IMPROVE YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR LEGS
“I HATE LEG DAY!”
How many of you say this to yourself or to your gym buddies, either on leg day or in anticipation of a leg session the next day? It is inevitable that there are going to be certain parts of our training that we dislike, and we will build up resistance towards them, resulting in dread each time in the week that faithful day comes around.
The reality is, we like to do things we are good at, and this doesn’t stop when we go to the gym. We like to train body parts that look good, are strong, or are complimented often by our fellow gymgoers.
WE ALL DESIRE COMPETENCE!
Now, it is often the case that people don’t have much leg-day competence, resulting in us developing a poor relationship with our legs:
“They won't grow”.
“They don’t look good”.
“They are soooo weak!”
“I have so much fat on my legs”.
This may represent a few of the phrases we tell ourselves on or around leg day. Not very inspiring, am I right? In comparison, we may love our arms and people regularly tell us how they would like to have biceps like ours. This feeds not only our ego as we flex them for our adorning fans, but it raises our competence. This means we would happily jump on a bicep superset following a half-arsed hamstring curl (Who can see your hamstrings anyway?!).
WE ARE MOTIVATED TO TRAIN THINGS WE LOVE!
Therefore, if you want to start enjoying your leg days, you need to first learn how to love your legs!
HOW TO LOVE YOUR LEGS
What are your intentions? –
Be careful of what seeds you’re planting in your brain. If we have an unrealistic intention of how we would like how legs to perform or look, every time that we lift or look in the mirror, we will experience negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. This means that we will dislike leg day and avoid it instead of approaching it. Therefore, we want to plant realistic intention seeds that will make us feel competent, think positively, and approach our leg sessions.
Address the critic –
More often than not, the criticism isn’t another gym bro, but ourselves. Give this critical voice a name, negative Nancy, Caveman, a negative person you may know. Separate yourself from them, as they are not empowering you to improve your body, but instead, they’re tearing it apart.
Compassion logbook –
In addition to writing down your sets, reps, and weights, why not take some time after a session to make note of the positive things your legs did in that session? We allow ourselves to become consumed by negativity and forget to designate time to indulge in positive thinking.
Comparison is the thief of joy –
If comparing your legs/squats to another is causing you to feel negatively towards your legs, then why do it? I appreciate this is easier said than done, however, here are some strategies to help:
Reality check these photos (Lighting, angle, time of day).
Rationalise (e.g., They may have trained for longer, they weigh more/less).
Mute accounts on social media
MAKE LEG TRAINING FUN!
Why are we sticking to the same old exercises that we dread doing on leg day? Be adventurous, try something new, and spark the fire that got you excited about the gym in the first place.
“BUT IT'S NOT iN MY PROGRAM...”
...Well, neither is skipping leg day. I am sure your coach would be happy that you did something and enjoyed it, rather than nothing at all!
There are so many exercises and ways to train your legs, when we say we hate training legs, you’re only speaking to the two compounds and three accessories you have been programmed by your coach. Your legs can do a lot more than just move weights in a gym. Find ways that you can challenge them in different settings and sports. This will build your love and competence in your legs, which could translate back to your leg training in the gym.
Stop measuring your leg day success by the amount of weight you lifted, and instead measure it by your happiness and enjoyment in the exercises. This will inevitably lead to increased leg-day competence and growth.
If you’re always telling people how much you hate leg day and your legs, then I hope this blog has helped you to improve your relationship with your legs and sparked some ideas on how to adapt your leg day training. Do you have any sessions you hate doing? Please feel free to share in the comments! If you would like help improving your relationship with leg day so that you can improve your legs, then please get in contact with me at robin@autonomypsychology.com
Best Wishes
Robin Hughes