S2: E4 - You're Not Lazy, You've Just Been Pushed Wrong!

If you label yourself as lazy, or have been told you are lazy because you can't start or keep up exercise behaviours, this is for you!

11minutes, 2 problems, 2 solutions. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

How's it going? Huge thanks for tuning in and welcome back to the Lifestyle Legacy podcast with me, Ben Johnson. This is the space where we talk about movement, nutrition, physical health, mental health, overall well-being, but with flexibility and sustainability as the focus. And in today's episode, I'm going to be covering a topic on something that I'm very passionate about, and I want to try and help as many people as possible overcome. It's a topic that's very close to my heart and maybe close to yours as well. It's called You're Not Lazy, You've Just Been Pushed Wrong. I'm going to try and paint some common pictures here that you might be able to relate to. How many times have you told yourself, oh, I'm just lazy? I can never stick to anything. Why can't I just do these workouts like everyone else I see on social media or in the gym or in boot camps or classes? Maybe you've bought many different gym memberships and never really gone. Or you might have gone very few times and quite far apart. Maybe your trainers are gathering a lot of dust and you might have bought some home gym equipment which is also gathering some dust somewhere. Maybe even just thinking about working out makes you feel things like guilt or tired or even ashamed. And if that sounds familiar, you certainly aren't alone. And I want to tell you something very, very important today. You're not lazy, you've probably just been pushed wrong. There's two big parts to the you've probably just been pushed wrong phase that I just used there. So let's unpack and dig into those, looking into how the health and fitness industry and the professionals within it have maybe let you down so far and got you feeling the way that you currently do about yourself and exercise. So, first of all, we live in a bit of a culture that turns movement into punishment. It's true. We're told to earn our food, shrink our bodies, and follow bollocks mantras like go hard or go home, which I'm sure many of you will have seen plastered on gym walls. And we've been sold the idea that unless you're sweating buckets, you're grinding through pain, you're measuring every single bite that you eat, you're cutting out demonized foods, then you're not really trying. And when that version of health and fitness, and I've put that in inverted commas for anybody who's not watching this, when that version of health and fitness doesn't work for us, we burn out or we feel overwhelmed or we get bored or realize that it's just unsustainable, and we end up blaming ourselves. Not the system, not the coach, not the pressure, not the way movement was introduced to us. But the truth is that if your only experience with exercise has been fueled by feelings like shame, punishment, judgment, or discomfort, then really it makes total sense that your brain and your body want to try and avoid it at all costs. But this avoidance isn't laziness as we might perceive it, or we might have been told to think that it is. It's a self-protection. And what we call a lack of motivation is often just our nervous system saying, please don't take me back to that place where I felt out of place. I didn't feel comfortable, I wasn't enough, I felt small, or I was wrong, or I wasn't worthy compared to others that were there. So, no, you're not lazy. You're probably just someone who deserves a different experience, a completely different approach, a different mindset, or a different set of beliefs about exercise, workouts, and movement in general. At the gym that I own, Lifestyle Legacy, our coaching team meets a lot of people who feel this way. A lot of people. They've probably been pushed too hard, too fast, they've been made to feel uncomfortable doing things that they're not quite ready for yet, and they've been forced into methods that just don't suit their needs. And then when they come into a space where there's no shouting, there's no judgment, there's none of this go hard or go home shite, and our coaching team actually personalized things, making safety a priority, meeting them at the current level, and encouraging things to be yes, challenging, but also very achievable. It's incredible what changes can happen because they then begin to feel and build confidence, build a self-esteem, have more aspirations about what their body is actually capable of doing without feeling out of place or pushed too quickly, or that the methods might be too overwhelming, and they start to enjoy the process and more importantly, feel safe doing so. So the second part of this, where I feel a lot of people aren't lazy but are being pushed the wrong way, is down to how many fitness professionals and social media influencers and accounts in the fitness space putting the sole focus of exercise behaviors on how it could potentially just change the way that we look. And it's fueling this societal belief that to be fit and to be