The instinctual training principle: the key to success

The instinctual training principle has been around for decades, but the sheer impact of what it can accomplish has eluded the average trainer, leaving him confused and believing that there is something mysterious and secret about him. The fact is, they use it every day and probably don’t even realize it. This principle has everything to do with being in tune with your body, not with a mystical spiritual voodoo, but with being able to decipher how your body feels at any given moment.

Some examples are feeling tired near bedtime, feeling like you have a cold or the flu due to fatigue and joint pain, or feeling thirsty. These are obvious cases where your body tries to communicate its needs to you, and by acknowledging these physical feelings, you can give your body what it needs when it needs it to keep itself in balance. The instinctual training principle is an in-depth ability to read even the most subtle nuances in fluctuations in body function in regards to exercise and diet stimulus to obtain accurate feedback on the effectiveness of a training program, exercise , intensity level, duration of training, number of exercises given. of series and repetitions, etc.

Mastering this technique can accelerate your progress and save many months or years of wasted guesswork using cookie cutter training programs or mimicking what you see others doing at the gym without really knowing if it’s right for you. It takes some time to be able to fully trust your instincts and read your body correctly because the body has its own agenda when it comes to expending energy, that of being autonomous.

For example, when you go to the gym for a leg workout, as the moment approaches, you start to feel butterflies in your stomach and your energy seems to wane, you should be able to distinguish between actual fatigue and anxiety about the intensity of the workout. effort to come because If you advance when in reality you are still tired from the last workout, you are flirting with over training and backtracking in progress and if you misread fear that you feel as fatigue, you will skip the workout and the next because the body will keep playing This hand. to save yourself stress.

Another example is using exercises in your routine that are favorites no matter how they feel or if they produce results, this is usually due to ego, convenience or comfort, exercises like flat bench press, barbell curl, leg press, etc. . The bench press is more masculine than the incline dumbbell press, the leg press is more comfortable than the barbell squats, the barbell curls are more convenient than the seated incline dumbbell curls. To make real progress you must question your motives, monitor the results of a given exercise or routine, and be able to discard an old favorite to be replaced by one you don’t like if that’s what the body responds to or rearrange the order. of exercises or body parts to be worked on in a given workout if a muscle group is missing, regardless of the body parts you like to train.

Pay particular attention to how different set and rep schemes affect your energy levels and mood, notice the difference in how your muscles feel and respond between exercises like push-ups versus chin-ups or barbell squats in front of hack squats, grip nuances, pull angles, hand and foot placement, body positioning to measure their effectiveness and ensure the most productive use of your time and effort.

This depending on how you feel can get out of control if you approach each workout with whatever quirk you see fit, because there should still be structure, consistency, and rational thinking in your approach. It’s a balancing act that can change over time as you get to know your body better, and it’s a process that continues to evolve as you train, so start now to master this essential tool that can make the difference between failure or accomplishment. your physical goals.