In case you didn’t already know, the brain has A LOT to do with any fitness goal whether it’s fat loss, muscle gain, or body recomposition.

This is because in order to actually achieve a goal, we need to BELIEVE that we can. And all the believing comes from that thing in your head.

I am by no means a psychologist, but I’ve taken a few courses on it back in my school days and done a lot of additional reading/research on it on my own.

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The brain

There are many different parts of the brain but the best way to explain how the brain relates to fitness is by breaking it out into the 3 evolutionary parts:

Reptilian brain –

• Oldest part of your brain
• Avoids pain (threats to safety/survival)
• Seeks pleasure (promotes safety and survival)
• Tries to expend as little energy as possible
• Focuses on survival skills mainly

Generally speaking, habits we have that are familiar to our brains (whether good or bad) are considered SAFE and preferable to our reptilian brains.

Things that we haven’t tried or done before are generally considered unsafe or dangerous to this part of our brain and that’s why it is so uncomfortable to push outside of your comfort zone most times.

The problem is, we NEED to push ourself and our brains outside of this safe/comfortable space in order to actually see progress in the gym and with our fitness goals. No progress was ever made by doing the same things you were doing before that weren’t working.

Whenever we make decisions, we are always inclined to follow the safe/preferable choice to our reptilian brain because it wants to protect us and put us at the highest possibility of “survival” but that’s not always the best choice in terms of us being able to hit our goals.

Prefrontal cortex –

• Hosts rational decision making, problem solving, self control, personality, judgement, compassion, free will, and attention

Just from this little bit of information alone, you could see how your prefrontal cortex plays a big role in hitting your fitness goals as well.

The top things to focus on here are decision making, self control & problem solving.

The three can really go hand in hand though.

For example, you come home after work and you’re tired and you are starving.

You know in the rational part of your brain that you should cook a healthy dinner for yourself in order to stick to your goals but you decide you’re too hungry, you’re lacking self control to actually cook the dinner, and you problem solve (your hunger) by heading straight to the pantry for some quick (likely unhealthy) snacks.

Limbic/mammal brain –

• Emotions are formed here
• Memories stored here
• Morals/values stored here

Unconsciously, this part of the brain has a lot of influence on decision making due to these few factors.

For example, let’s say you value family very highly. Your parents, spouse, etc. does not support you on your fitness journey.

This alone has stopped people from succeeding with their fitness goals because it ties into the emotional. You want to please your family, spouse, etc.

Sometimes you put what others want in front of what you want to fit in or conform to your surroundings.

While emotions tie into this, they also play a role on their own.

As you know, many people use food as an emotional outlet which can be very detrimental to hitting your fitness goal.

Let’s say on top of all of this, you also have bad past experiences with your journey/the gym in general. These experiences are stored in your memory.

Your past memories can stop you from moving forward with your potential journey due to being afraid of embarrassment, judgement, or the fear of failing again.

Neurons

If you’ve ever taken a psychology class, it is likely that you’ve heard the phrase “neurons that wire together, fire together”.

Neurons are nerve cells that send messages all over your body and are responsible for nearly every action we complete in life.

They receive information (sensory), interpret the information, and then send a signal to communicate the information with the rest of the body.

Repeated thoughts or actions, strengthen the connection between neurons over time or “wire” them together.

So the more you think something, or do something, the harder it becomes to break that habit.

For example, you have a bad habit of thinking bad of yourself or your body. The more you have these thoughts, the stronger that wiring becomes between neurons and the more realistic those thoughts become. You believe that 100% because that connection between neurons has become so strong.

This is why POSITIVE self talk is actually so important. Even if you don’t believe it at first, the more you do it and repeat it day to day, the stronger the connection becomes in your brain. Eventually, you will believe what you are telling yourself.

How to reverse our bad habits

The first step to reversing our bad habits is knowing what is triggering you in the first place.

Most of the time, we are triggered to do something based off emotions due to deep underlying emotional connections or having a deprivation mindset (in terms of dieting).

When we are deprived of things, we may become obsessed with them because in our brains we have convinced ourselves that we are not allowed to have XYZ which makes us want it so much more.

It’s similar to when you are interested in someone but they don’t show you attention and it makes you want them WAY more than that person who is showering you with all the attention. It stimulates that part of our brain that is associated with motivation and reward. We are chasing that dopamine high.

This is why many long terms dieters become obsessed with food or use food as an outlet to cope with emotions.

The reason we have a bad habit is generally because we want to get rid of whatever uncomfortable feeling it is that we are feeling.

For example, stress, boredom, etc.

So what we need to do is to replace that bad habit with a new, better, more productive habit that is still going to produce that same end results (relief from uncomfortable feeling).

For example, you are used to hitting the pantry whenever you’ve had a stressful day and that helps you reduce your stress levels. Unfortunately, that habit usually is counterproductive to whatever goal you have.

Instead, you could go for a run, hit the weights, do some meditation or yoga, etc. to still get that same stress relieving result at the end, but now you are doing something that is more productive towards hitting your end goal.

By doing this, you can force different neurons to wire together through neuroplasticity and create new habits.

Conclusion

If you haven’t already, check out Atomic Habits by James Clear. This is part of where I learned a lot of this information from as well as through my classes and additional research.

If you’re feeling stuck in some of your bad habits now, don’t stress! They can be reversed with the right methods/persistence.

Having an understanding of this, and the parts of the brain that are attributing to you hitting your goal will all help you in this process.

And if you’re still not sure you can hit your fitness goal on your own, you can apply to work with me 1:1 here 🙂

Until next time,

Coach Emily