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Are you tired of hitting plateaus in your fitness journey, despite your best efforts? Do you feel like your body is fighting against you, no matter how hard you push? The answer may lie in a concept as old as Buddhism itself: the Middle Way. In the context of health, wellness, and fitness, this translates to periodization, a strategy that can revolutionize the way you approach your goals.
The Parable of the Lute: Finding Balance in Effort
I recently came across a core Buddhist principle called the Middle Way, which can be easily understood from a story about a monk named Sona, who had been trying extremely hard to master his meditation practice and was seeing very little progress. Sona went to Buddha for advice. The Buddha, knowing Sona played the lute, came up with a great analogy to explain what Sona may be doing wrong. The parable goes something like this:
“What happens when you tune your instrument too tightly?” the Buddha asked.
“The strings break,” Sona replied.
“And what happens when you string it too loosely?”
“When it’s too loose, no sound comes out,” Sona answered. “The string that produces a tuneful sound is not too tight and not too loose.”
“That,” said the Buddha, “is how to practice: not too tight and not too loose.”
The Problem with Linear Thinking
Humans love to think linearly, and we often think that the more effort we put into something, the quicker we will get the results we are after. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Yes, you need some energy to make change, but that doesn’t mean more effort will get better or quicker results.
How Our Bodies Fight Back
Sometimes we get stuck and think more effort is required to break free, and it ends up hurting us in the end. We forget that we are dealing with a dynamic system in our bodies that is wired to keep us safe and alive. Sometimes when we push harder, our bodies fight back against us because they see our more extreme efforts as a threat to survival.
We try to eat less to lose fat, so our bodies do more to conserve energy and keep up in energy balance. We try to increase our running volume in preparation for our half marathon, and our bodies make us sore for days, keeping us firmly planted on the couch instead.
While we can see the logic in our efforts to become more healthy, the base wiring of our genetics that has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years outside of today’s modern comforts has no idea that what we are trying to do is good for us. It still thinks we are hunting and gathering for our food and that each and every day we have to fight for our survival.
So, when you take away food or voluntarily go out and run 13 miles, the body’s ancient survival mechanisms get turned on and start working against you. The harder you push them, the harder they push back, and you end up frustrated without making any progress.
The Power of Periodization
This is why a periodized approach to health, fitness, and wellness can oftentimes be beneficial, or what is referred to in Buddhism, “The Middle Way”.
You can spend several weeks trying to lose fat, but it can then be beneficial to increase your calories a bit and spend a few weeks eating a bit more. You can gradually increase the amount of miles you run and then take a week where you drastically cut down your mileage.
These “breaks” send the signal to your body’s ancient protection mechanisms that things are OK and allow them to relax for a bit. It gives your body time to get out of the constant threat it has been under before you then again cut your calories or increase your miles.
While this might look like you are taking a step back during these breaks, if you zoom out and look at the progress you are making over the course of months, you will notice that you are still making more progress.
And if you were able to run a side-by-side comparison between someone who continues to push and exert more and more effort vs. someone who pushed for a little bit then took a break and then continued to push after recovering, you would see the person who interrupted their journey with short breaks every so after made more progress than the person who pushed all the way through. In fact researchers have run experiments showing that breaks can be more effective for both performance and body composition goals.
Real-World Examples of Periodization
* Nutrition: Instead of consistently restricting calories, cycle between periods of calorie deficits and maintenance (or even surplus) to support hormone balance and prevent metabolic slowdown.
* Cardio: Alternate between high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and low-intensity steady-state cardio (LISS) to improve cardiovascular fitness without overstressing the body.
* Strength Training: Follow a structured program that includes phases of high volume/low intensity, low volume/high intensity, and deload weeks to maximize muscle growth and prevent overtraining.
How to Implement Periodization
1. Assess your current fitness level and goals: Determine where you are starting and what you want to achieve.
2. Design a periodized plan: Break your training or nutrition plan into cycles, each with a specific focus (e.g., strength, endurance, fat loss).
3. Monitor your progress and adjust as needed: Pay attention to how your body responds and make changes to your plan as necessary.
Here is a detailed blog post going over exactly how to implement periodization.
Get Help
It can be quite challenging to take a long-term view of progress like this and deciding when it is time to let off the gas and when it is time to push. This is where a coach can be an invaluable tool in your journey towards success, and it is what I work on with my clients as we develop a plan to reach their goals. If you have found that you are expending a ton of effort and not seeing the results you are after and think you need some help deciding how to construct a better plan for long-term success, consider exploring my one-on-one coaching program. You can book a free discovery call with me so we can discuss more about how we can work together using this form.