Phase 1 session 1: Fearless lifting
It all begins with an idea.
Transcript:
Why fearless lifting?
I’d like to preface this with a few things. I don’t mean to pass any judgement or sound dismissive at all, this comes from a good place and I myself struggled with anxiety. I even had gym anxiety and still experience that sometimes. So please don’t take any of this the wrong way.
So you might be here because you feel intimidated by weights or by the gym floor in general. You might avoid certain exercises because you’re afraid of doing it wrong or you lack confidence with it. You might even avoid certain lifts because you’re afraid of hurting yourself.
One thing I often hear is they feel like people are looking at them, and while that might be true, sometimes people are so self conscious that someone looking over in their direction will trigger them. Our goal is to end up in a position where if someone is looking at you, it’s because they’re like wow she knows what she’s doing, look at how much weight she’s lifting.
First and foremost, it’s important to start small and focus on proper form as well as mobility. Don't be afraid to start with lighter weights or even do bodyweight movements in your spare time. So many of my clients have done really well with learning new movement patterns by practising them outside of the gym.
As far as limitation of mobility goes, here’s an example. If you can’t get into a squat position you shouldn’t be adding much weight to it, you can do lighter goblet squats or light Zercher squats but definitely don’t go to back squats, until you’ve worked on developing the correct movement pattern.
By looking at these key areas and becoming more used to the exercise you’ll increase your confidence and ability to do the movement. So rather than going to the gym floor and picking up a weight and thinking, oh my god I don’t even know if I’m squatting correctly, you can think okay, I know what a squat is, I know I can do it, I’m just adding weight to it now.
I’d suggest these steps…
Know the movement - if you’re training by yourself make sure you know what exercise you’re doing before going to the gym (you could watch videos to do this)
Start with mobility - Make sure can physically move in the way you need to before doing the exercise with weight and do additional stretches if necessary
Start lighter - you should be gradually warming up anyway and there’s nothing wrong with picking up a weight and doing just one set then changing the weight
Learn by doing - Don’t rush through the exercise, take your time and focus on the movement, focus on you and not what everyone else is doing around you
Reflect/review - Ask yourself these questions…How did that feel? Was there any pain or discomfort? Any instability? Figure out what you could do differently
So even when you’re training with a Personal Trainer, they don’t know what you’re feeling so being able to communicate these things will be so useful.
I can’t stress this enough, lifting weights can be uncomfortable, but it shouldn’t be painful. If you feel back pain, knee pain, anything like that, that’s not normal. It’s common, but not normal.
Sometimes people do move a certain way because subconsciously they’re afraid of hurting themselves again after experiencing an injury in the past, this can also affect your movement pattern which is something you should work on.
Accidents can happen, and minor injuries will occur at some point, but you can prevent repetitive injuries from working on your weaknesses. You can also reduce back pain and knee pain by strength training too, so don’t let that put you off.
Another aspect of this is that you should set realistic goals, no one should be going into the gym and doing a 1 rep max deadlift on day one, it just doesn’t happen. It can be easy to get caught up in what other people are doing or where other people are in their fitness journey.
Remember that practice makes progress, lifting weights is a skill that takes time to develop, and progress is not always linear. It is important to stay committed to your goals and continue to work on improving your technique and strength over time.
It is also really valuable to surround yourself with supportive people. So if your gym isn’t that friendly, you might want to get a gym buddy to train with or make use of an online community like this one.
Finally, remember that everyone started somewhere. No one was born knowing how to lift weights or use gym equipment. Even the most experienced lifters had to start with the basics and work their way up. So don't be too hard on yourself, be patient and enjoy the process.
Phase 1 session 2: Building self-confidence
It all begins with an idea.
Transcript:
Why confidence is important when it comes to lifting.
In this session, we're going to look at confidence boosting strategies and work towards creating a positive self-image that will help you step into the gym in the right mindset.
Let's look at what confidence can mean to us as individuals. Confidence is a feeling or belief in yourself, your abilities and qualities. But it also affects our judgement and decision making.
When we're in a confident mindset, we're more likely to trust our judgement and make decisions based on our beliefs and values. But when we’re lacking confidence, we may doubt our ability to make the right decision, which can lead to indecision or making decisions based on the opinions of others or other external factors.
I’m going to give you 5 strategies to help you work on your confidence and I’ll give a breakdown of each one. These key areas include:
Focusing on your strengths to feel more capable and competent
Prioritising self-care to improve your physical, emotional, and mental health
Challenging negative self-talk by replacing it with positive affirmations
As well as:
Setting achievable goals to give you direction and a sense of accomplishment
Surrounding yourself with positive people who believe in you and encourage you
These strategies have been proven to be effective so you should absolutely apply them to the gym but you can also use them in other areas of your life.
