by Neil Anderson
It is always baffling to me when a rookie who is only several days/weeks/months new to this exercising process tell us she is "listening to her body" and taking a few days off.
"What?!"
So let me get this straight. You and your body haven't been communicating effectively for years and years and NOW - all of the sudden - you are listening to it again? And you think you understand it?
Let me explain something. When it comes to health and fitness, you two speak different languages now. You two can't possibly understand each other.
Kevin Didn't (listen)
It doesn't even understand BASIC commands anymore like: RUN now, LIFT something, or EAT a vegetable. Those basic vocabulary words have been replaced by things like: SIT a lot, PUSH buttons and EAT Twinkies.
You are a long way from being able to communicate with your body again. How can you possibly think you know what your body is saying to you?
"Taking a couple of days off," because you are ...,"listening to your body." Haha! That's cute.
Listen, after you teach it the basics, you two still won't be communicating very effectively. You still have to teach it how to form sentences with all of these new words (run, lift, vegetables). Then you have to teach it to add and subtract in this new language (calories in vs calories out). Then you have to put some miles on this new language. Real miles, right? Taking a semester of Spanish in college doesn't truly prepare someone for the streets of Merida (shout out to our friend Antonio)!
It takes months, maybe years before it is reasonable to expect that you two can communicate the basics of training and eating right, let alone the nuances.
Taking a couple of days off because you are listening to your body is a very nuanced experience. Its results will be very subtle. Only the most skillful and adept exercisers will gain anything by doing it. The rest of us are best served by showing up and throwing down. Go easier if you need to. Slow down if necessary, but don't skip.
It is SHOWING UP that produces results.
Teach your body what it needs to know before trying to interpret the garbled language of what it doesn't.