• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Breaking Muscle

Breaking Muscle

Breaking Muscle

  • Fitness
  • Workouts
    • Best Shoulder Workouts
    • Best Chest Workouts
    • Best Leg Workouts
    • Best Leg Exercises
    • Best Biceps Exercises
    • Best Kettlebell Exercises
    • Best Back Workouts
    • Best HIIT Workouts
    • Best Triceps Exercises
    • Best Arm Workouts
  • Reviews
    • Supplements
      • Best Pre-Workouts
      • Best Whey Protein
    • Equipment
      • Best Home Gym Machines
    • Certifications
      • ISSA Review
  • News
  • Exercise Guides
    • Legs
      • Back Squat
      • Bulgarian Split Squat
      • Goblet Squat
      • Zercher Squat
      • Standing Calf Raise
      • Hack Squat
    • Chest
      • Bench Press
      • Dumbbell Bench Press
      • Close-Grip Bench Press
      • Incline Bench Press
    • Shoulders
      • Overhead Dumbbell Press
      • Lateral Raise
    • Arms
      • Chin-Up
      • Weighted Pull-Up
      • Triceps Pushdown
    • Back
      • Deadlift
      • Trap Bar Deadlift
      • Lat Pulldown
      • Inverted Row
      • Bent-Over Barbell Row
      • Single-Arm Dumbbell Row
      • Pendlay Row
Fitness

Should I Listen to My Body?

I’ve heard so many times that I should “listen to my body." What if it tells me to EAT THAT COOKIE! Let me share how I've learned when to listen and when to move on.

Written by Zen Gray Last updated on September 11, 2012

“I never lie,” I said offhand. “At least not to those I don’t love.”- Anne Rice, The Vampire Lestat

I’ve heard so many times that I should “listen to my body” and I’ll do what’s best for it. I would like to submit what a bad idea that is in some cases.

Have you ever had a sugar addiction? I have. And you know what my body tells me when I’m trying to avoid that dessert? It tells me to EAT THAT COOKIE! And how about when you’re stressed and tired and your body says, “Hey, that couch looks really comfy right now. Yeah, that’s what I need!” But I’m sure you’ve also experienced the jolt of energy and confidence that comes after exercising instead of going for the couch. So clearly the body lies to us sometimes. We can’t just rely on our feelings. We have to use our brains.

I think everyone understands sugar cravings are not healthy cravings. Certainly we need carbohydrates to function but I’m talking about the urges that come on after a party when you’ve had a slice of cake or a few margaritas. Then you find yourself craving another little sweet treat the next day, and the next, and soon you’ve put on five pounds. Whoops! Time to reel it in.

It’s been my experience that clients trying to wean off dairy and alcohol have similar cravings for sugar. Is it a Candida thing? That’s up for debate. I hate to think of yeast proliferating in my bloodstream by feeding on sugars, but many holistic practitioners have told me that’s exactly what’s happening. Ewww, right? Strangely enough, when I’ve eliminated simple sugars from my diet, my cravings went away.

And like many athletes, I’ve trained myself to ignore that feeling of exhaustion and get the workout in anyway because I almost always feel energized after busting my ass. But is the couch sometimes a GOOD idea?

A better question would be: Am I overtraining? One easy way to know is to check your resting heart rate regularly. If you’ve noticed you wake up in the morning feeling unrested with an elevated heart rate some ten beats per minute higher than normal, then you probably need to back it off a bit. An elevated resting heart rate means your body isn’t healing in between workout sessions properly. Plus you’re probably experiencing other symptoms of burn out like moodiness, irritability, sickness, or injuries.

heart rate monitor, heart rate training, philip maffetone, aerobic trainingI love my heart rate monitor. It’s a Polar FT60 with the FlowLink device that allows me to track my workouts on PolarPersonalTrainer.com. It’s pretty awesome and I’m totally addicted. I love seeing my aerobic capacity improve and I don’t have to guess if I’m getting better. I’ve got stats to prove it. Plus, my heart rate monitor alerted me to the fact that my intensity was too high and I was overtraining. I backed off, healed my body, and my results improved as soon as I returned to my high-intensity workouts.

So, should I listen to my body? Sure. But like any advice I receive from friends and family (or politicians, for that matter), I’ve got to question what’s truly best for my health and well-being before I act.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

About Zen Gray

An ACE Certified Personal Trainer and Group Fitness Instructor, Zen has spent over twenty years helping thousands of people get fit around the country: from showcasing her coaching talents on Season One and Season Two ofWORKOUT - Bravo TV's docu-drama about the lives of personal trainers, to writing and hostingThe Skinny - amusing and easy health tips for the newbie exerciser on ExerciseTV (Time Warner's online and video-on-demand exercise site), to teaching hundreds of conditioning classes from Chicago to Los Angeles.

Zen’s blog, Love and Fat, discusses the relationship between love and body weight, personal struggles and triumphs in the quest for a healthier and happier life, and suggestions on how to keep the love…but lose the love handles. With an extensive business background, Zen also relates to the diet and fitness pitfalls of working in corporate America.

It’s no coincidence that Zen enjoys motivating her clients with playful routines and humor as she’s also performed stand-up comedy for over ten years and frequently studies techniques from the masters of motivation like Tony Robbins. Have you ever done a 14-foot fire walk? That takes powerful focus…and Zen’s done it twice.

With a healthy respect for Western medicine, Zen also encourages people to take control of their own health through holistic choices and explore lifestyle changes to include unprocessed and organic foods as well as natural remedies. She’s a huge fan of nutrition and devours the latest studies in diet choices that help people lose weight.

Zen teaches others to stay curious about their limits and to push through their comfort zones. In sticking with that philosophy, she’s raced one marathon, two triathlons, and she just published her first ebook, From Flab to Fit.

To see video of Zen’s training style, fitness tips, and public appearances, please check out: www.zengray.com.

View All Articles

Recommended Articles

11206583924364784289307369687781128616950o
You’re Not an Elite Athlete, So Stop Acting Like One
Mind Your Mental Momentum
The Science Behind Why “I Think I Can” Actually Works
shawngerber
Why We Know, But Don’t Do

Primary Sidebar

Latest Articles

Justin Medeiros Walks Through a Full Tour of His Home Gym Before CrossFit Season

Powerlifter Jimmy Kolb Logs 612.5-Kilogram (1,350.3-Pound) Equipped Bench Press World Record

The Ultimate Back and Biceps Workout for Every Lifter From Beginner to Advanced

Strongman Legend Hafthor Björnsson Receives International Sports Hall of Fame Induction

Latest Reviews

ISSA Personal Trainer Certification Review

ISSA Personal Trainer Certification Review

Best Whey Proteins for Packing on Muscle, Shredding Down, Meal Replacement, and More

Best Pre-Workouts for Building Muscle, Running, Taste, and More

Best Home Gym Machines

Best Home Gym Machines

woman lifting barbell

Be the smartest person in your gym

The Breaking Muscle newsletter is everything you need to know about strength in a 3 minute read.

I WANT IN!

Breaking Muscle is the fitness world’s preeminent destination for timely, high-quality information on exercise, fitness, health, and nutrition. Our audience encompasses the entire spectrum of the fitness community: consumers, aficionados, fitness professionals, and business owners. We seek to inform, educate and advocate for this community.

  • Reviews
  • Healthy Eating
  • Workouts
  • Fitness
  • News

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS Feed

© 2023 · Breaking Muscle · Terms of Use · Privacy Policy · Affiliate Disclaimer · Accessibility · About