healthy and to be happy, that we have to look and we should look a certain way. And if you can't consistently exercise to look a certain way, then you're just lazy. They're being made to feel like their body is a before photo waiting to be fixed, and that this after photo is going to guarantee health, fitness, and happiness. Hi, nice to meet you. I'm your coach. Straight off the bat, I'm gonna measure you, I'm gonna weigh it, and I'm gonna take a picture of you in your underwear, your knickers, or your kegs. When you're already lacking in self-confidence, I'm laughing, I shouldn't be laughing at this. When you're already lacking in self-confidence, you're potentially putting your body down a lot, you're nitpicking, and you use derogatory fat talk, which is for another full podcast in itself, it's not really setting good foundations, straight away doing these things. But it seems to be the vast majority of fitness professionals go to starting point. This sole focus on exercise to change body shape, it might provide some short-term changes, but it's probably going to be driven by shouting, feelings of guilt and shame, and what it is what you think is discipline and being on it until reality kicks in, something changes, something gets a bit harder in life, time becomes a barrier, work might ramp up, the kids get pooly, and then the need to change shape isn't as important anymore. Those feelings, those negative thoughts that you have heightened, shame kicks in even more because you can't keep up confidence in yourself lowers, and things might come come to a complete halt. This can become a vicious circle, a vicious cycle. Each attempt of using exercise as a way just to potentially change your body shape, lowering your confidence and each failure to adhere to it long term until eventually, after more and more attempts, no long-term changes happening, you just give up altogether. And then you're labeled or made to perceive to think that you are just lazy. Now I'll say this again: what we call a lack of motivation is often just your nervous system saying, please don't take me back to that method, that place, that coach, where I was meant to made to feel out of place or not worthy compared to others, or felt small, or was doing things wrong. So again, I'll say it, you're not lazy. You're just someone who deserves a different experience, a different approach, a different mindset, and a different set of beliefs about exercise, workouts, and movement in general. And at the gym I own, our coaching team completely flips the process, starting off on a different foot, starting off in a different, completely way, focusing on how exercise can improve both the immediate and long-term feelings, your mood and your emotions. How can exercise make us feel? We don't force before and after images, we don't certainly don't get people in their underwear straight away. If at all, if they don't want to choose to do that side of things. When we help constantly reinforce the immediate positive impact of exercise without any pressures to change shape, what we see is that they begin to move again with more consistency, not because they have to, but because they want to. They start to enjoy the process through different motives, different reasons, thinking about feeling better and performing better in life. Then, if somebody does have a desire to loosen body fat and change shape in a health-focused way, as it might improve their overall well-being long term, they now have a more consistent, more compassionate, more enjoyable way, with more respect and a completely different approach to help. That's my two points. So if you've been carrying the label of lazy for a while, maybe it's time to let that go. You're not lazy. You're probably just somebody who's ready to find movement that actually works for you. Different method. And if you're in the Newcastle Gatehead area, we'd love to invite you along for a free taster session at our gym lifestyle legacy. You can come along, you can see our facility, you can meet the coaches, you can have a go at a small individualized workout that's safe. Come in for a chat, ask some questions, and there's no pressured sign-ups at the end. If it's right for you, we can chat about options. If not, we'll help you with a bit of a direction on your way. It's our mission and desire to help as many people as possible make long-term changes with these two points as a focus. You can find the link in the podcast notes to book in for that free taster session. If the times or days don't suit you, then feel free to prop us a private message on our social media pages. You can also find the links for those in the podcast notes as well. Thanks a lot for spending a bit of time with me today. If this has resonated with you, I'd love for you to follow us if you're not already. And if you can share it with somebody else who might hear it, that would be massively appreciated. Last note, remember, your body isn't the problem. The way that you've been treated and the focus you've been given are probably the issue. But that can change starting right now. Thanks for tuning in, and I will speak to you soon.