6 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR BODY HATE YOU

A few months back, I was struggling to train with any kind of intensity. My body hated me, my motivation was low, and my focus with day-to-day work, in a word, f*#k.

At first I thought that this could all have been the standard after new year winding down stuff; but I was lying to myself.

My body was deteriorating because I had been neglecting it. I had niggling issues that I’d never had before, I was always carrying some sort of pain, and my movement quality was terrible.

Admitting that I had let my body fall into a serious state of suckery was tough. Given that I’m a strength guy, who, by and large, has a strong corrective focus, I was a little (read – a lot) ashamed of letting it get to this point.

Before we go on, just to give you an idea of the growing list of problems that I was having, here’s a list –

• Crepitus in my knees
• Constantly sore hips
• Lower back pain creeping back in
• Neck/thoracic pain
• Creaky shoulders
• Lack of focus
• Crashing (tired) in the afternoon

Yep, I was messed up – but there was no point dwelling on that fact. Instead, I decided to look back at the habits that I had led to my body being in a world of pain, and then go about fixing them.

Here’s what I was doing wrong:

1) Prioritising Work Before Anything Else

When work gets busy, my friends always tell to schedule time to make sure that they can still get their training sessions and recovery work done. It's important to establish and maintain my routine because if I don’t, I can bet my first born that they’re going to turn around in a week or two and say that my body feels like it’s gone six rounds with Anderson Silva.

Not only does working more mean less time to pay attention to your body, but it also means more time spent sitting. And I don’t need to tell the readers of this blog that whenever you increase your duration of sitting, you’re not going to be in for a good time.

2) Skipping Training Sessions

“I could train today, OR, I could finish that blog post that I’ve had on my to do list for a week now.“

“I could train today, but I didn’t really sleep well last night, and I could do more harm than good.”

Skipping training sessions is a very slippery slope. One missed session can turn into 2, 3, or even an entire week so easily.

When I prioritised work, I missed sessions, and always justified it to myself through some logic that seemed rational at the time. In reality, I used to procrastinate getting my backside into the gym, and lifting heavy stuff off the floor.

3) Finding Quick, And Convenient, Food

“Spend time cooking?

Please! I don’t have time for that, and you know what, I’m pretty lean already, so I can get away with eating shitty foods for a little while.”

But I couldn’t; no one can.

While my body fat didn’t really increase that much when I wasn’t eating as well, my body did become a playground for inflammation (which did NOT help my knees), and my energy levels were shockingly low.

4) Not Sleeping As Much As I Should Have

You see, I wake up at 7am every morning to make the commute to work, and while this isn’t usually a problem, when I was consistently on my laptop doing work until 10-11pm at night, you know that I wasn’t getting much quality sleep.

And don’t get me wrong, this is by no means the worst working schedule I’ve ever seen, but throw it on top of poor nutrition, and a caffeine addiction, and you start to get a clearer picture of how things weren’t conducive to a well-functioning body.

The one thing that I came to realise real fast was that there is no point in working through the night if you’re not focusing properly on what you’re doing. A couple of hours of focused, uninterrupted work during the day will always trump several hours of half-assed work done in a sleep-deprived state.

5) Making Up For Said Lack Of Sleep With Stimulants

I mean, who needs 8 solid hours of sleep when you can throw back 4-5 coffees a day? Well, evidently, I did.

Making up for negative habits by utilising more negative habits was always destined to fail, miserably, but I gave it a shot, anyway.

Signs that you’re at this stage – your eyes burn like crazy when you wake up, you’re morning shower doesn’t work in making you feel alert, you need 2 coffees before sitting down at the laptop, and as soon as you hit the pillow at night, you’re asleep.

6) Ignoring The Issues, Despite Your Body Screaming For A Change

This was the worst mistake of all. When all of the telltale signs are there, and you ignore them, you deserve the inevitable crash. And that’s what happened. My kick up the backside came in the form of unproductiveness, a terrible attitude, and a few nights where I crashed before 8pm.

I gotta say, though, once I had acknowledged the things that I was doing wrong, I could start making changes. As I write this now, I’m back into the swing of things, getting enough rest, making sessions, improving my movement quality, prepping all of my food, and being productive with my work.

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