsing and turning your spine into a slinky. On top of all that, you need to remember to BREATHE. This, my friends, is the world of weightlifting.
Now, the quickest way to screw all of that up is to think about it all at once. And the most disastrous way to screw it up is to think about it all at once while telling yourself, in a panic, that you’ve got to do this so you can build muscles, drop pounds, and hurry the hell up to the happier, healthier, sexier you! This kind of inner turmoil creates stress, which increases body tension, decreases focus, and leaves you prone to rushing, all of which decreases the quality of your workout and the effectiveness of your training. Successful weightlifters know that they have to avoid these pitfalls, so they put some effort towards mitigation strategies. How do they do it? They focus on three things: slowing down, concentrating on the task at hand, and remembering to keep an eye on the big picture. (Almost sound like meditation, doesn’t it?)
Stress Dragging You Down? Learn To Lift Some Heavy Weight
Many of us are not aware of how much we are racing through each day. We’ve simply transitioned from one busy phase of life to the next, even busier one, never registering the incremental acceleration until we are so frazzled that it becomes impossible to ignore. This type of ongoing, generalized stress is something that has been getting more attention in the health and fitness world, and for good reason. Stress activates the sympathetic nervous system—often referred to as the ‘fight or flight’ system—which puts your body in an amped up state. When it is short term, it helps you complete a difficult task or survive a dangerous situation. Over the long term, when it becomes chronic, it can contribute to a number of unpleasant symptoms. It is associated with muscle tension, aches and pains, headaches and ulcers, and elevated blood pressure.1 It can also lead to unhealthy behaviors suching as drinking or stress eating, which in turn elevate your risk for more serious conditions such as heart disease, obesity, or type II diabetes.2 At the very least, it can wear you down and leave you feeling burnt out.
The beauty of weightlifting is that you can see the detrimental outcomes of being stressed immediately. You can also see how employing techniques to control that stress create better results:
Slow Down
Weight lifters understand that while they may need to be psyched up to perform, the also have to control and to channel that energy. If they can’t, their body may stiffen up, move awkwardly or rush, and end up performing under its potential. So, lifters cultivate a process to help them slow down and focus. It might be a mental checklist that they go through, or a certain set of motions (like swinging the arms), or taking a series of breaths.
Concentrate On The Task At Hand
As mentioned, there are a lot of things that need to go right for a successful lift, but you can’t focus on them all at once. Olympic lifters, for example, have varying phases of a lift that each look slightly different. When one goes wrong, the others will too. However, worrying about all of them during the lift is a sure fire way to get none of them right. Instead, O-lifters think about one thing that they need to do well to get the outcome they are after. They will focus on that and trust the rest to fall into place.
Keep An Eye On The Long Game
Weight training is a continuing journey. It’s never about one day, one workout, or one lift. It’s about what you do cumulatively, over time. Being able to step back and remember that fact, even if things aren’t going perfectly on a given day or in a given moment, is critical. It allows a lifter to keep frustration in check and to keep their eyes on moving forward. Good lifters know that if they are struggling with something, that just becomes the next area to work on, patiently and methodically. An impedement is just a guide to a better program and ultimately to improvement.
Weight Training Is A Stress Reduction Technique
If you venture into a serious weightlifting gym, it’s likely to appear anything but serene. There’s a lot of grunting, slamming of weights, smacking of thighs (sometimes asses), and what can look like chaos. But underneath, it is all expertly controlled. Those who find success with their training have learned the techniques to control stress. And it’s something that you can learn and then apply to all aspects of your life because it is rooted in universal truths about ourselves. We all have stress in our lives that affects our bodies in certain, predictable ways. To be healthier in a stressful world—and happier!—we need to find ways to cope with it. If you’d like to develop some coping skills while also building a healthier body, take a serious look into weight training.