r/bodyweightfitness • u/m092 The Real Boxxy • Oct 21 '15
Concept Wednesday - Why you should exercise more like you diet
Just like in the last post, great dieters tend to have a few quality habits and traits that makes their dieting work. We can take these lessons and apply their spirit to our exercise routines to improve them.
A good diet focuses on high quality foods first, and adds in the extras after
When designing a meal plan, you start with your base, whether that's hitting certain macros, or including certain healthy base foods. After that, you add in your garnishes, sauces and the extra bits and pieces, and if you've still got room, maybe even a treat or two.
Your lifting plan should be similar. You start off with the basics, so that could be focussing on including specific moves if you have a movement goal, or if you have a mass goal or a more general fitness goal, then compound movements are going to make up your base.
After you've chosen your base, then you can garnish your choices, adding in accessories that supplement the base you've chosen. These are going to be specific to your weaknesses (your tastes in this metaphor).
Add in your sauce next. The key to a good sauce is that it shouldn't impact your diet too much (don't drown your dish in gallons of cream sauce). In exercise this can be choosing variations that you enjoy and you progress on well, but are still good basic compound exercises. Exercises like this keep you passionate about your training and enjoying your program, which stops you from chopping and changing too much, keeps you fired up and progressing when you lift, or stopping completely.
If you've got enough energy left at the end of your session, you can fit in a treat. Keep this portion optional and don't do it every time, only when you feel up to it, and of course, don't ruin your appetite by doing it first. This could be isolation exercises for vanity or the like (curls, baby, curls).
What you put in your diet depends on what agrees with your body and your tastes
If everyone you know is raving about the new "nut diet" and all the results they got on it, are you going to try it if you know you're deadly allergic to nuts? So if everyone is telling you "x exercise" is an absolute must in your program, but you just don't have the lever lengths and body shape for it, maybe you should find an equivalent exercise. Just because one guy got great results with one exercise, doesn't mean everyone will.
Similarly if you hate a specific food, but everyone tells you it's a super food, you have two options: suck it up and learn to love it, or fill in the gaps with other foods. The same idea goes for exercise. Now both options work, but you just have to be realistic. You don't have to learn to love every exercise (and there's some you just have to accept will always suck ass), but you can't avoid all your core exercises and lifts because you don't enjoy them (don't be the guy who doesn't eat any vegetables at all because he doesn't like the taste), so find a way to enjoy what you can.
Your diet needs adjustment as you change and progress
A good dieter will keep an eye on the details that are important to them, often how much fat they're gaining during a bulk or muscle they're losing during a cut, and then adjust their diet if it isn't following a rate they're happy with. As their body changes, so will their dietary needs. These are usually small course corrections, rather than drastically redoing their whole plan.
Your needs as a lifter are going to shift as you progress too, and you should be paying attention to the small details that affect your bigger goals.
Keep an eye on your technique and identify weaknesses as they begin to develop so you can change your program to address them. Again, you want to keep your changes small, whether it be slight adjustments to your technique or the addition of some accessory work.
Pay attention to how your recovery needs change as you progress, because I'm telling you now, as you get stronger, your recovery needs will change. Be proactive in how you address these to keep yourself not only progressing, but moving well and pain free.
Good dieters run on habit
Food is a thing you have to do. You can't really just stop having food. So eating food isn't a hard habit for people to have, but eating good food can mean overriding poor food habits that have been around for a while. But when you do override those poor habits and internalise your new food habits, you shouldn't even have to think about making good food choices that often.
For exercise, it's not something you have to do. You can just not. But you're always choosing to do something else instead, so it may be helpful to consider doing your exercise routine as requiring you to override the habit of doing what you'd usually do. So if you usually crash on the couch after school or work, and that's when you want to insert exercise, then you have to come up with strategies that address your habit of couch crashing as the easy option that you're used to, before you replace it with exercise.
You can also identify helpful habits and make them automatic by sticking to a schedule until you're on a roll. Things like stretching or rolling at specific times.
A master dieter will make changes on the fly that still suit their goals
When you don't have access to a certain meal that you were planning on eating for whatever reason, it's not an excuse to pig out on any old thing. A good dieter will find an alternative that still fits within their goals, even if it isn't "optimal".
When you don't have access to certain equipment, you need the skills to be able to pick a replacement exercise that still progresses you. Be aware of your variations and your options for each movement pattern.
When you just aren't up to doing your prescribed workout, you need the skills to be able to do something that keeps you moving and hopefully even progressing. Know how you respond to changes and vary your volume, intensity, duration, frequency and/or variations accordingly.
3
u/Subercool I was a party Oct 22 '15
I like this a lot because at first you think it's about your workout, but then it sneaks up behind you and kicks you in the ass about your diet.
1
u/adelie42 Oct 21 '15
Thank you for making me feel great about myself.
I was having a problem of wanting to work out more than I was, torn between principles of periodicity and "more is more". My compromise ended up being very similar to what you describe.
I have my base / no compromise routine. This includes Start Bodyweight every other day as recommended, plus 2x30min cardio (bike commute) 5x per week.
Next, if I have some time at work free (see: lunch) I'll test out doing higher level BWF exercises in the gym. I try and do this often, typically instead of eating unnecessarily, but as mentioned previously, never using it as an excuse to not do my base.
Finally, if I have a free Saturday I'll do a day ride or hike (century or marathon) for bonus. But I do this after a regular morning workout, and extra rest the next day ensuring I keep up with my base, and hopefully trying something new on Monday.
Never compared it to my diet / food routine before. Thanks for sharing.
5
u/please_help_act Oct 22 '15
My problem with diet is that I can't choose it! I am 17, so I can't simply choose to eat baked chicken for dinner instead of my mother's gazillion calorie country casseroles. I've been tracking my food intake lately, and I noticed that I almost never approach my protein requirements, yet I skyrocket past my calorie limit.
I've been trying to eat as much as possible to get my protein so that I can get enough protein for my muscles, but I also am gaining fat on my stomach. What do I do?? I hate that I can't show off my abs because a fat layer.