The first strategy for building confidence is to focus on your strengths. Identify what you're good at and what you enjoy doing. When you focus on your strengths rather than your weaknesses, you'll feel more capable, which will in turn boost your confidence. This thought process is known as a strength-based approach.
This is really effective for building confidence because it helps you to recognise your abilities and accomplishments. When you concentrate on what you do well and enjoy doing, you gain a sense of competence which can help you feel more confident in your ability to tackle things that are challenging.
So we want to emphasise your strengths and abilities rather than your weaknesses. Things that you feel good about rather than things you feel bad about. Instead of focusing on what you can't do, it will encourage you to think about what you can do. This will improve confidence and self-esteem.
The second strategy is to practise self-care. Now we’ve all heard of self-care, but it can and should start with the absolute basics. So, taking care of your physical, emotional, and mental health are all areas that should be involved in our self-care practice.
Physical aspects can involve getting enough quality sleep, having a healthy diet, regular physical activity - which can just be walking, and taking time to relax and recover.
Emotional self-care includes any activities that help you acknowledge and express your feelings, so it could be journaling or talking about your emotions with someone to help you reflect on your thoughts and feelings.
And while these other areas can absolutely affect mental health, the mental side of self-care should incorporate things like managing stress, setting healthy boundaries, and practising compassion for yourself and positive self-talk.
This brings us onto our next strategy…
The third strategy is to challenge negative self-talk.
We all have an inner critic that sometimes tells us that we're not good enough or that we can't do something. This negative self-talk can be really damaging to our confidence and self-esteem. To challenge negative self-talk, we need to replace it with something positive. For example, instead of saying, "I can't do this," say, "I am capable of doing this."
It's important to be aware of our inner critic and how it affects us because sometimes, we might not even realise we’re doing it. You could even ask yourself, would I say this to someone else in a situation where they’re feeling bad? Or when they need support? Unless you’re actually a mean person, it’s likely you wouldn’t.
The fourth strategy is setting achievable goals. Setting goals gives us direction and purpose. And when we achieve our goals, it gives us a sense of accomplishment and boosts our confidence. Because of this, it’s important to set realistic goals otherwise you could end up in a downward spiral of feeling bad about yourself. So you need to work towards things that are challenging but achievable.
Working towards achievable goals that challenge you enough can help you build momentum as you work towards them. It's also important to break down larger goals into smaller, more manageable steps, so that you keep getting those quick wins and feel proud of your achievements along the way.
Finally, it's important to remember that goals are not set in stone. If you find that a goal you've set for yourself is not achievable, or if your circumstances change, it's okay to adjust your goals accordingly. The important thing is to keep moving forward and stay focused on progress rather than perfection.
The fifth and final strategy is surrounding yourself with positive influences. Notice I’ve said influences and not people. The people we spend time with can have a significant impact on our confidence and the way we think, but I appreciate that it’s not always possible to completely avoid spending time with negative people.
You should aim to surround yourself with people who believe in you, support you, and encourage you but sometimes that is going to involve a lot of self development, learning how to set boundaries and limiting your exposure to negative people in your life.
This might mean limiting your time on social media or choosing to unfollow certain people. It could mean spending time with people who lift you up and less time with people that bring you down. This is something that I see in people’s circle of friends, when they’re making positive changes to their lifestyle, and their friends aren’t doing that so they become a bit negative about it.
So make sure that most of the time, the people and things you allow into your life align with your goals and values.
In conclusion, building self-confidence and self-esteem are essential for getting through difficult challenges.
Remember to focus on your strengths, practise self-care, challenge negative self-talk, set achievable goals, and surround yourself with positive influences.
By following these strategies, you'll be in a much better place.
So download the worksheet. You can make a copy to fill it in via google docs and refer back to these goals every so often, because things might change.
Phase 1 session 3: Mental preparation
It all begins with an idea.
Transcript:
In this session, I’m going to talk about how to mentally prepare for strength training and heavy lifting.
So, why is this important?
Firstly, it's essential to understand that physical strength is not the only factor in achieving your goals in strength training. Mental preparation is equally important to enhancing your performance in the gym.
I’m going to cover these key areas which consist of visualisation and how you can imagine successful outcomes, mindfulness to improve mind-muscle connection, methods to eliminate external influences and ways to stop your mind from wandering while you’re trying to train.
One of the most effective mental preparation techniques is visualisation.
Visualisation involves mentally picturing yourself completing a task successfully. It's like creating a video in your mind of whatever you’re about to do.
If you’re aiming to learn a new skill, improve technique, or even copy an exercise demonstration and then imagine yourself doing it - try to imagine yourself from the outside as an onlooker. So you can see yourself doing it.
