Body wisdom is a result of evolution

In ancient times it was thought that the heart was the seat of the soul, and the brain was thought to be nothing more than some weird cooling system for the blood (that was Aristotle’s theory anyway). They didn’t always get things right, but even in modern medicine it’s becoming apparent that the various parts of the body seem to have an intelligence of their own.

The stomach automatically knows just how much digestive acid to secrete to deal with the food we send down. Too little and the food won’t be properly digested – too much and we’ll suffer stomach pains. We don’t have to think about it, the stomach just ‘knows’ the right amount, and when to secrete it. Imagine if we had to think carefully before deciding to eat. We would consider how long it was since we last ate anything, and try to estimate how much food we would need to carry us through the next several hours. We don’t have to do that, of course. The body just knows when food is needed. And the way the body alerts us to the necessity to eat is by causing the sensation of hunger.

Your body knows what it needs

Another example of body wisdom (or intelligence) is that when we’re overheating the body’s way of cooling itself down is by causing us to sweat. The body secretes water that conveniently conducts away some of the excess heat.

 

In the opposite situation, when we’re feeling cold, the body needs to conserve heat. One of the ways it does that is by raising the hairs on our forearms (and all over really, but we notice it more on the forearms) to form a sort of ‘mesh’ over the skin, a bit like a string vest. And it works in exactly the same way, trapping body heat close to the body, very like a bird fluffing up its feathers to form a cozy ‘blanket’ around its body.

In fact, it’s thought that this might well have been the primary reason for the evolution of feathers in the first place, as a means of keeping the body warm. Only later, much later, did the feathers slowly form into wings and allow the birds to take flight. Obviously these kinds of developments must have taken place over millions of years and come about through an incredibly slow process of natural selection.

To lose weight, just cut down on calories … right?

And when you’re trying to lose weight, you cut down your calorie intake. And why not, it seems the sensible thing to do. But the results aren’t always as you might have hoped. Oh sure, you might lose some weight for a week or so, but then it plateaus, which you find hard to understand, not to mention very frustrating.

But the body is just doing what is dictated by its body wisdom … taking care of itself, and you. From the drastically reduced intake of calories, the body is getting the message that food is scarce … so maybe you’re in the midst of a famine, or on the verge of one. It responds in the most sensible way – it starts to hang on to every last bit of body fat for dear life, making it almost impossible to lose weight. This is necessary for survival. Your body doesn’t know you have access to plenty of food and you are willingly forgoing it in the hopes of achieving a slimmer or leaner physique. All it knows is that apparently you’re in the middle of a famine.

Your response might not be so intelligent. You cut back even further, putting yourself on what is virtually a starvation diet. Now you must lose weight! You’re taking in so little now that it’s inevitable that your weight will drop.

‘Fraid not! Quite the opposite in fact. The more you cut back, the stronger is the message to your body/brain that you’re struggling in a famine situation. And the body, being the result of millions of years of survival and evolution, clings even more desperately to every last ounce of fat! It’s this fat, this reserve of energy, that might prove to be the difference between life and death. The body knows what it’s doing, and what it’s doing is looking out for your best interests.

Body wisdom: work with your body, not against it

This is why it’s very useful to have a ‘cheat’ day in your routine if you’re trying to slim down. You’re sending the message that says “Hey look, actually there’s plenty of food … no shortage here … I can eat all I want, anytime I like, just watch me … you can stand down that alert now”.

So you have to play the game. Recognise that your body is doing its best for you, and be grateful for that. It wants you to survive. It desperately wants you to survive! So it’s constantly on the lookout for danger signs, such as food shortages. When it senses danger it takes action to make sure you survive. Because we don’t always understand the reasons for what it’s doing it can seem like it’s working against us. But in fact it always has our best interests at heart. We just have to learn its motivations, and maybe trick the body into doing what we want, not just what it wants.

