Back to school. If you read that with Billy Madison’s voice in your head, you’re my person. But back to the story, back to school. It’s a time that feels very natural to talk about learning.
But I’m not going to do that. As I often do, I’m going to zig instead of zag.
I’d like to use the spirit of learning to talk about unlearning. When it comes to health and fitness tips, there’s a lot of bad ones I’ve unlearned.
New learning: Strive to be STRONG
I also put this out to my Twitter – I mean X – friends. I wanted to know what advice they’ve had to unlearn. And they showed up! I got a lot of great responses, most of them from people around my age or older. What we’ve unlearned as we’ve grown wiser and we now know better.
Here are 5 health and fitness tips to unlearn right now.
1. Unlearn: Strive to be skinny
This one was my share and what sparked the X discussion. But I imagine a lot of people really need to unlearn this health and fitness lie.
Skinny was always ingrained in me as THE goal. In my 20s, I realized the only way this would work for me was through lots of cardio and being hangry. Hard pass.
Especially into my 30s, I fully appreciated the power of being strong. Perhaps because it jives with my natural body type and affinity for food, I learned I was really good at it, too! Once I discovered the joy of being strong, not skinny, I’ve never looked back or felt better.
Now, in my 40s, I feel this is the biggest opportunity of unlearning. With the recent surge in prescription drugs, there’s perhaps never been more focus on skinny. But please, PLEASE unlearn this now. Skinny won’t be there for you in your 30s when you’re lifting and holding kids, in your 40s when you’re growing a career, when you’re 50 and natural body changes rob you of muscle, when you’re 60 and break a bone, and when you’re 70 and can’t get up from the floor or a chair on your own. Strong will. New learning: Strive to be strong.
2. Unlearn: Never take a rest day
Shout out to everyone using fall and back to school as their opportunity to get back into the swing of exercise! But with that enthusiasm comes this habit to unlearn.
If you were taught to work hard, grind, keep pushing, that’s great – but not if it means go, go, going 7 days a week.
Don’t over-do it. Don’t burn out. Remember that rest is productive. Plan and enjoy rest day and your body will thank you. New learning: Take a rest day.
3. Unlearn: Losing weight will make me faster
In some cases, this piece of advice may be true; someone overweight and just starting out with exercise, whether cycling, walking, running, along those lines. For that person, yes, losing weight will likely lead to better performance.
Unlearn advice that leads to burnout, exhaustion, injury, or unhappiness
But this unlearning is meant for people who already have a solid exercise habit and in their ideal weight range for energy, focus, muscle, and overall wellness. Trying to lose weight may be a fast track – but to injury, exhaustion, or burnout. Generally speaking, calorie cutting is a primary weight loss strategy. And, generally speaking, more, not less, food is crucial for fitness gains. That applies to muscle, too.
For those looking to get faster, strength training or intervals are a much better place to start than weight loss. New learning: Focused effort and hard work will make me faster.
4. Unlearn: Go all-in on 1 thing
While this is a great unlearning for adults to apply to themselves, we should also remember this when it comes to our kids. I’m overwhelmed by youth sports culture and the intensity, expectations, and financial demands put on kids in sports. And not high school kids. I’m talking already in freaking elementary school. But that’s for another time.
When it comes to this bad health and fitness tip, I see the behavior often show up with running; people just run and run and run. Whether it’s running, or cycling, the elliptical, even cardio as a focus in general, mixing up workouts is crucial. Same goes for lifting weights. It’s not beneficial to do leg day over and over. One day, it’s legs. Another, it’s a brisk walk. The next, back and shoulders, etc.
Not only does unlearning this specialization lie help combat burnout and injury, it promotes well-rounded wellness and greater overall strength (see unlearning #1). New learning: Cross train.
5. Unlearn: What works for that person will work for me
This is perhaps the most universal health and wellness tip to unlearn but especially valuable for women. By now, I think we all know the overwhelming majority of health and fitness knowledge is based on men. And, as (the wonderful and brilliant) Dr. Stacy Sims coined, “Women are not small men.” i.e. what works for men cannot be blindly applied to women. Thank you, Dr. Sims!
But this unlearning extends beyond women. In addition to gender, your age, your goals, your phase in life – virtually everything about you – dictates the unique blend of nutrition, exercise, sleep, and everything you need to be your best.
I wrote a short blog a few weeks back about the one health and wellness influencer to follow. It’s you. Only you. Don’t spend another ounce of energy trying to find the secret, the hack, the “thing” that someone else does or promises will work for you. Spend your energy getting to know YOU. New learning: Only I determine what works best for me.
That’s enough for now. Until next time,
Lindsay