If you need to have more of a competitive mindset, whether that’s just a regular session where you’re going heavy, you’re going for a new personal best in the gym or you’re competing in something - try to imagine yourself as you are from an inside perspective.
So say you’re going for a 1 rep max, what would you see in front of you? You’d see the weight, the equipment, maybe people around you, imagine those things.
I’m sure we’ve all heard of being mindful. Mindfulness practice helps us connect to what’s happening in the moment which can be particularly useful when it comes to training.
Specifically when it comes to mind-muscle connection.
Mind-muscle connection is a term used to describe the ability to consciously activate and engage specific muscles during exercise. By focusing your attention on the specific muscles you're trying to target, you can improve your form, technique, and overall performance.
Here are some tips to improve your mind-muscle connection:
Activation drills: Your warm-up routine is not just about stretching. You should be working on any weaknesses or muscle groups that you typically find difficult to engage during an exercise. This usually involves posterior muscles such as the glutes and your back muscles.
Slow things down: By slowing down your movements, you can focus on each muscle contraction and engagement. This can help you develop a deeper connection to the muscle you're targeting. This is important even in the eccentric (lowering phase) of the movement.
Warm up with weights: When you’re warming up to your working weight, use that time to improve your mind-muscle connection while you’re still using those lighter weights. That’s really the point of warming up gradually with weights, because of course it’s going to feel easy, but you should still focus on the contraction.
Focus on muscle groups: If you’re looking at muscle growth with higher reps, take a moment to visualise the muscle you're trying to target. Imagine the muscle contracting and engaging with each repetition.
If you’re looking at more strength specific sets, something like 1-5 reps, think about the muscles that help you lift the weight so you can really use them to your advantage. By focusing your attention on the specific muscles you're trying to target, you can engage those muscles more effectively.
Let’s look at external influences and how it can negatively affect you.
Switching off and disconnecting from the stress of things like work or relationship issues can be challenging, but it's crucial to help you perform at your best during your session. Here are some tips to help you switch off and focus on the set you’re about to do:
Leave work at work: When you leave work try to do something symbolic like shut the door behind you. Definitely avoid having access to your work phone or emails while you’re in the gym. You could also try getting things out of your head by writing them down somewhere, so you're not constantly thinking about what needs to be done next time you’re at work.
(If you’re good at switching focus when you’re about to do a set, this doesn’t necessarily apply to you. Some people can complain about work, then focus, do their set and carry on, but not everyone can do that.)
Personal relationships: If you’ve had a disagreement with your partner or a friend or family member, this might play on your mind while you’re trying to train. So, in this instance you’d use the shut the door technique when you enter the gym.
You could also use a method where any time these negative thoughts enter your mind you imagine the thought like a rope, or multiple ropes, being out in front of you and you cut the rope with your hand, (as if it’s a knife or a sword). Sounds crazy, but believe me, it works!
Listen to something: Listening to music can help you tune out distractions and stay focused during your workout. Create a playlist of your favourite high energy or motivational songs. You could also listen to a podcast or even an audiobook if you like just listening to someone speak. It can be a really good way of stopping your mind from wandering but also avoiding getting caught up in conversations.
Limit distractions: Try to avoid using your phone or other devices during your workout if you get sucked into things like social media, it can be distracting and take your focus away from your training.
Remember, switching off from work or other life events takes time and patience. Don't be too hard on yourself if you're struggling to disconnect, I do all of these things sometimes and have to take a step back and go ‘no, I shouldn’t be doing this’. Keep practising and you'll be able to switch off and focus on your training more easily.
Stopping your mind from wandering while lifting can be challenging, but there are some strategies you can try to help you stay focused on your workout.
So even if you have a personal trainer, don’t rely on them to count your reps for you. At some point you’ll need to do it by yourself and that’s not what they’re there for.
A huge benefit to counting your reps is that you can switch off your thoughts by counting reps, especially if you say the numbers out loud. Saying them under your breath is probably the best option because then you’re not putting other people off. This works because while your brain is enabling you to do something basic like counting, more complex thought processes can’t happen at the same time.
If you’re doing lower reps or a particularly heavy weight, you can repeat the number over and over again or even combine it with focusing on your breathing.
I think this is actually one of the reasons that I don’t like timed workouts, because people are just thinking when is it going to end rather than actually focusing on the exercise they’re doing.
To help implement the importance of mental preparation in strength training you’re going to cover these areas in the workbook. You’re going to have a go-to checklist for visualisation methods and tips for what to work on if you need to improve mind-muscle connection. As well as that, you’re going to create an action plan to avoid mental distractions and I’ve added some information about the reason behind counting your reps and how it helps you to switch off.
So head to the link for the workbook, make a copy so you have your own one in google docs and work your way through it.