Muscle is a very expensive commodity

Another aspect of body wisdom is the way your body knows that muscle is expensive. Beyond a certain point, gaining more muscle makes no sense at all. It costs a lot of energy and a lot of effort to create muscle. And it takes a massive amount of energy to maintain it. And for what? As long as you can do the necessary work you have to do to survive, you’ve got enough muscle tissue (by the body’s estimation). That’s it, end of story! Your body doesn’t know you want to build up to feel stronger, or to look better, or to feel better equipped to compete with others. It only knows that you have enough muscle to do what it needs to do, and it knows that building more will be a costly and unnecessary extravagance.

Your body really doesn’t want to build any more muscle. In fact, it will actively try to not build muscle! Why would it want to create muscle tissue you don’t actually need, and that would cost very dearly in terms of energy and effort? Makes no sense. And your body has learned, from millions of generations of evolution, to only do what seems to make sense. So again you have to play the game.

You have to trick your body into doing what you want

You have to convince your body you need that new muscle tissue. And the way to do that is to create a demand for it! It’s the same as marketing – if you want to sell more of a certain item, you have to create the demand for it by making people feel they need that item. It might be an extravagance, or just something cosmetic, but if you can convince people they actually need it, you’ll sell more of it. You’re creating a demand, and that’s what you have to do with muscle building – convince your body that it needs more muscle.

If you sail through a workout feeling pretty good and enjoying yourself … er, I’m sorry but you’re doing it wrong. You have to put yourself in a situation where your body is under unusual and even extreme stress. You must trick your body into thinking that you are going to need more muscle to deal with this new level of stress that’s suddenly appeared in your life. Only then will your body be motivated to commit resources to such a costly outlay.

This is why you need to go beyond your comfort zone if you want to see results. You must venture into the zone where you feel your muscles are screaming for relief from the demands you’re placing on them. You need to do press-ups, for example, to the point where you feel you literally can’t do any more, and yet carry on anyway. You need to carry on, even if you’re struggling to even move, to straighten your arms. Those last few agonising press-ups have to be painful, and have to convey the message that you’re going to be under immense stress from now on. Only then will your body decide to start increasing your muscle mass. Only then will it risk creating muscle, knowing that it is a very, very expensive commodity, not only to create but to maintain.

It’s all about tension, not weight

Having said that, you don’t necessarily need to use big weights all the time. It’s great to use heavy weights, but if you’re focusing on the movement and going beyond the point where you strongly feel the need to stop, then it really doesn’t matter what weight you’re lifting. Your body never knows how much you’re lifting, and it really doesn’t care.

For example, you might do a set of lateral raises with 30lb. dumbbells and then immediately switch to 25’s for a second set. You take a quick break and to do a third set with a pair of 20’s and it feels as tough as the first set. Move on immediately to a fourth set with 15’s and you’ll know what pain really feels like. The actual weight will be getting lighter, but the tension on your muscles will be gradually increasing. And that’s what counts, the tension on your muscles.

The thing is, even with its amazing body wisdom, your body still doesn’t know the size of the weights you’re lifting. It doesn’t know if you’re lifting 100lb. dumbbells or a pair of dinky little pink, plastic-coated 5lb. dumbbells. It only knows how they feel. It only knows the tension you’re feeling. That’s the only thing it has to go by.

If you’ve been working your delts hard you might finish with a few sets with the lightest pair of dumbbells you can find. And those last one or two sets might be the most painful of the lot. You might literally struggle to do 10 or 15 reps with very, very light weights, because your muscles have been pre-exhausted. And those last few sets, with almost comically light weights, might be the very ones that produce the most effect.

Not every session needs to be a life-or-death struggle

Not that you want to blast your muscles into oblivion every session, or bang out hard sessions one after the other without a rest, day after day. There’s more to building muscle that tension and stress. You need the right nutrition to feed the newly created tissue, you need a good strong blood flow in those newly formed capillaries, and you need to have plenty of rest to allow your body to do the muscle building. When you’re training hard you’re in the catabolic phase, breaking down the muscles with extreme stress, and when you’re resting you’re in the anabolic phase, when your body is literally building your new muscle tissue from scratch. Each part of the process is vital, so don’t force yourself to do mammoth training sessions without taking plenty of rest and eating a good, varied diet. Leave out any component necessary for muscle building and you simply won’t see the results you’re working for.