Looking back at my 5 years of experience personal training and working with hundreds of clients from all different walks of life. I’ve noticed a specific trend when it comes to losing body fat and dealing with stress.
Many of the clients I train are high performers at their job. I’m talking about the go getters, A type, successful type of people. These clients are typically balls to the wall when it comes to working out and are cortisol junkies looking to kill every workout. Though this mantra may be excellent for their work life, I find that most of the time they actually struggle a lot when it comes to finding balance in their life. These are the same people who don’t sleep well, constantly get injured, are always sick and find it hard to lose body fat even though they're working out like crazy.
If this is you, then realize there’s nothing wrong with you. In order for you to be more successful in your fitness journey, you need to scale back in the gym and find more balance in your life. When you're constantly stressed, your body’s natural defense mechanism is to retain body fat. For example, if you were stranded on an island with no food, your body would go into a stressed state and try to retain all the fat on your body to preserve fuel and survive.
The best way to counteract this phenomenon is to get rid of that defense mechanism which is stress. If you reduce stress and perform a consistent strength training routine, you will teach your body that it needs to retain muscle rather than body fat. The best type of exercise for this type of person, is a training program focused solely on STRENGTH. Your goal in the gym is to build strength, while NOT taxing and stressing out the body as much as possible. This includes avoiding HIIT exercises, group classes, running, and any form of exercise that puts an excess amount of stress on your CNS (Central Nervous System). Remember the more excess stress you create in the body, the more you're telling it to retain body fat.
A better way to train would be a solid strength training routine of about 2-3 days a week, in which you focus on the big lifts like squats, deadlifts, presses, rows and etc. You should spend your time mastering these movements rather than trying to go hard and push a lot of weight around all the time.
If your use to working out extensively, take a step back and use that extra time you have to practice meditation, mindfulness, or even writing in a gratitude journal. Teaching my clients to be more mindful is one of the most successful tools in my box of fat burning tricks. When you're less stressed, your body will feel very different and you’ll notice that all the little things will start going your way. You’ll crave less bad food, you’ll have more energy for your workouts and you’ll probably build better relationships with the people around you. It takes years of practice and patience to learn how to be more mindful. I promise when you do though, that you’ll be able to shed off that last bit of stubborn fat on your body and be in the best shape of your life physically, emotionally and spiritually.
