Most people live their lives in survival mode which makes it pretty much impossible to transform their body.
Many of the results you are after such as getting a 6 pack, building muscle, and losing weight fast are thrive demands. They come as the result of your body thriving.
Unfortunately because of the modern lifestyle most people are constantly in survival mode which makes these goals impossible to achieve.
The good news is you can move your body towards thriving, but it takes a whole lifestyle change rather than just changing your exercise. In fact most people’s exercise programmes push them further into survival mode.
Your body is pretty much controlled by your central nervous system which is split into two parts. The sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. Your sympathetic nervous system activates your fight or flight response whereas your parasympathetic nervous system activates the rest and digest response. In other words your sympathetic nervous system activates survival mode and your parasympathetic nervous system activates your thrive mode.
In order to see the body transformation results you want, then you need to be in parasympathetic dominance and rest and digest mode as much as possible. Unfortunately modern lifestyles push you into sympathetic dominance.
Any kind of stress on the body pushes you into fight or flight mode. Stress at work, financial stress, relationship stress, being in pain, lack of sleep and exercise all push you into sympathetic dominance. Even if you don’t mentally feel stressed, they still release the hormones in your body which puts you in sympathetic dominance.
Most people go through their lives dealing with all of these stresses which means they spend very little time in parasympathetic dominance and in the mode which will help their body thrive. When you are in rest or digest mode this is when your body is able to adapt and recover. This is essential if you want to see results whether it is weight loss or muscle building. The more time you spend in parasympathetic dominance the more time your body has time to adapt to your workout and nutrition programme.
A big part of the reason why the English population is becoming more and more obese is because of constantly being in sympathetic dominance. When you eat foods when in fight or flight mode your body doesn’t absorb the nutrients as well. If your body isn’t absorbing the nutrients it needs then it will keep sending out hunger signals to eat more food to get what it needs. Even if you eat good foods but are in sympathetic dominance you still won’t absorb the nutrients. Being in sympathetic dominance leads to feeling hungry more often and in turn overeating.
When you are in fight or flight mode your bodies preferred energy source is sugar. If you are burning sugar constantly all day long then your body is going to crave sugar. This is another reason why being in sympathetic dominance leads to poor results as eating too much sugary foods leads to weight gain.
A lot of people think that in order to see results they need to exercise as much as possible. Unfortunately exercising too much can lead to poor results. Exercise is a stress on the body so if you are already stressed with work, relationships etc. and then increase your exercise too much, it pushes your body further into sympathetic dominance.
Yes you need to exercise, but unless you have a completely stress free life, exercising 3-5 times per week is enough. In nearly all cases less is more and to see results you’re better off decreasing the amount you do than increase it. Better still make lifestyle changes to reduce all the other stresses in your life.
Instead of increasing your exercise you should make lifestyle changes in order to move into parasympathetic dominance and rest and digest mode so you are able to recover and adapt to your workouts more efficiently and also absorb more of the nutrients in the foods you eat.
By spending more time on relaxing and doing less you will allow your body to move into thrive mode which will help you to see results faster and with a lot less effort.
Some great ways to help you relax more and move into parasympathetic dominance include
- Walking
- Sex
- Deep breathing
- Visualisation
- Meditation
- Qi gong
- Yoga
- Stretching
- Massage
- Reading
- Lying or sitting and relaxing with no tv on
- Eating a healthy diet and taking time out to cook and prepare the foods before meals
- Correcting your posture as poor posture is a stress on the body
- Laughing
- Smiling
Instead of doing more and more exercise to see results, instead add some of the above to your life.
I would definitely recommend my personal favourite out of the list and have lots more sex.
Not only is sex fun it has lots of health benefits including reducing stress levels, improving self-esteem, boosting your mood and fighting depression, helps you sleep better, improves your heart health, reduces pain, improves your immune system and your skin health, helps balance hormones, burns calories and can be compared to a moderate cardio workout and it also moves your body into parasympathetic dominance very quickly which helps your body to thrive so you see results quicker.
With all these benefits, having more sex is far more beneficial than increasing the amount of exercise you do. Especially when you can burn as many calories through sex as you would with moderate intensity exercise and sex moves you into parasympathetic dominance to help your body thrive whereas exercise pushes your body into sympathetic dominance keeping your body in survival mode.
Even though sex is my personal favourite to relax and move into parasympathetic dominance so my body can thrive, any of the above ways to help you relax are great for helping you see better results through moving your body into parasympathetic dominance so your body can thrive.
I know when you want to see results or see better results you think more equals better, but I promise reducing stress and finding time to relax will improve your results dramatically compared to doing more exercise.
When it comes to seeing results less is often better.
Get fit, get healthy, get happy.
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