What does 'listen to your body' really mean?
Feeling sore? Listen to your body. Lacking energy? Listen to your body. Struggling with an exercise? Listen to your body.
We all need a little help tuning into the signals our body is sending us, so let’s break it down.
How to tune in
‘Listening’ to your body simply means paying attention to the signals it is sending you. I don’t just mean the obvious stuff like your foot turning purple and throbbing with pain. You can practice while you’re not working out. Think about the sensations you are feeling right now… maybe your neck is feeling tight, for instance. What could your body be telling you? (Maybe that you need to stretch more often.)
When you are in the middle of a workout, slow down and focus on how it feels. Pause the video if you need to. Watch for specifics, like burning muscles, achy joints, mental frustration or moments where you slip into bad form. The more you tune into your body, the easier it will become to identify and differentiate feelings – “Did I totally fail on that exercise, or has it just activated muscles I don’t regularly use?” – and make connections between your actions and the way your body responds.
Don’t be afraid to adjust
Even the fittest people use modifications when they need to. That’s because taking modifications (or exercise regressions) in order to keep moving through a workout is not a cop out, it’s a win. You’re listening to your body in order to do what you can to prevent injury and keep moving your fitness forward. Sometimes, your body may tell you that it’s just not ready for a certain exercise. If you have ongoing troubles with joints, you may already know that there are some exercises you should avoid altogether. This is exactly what modifications were made for!
If you’re taking the modification because you’re not ready to pull off the classic or progressed exercise, or you’re easing into a training style you’ve never tried before, then you’re doing exactly what you should be doing to build up strength and endurance to go further in a future workout. Be patient and consistent, and the progress will come.
Know your pain from your gains
One of the trickiest things to master is knowing the difference between ‘good pain’ and ‘bad pain’. Because while some may say “no pain, no gain,” I don’t actually want you to break down in tears, or straight up break down.
The muscle soreness or stiffness you feel in the days after a training session is called DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), and it’s a sign that your muscles have been working and are starting to benefit from your efforts. It’s caused by small, microscopic tears made in your muscle and tissue during training, and while it may make you walk funny the next day, it is helping your muscles grow stronger in the long run.
On the flip side, if you feel pain in your joints (not just your muscles), you feel something ‘pop’ or tear during a workout, experience swelling, or soreness persists for more than a week, you might have injured yourself. Learning to read these signals is even trickier if you’re a beginner, so take it slow and if you’re not sure, stop training and talk to a doctor or physical therapist.
Not sure which one applies to you? Try a VERY slow and unweighted version of an exercise first, taking your body through the general range of motion required. If pain is sharp or your movement is restricted, you’re better off resting that area until the pain has settled.
When to rest and when to push
Rest is crucial to your fitness journey, giving your body time to reduce soreness, preventing injury from overwork and fatigue, and allowing you to return to training with more intensity. We all need it in different amounts to feel our best. But how can you tell if your body genuinely needs a break or if you just don’t ‘feel’ like working out? Ask yourself these questions:
· Have you taken a rest day in the past week?
· Are you sore in an unusual way?
· After your last few workouts, have you felt satisfied or defeated?
If you haven’t rested, you are unusually sore, or not getting any satisfaction from your workouts, it might be time to give your body a break. If you’re still not sure, start a workout with familiar exercises or a session you’ve enjoyed previously. If it feels a whole lot harder than normal, take that break.
Listen to your stomach, too
We don’t ONLY mean that embarrassing stomach growl that always seems to happen when you’re sitting in the dentist’s chair. Listening to your body includes paying attention to what fuels your body best. It’s essential that you are eating enough to fuel your workouts. If you find yourself feeling lightheaded, dizzy, or suddenly nauseous on the workout mat, all of these things can be a sign of not eating enough before training.
This is especially important to remember if your goal is set to Lose Weight. While losing body fat requires a calorie deficit, you still need the energy to feel good and train at your best. If your goal is set to Get Fit & Toned, the increased intensity of your training means greater energy needs. And because your physical gains won’t be as obvious as losing weight or adding bulk, it’s even more important to tune in to how you feel.
If your goal is to Build Muscle, you need to eat enough to sustain your training and muscle growth, or your body won’t be able to keep up.
Finding what works for you may take a bit of trial and error, but the payoff will be there in your performance and results.
Listen up if you’re a lifter
When you’re lifting weights, it’s even more important that you’re tuned in to what your body is saying to avoid the risk of injury and overtraining. Your muscles will tell you when they’re ready to lift heavier, and when they’ve hit a wall.
The timing of rest is crucial in building muscles. Allow downtime in your training schedule to allow your muscles time to repair and grow.
The same goes for deload weeks – where you decrease or drop the weights for a week – which allow your muscles to recover before stepping up to a new training level.