Ey up! How’s your week going?
I worked my last shifts for PureGym on Monday and Tuesday, I’ve had four vaccines for future travel and am now struggling to lift my arms up – even a tiny violin would be too much right now ahaha – and have been working on my cardio for my second parkrun, this time with the newly formed Tortured Runners Department…
How to keep moving when weight loss doesn’t move you
Just as not everybody’s body’s the same, not everybody’s motivated by seeing the number on the scales as a sign of progress.
Two examples in opposing directions: first, this year, I’ve tried really hard to consistently break north of 83kg while eating healthily but my weight gain stalled in April and so I needed something else to keep me motivated in the gym.
Similarly but in the other direction, one of my clients has seen their weight loss stall but their strength and muscularity (and the compliments they receive) continue to increase.
A screenshot from a super honest (and inspiring) client check-in last weekend.
So what do you do when you want to improve how fit you feel and/or look but the scales don’t motivate you anymore?
Where I’ve struggled to put more weight on, I’ve been working towards new strength goals. Where my client has struggled to lose weight, we’ve been working towards new strength goals. You see, with extra muscle comes the potential of extra strength; the jump from general fitness to bodybuilding is an easy one, just as bodybuilding to powerlifting is fairly intuitive too.
Another path you can take is to make your exercise more sociable, even contingent on the actions of others. You could, for instance, look to compete at weightlifting meets, join a club or find an entirely new sport to apply your gym work to.
The reasons for this are many, including but not limited to:
Structured exercise improves health outcomes
Socialising can improve health outcomes
Building on the above, social exercise could have an even greater impact on a person’s health outcomes
Competition – friendly or otherwise! – can be motivating, even enjoyable
Learning can help mental health outcomes
The feeling of being watched can increase anxiety, sure, but – and possibly because anxiety is present in peak performance – could also lead to improved output.
In London, I found mixed netball through colleagues and loved it.
At first I played it to socialise and then I got into the strategy and athleticism of it – not only did I enjoy the challenge of this new thing, I wanted to be good at it.
I knew I didn’t have the nous of people who’d been playing for almost two decades, so I aimed to learn from and then outwork them – I got to run, jump, throw, catch, orchestrate and improve each week, and, most importantly, build friendships with people who otherwise might just have stayed as colleagues rather than become the mates they did.
When I found a sport that worked for me suddenly everything was applicable and there was a reason bigger than visible abs or what I weighed for getting up to workout. Cardio bored me but my sport didn’t, and, through it, my gym work contributed to my ability to compete and my sport contributed towards my fat loss goals.
In 2016, I wrote a review of alternative treatments for depression (linked below) and stumbled across the suggestion that structured exercise with other people could be one of the most impactful things a person could do for their health outcomes.
Little did I know then that I’d become a full-time coach advising health and fitness clients to find reasons to move outside of how much they weigh.
If team sport sounds a stretch from your current gym routine, you could try joining a beginner’s running club. Big shout to Beth who didn’t feel fast enough to join one, so started her own: The Tortured Runners Department. If you’re based in Sheffield, this could be a great way to make friends, improve your overall health outcomes and anyway make your fitness progress feel more tangible!
Further reading
“The impact of sports participation on mental health and social outcomes in adults”, Eather et al, 2023. Link accessed 2 May 2024.
“Can we really think our way out of depression?”, Jack Mann, 2016. This is an essay I submitted as part of my masters coursework! Link accessed 2 May 2024.
“9 benefits of personal training”, Healthline. Link accessed 2 May 2024.
In my eyes
Fallout, TV series available to stream on Amazon Prime
4* so far; Image: Deadline.com
I was introduced to Fallout in my first year of uni by one of my flatmates; I sat with him as he jumped around a desert in Fallout 3 for 15 minutes, got bored and that was it. I didn’t think about the long-running Bethesda Games series again until I saw this poster outside of the gym. Intrigued, I sat with the first episode (subtitled in Spanish, of course) and, within 15 minutes, I was hooked.
Now, I’m only three episodes in and have met all of the characters in the poster. Our three leads from left to right are Walton Goggins as The Ghoul, Ella Purnell as Lucy MacLean and Aaron Moten as Maximus, and I’m here for all of them. I’ve been horrified by The Ghoul and Maximus’ actions and enthralled by Lucy’s (part-enforced) want to survive. The show, so far, has been equal parts bleak, cold war can-do attitude and pastiche, and all-in genuinely thought-provoking. I’ll stick with it and review in full, hopefully later this month.
What’s on your watchlist right now? Let me know!
Much love and I’ll see yas in the next one
Jack x