3 Practical steps to start training fasted as a way to break false limits on what you can accomplish
What is fasted training
Fasted training is a simple concept.
It simply means exercising or playing sports in a fasted state. To be in a fasted state you need to be at least 12 hours out from your last food or high calorie drink. You can drink water, black coffee, plain tea, and take some salt but nothing else.
And in this state you exert your body just like you would any other time you head to the gym, go for a run, or do any type of sport.
My first time
I’ll never forget the first time I truly exercised fasted.
I’d been experimenting with intermittent fasting but never wanted to exercise on an empty stomach. I though it was nuts, doesn’t your body need energy in order to expend energy? Then one day I forgot my lunch and the choice was either skip out on my swim after lectures, buy something I didn’t want, or try something new.
When I jumped into the pool and swam my laps just like normal without feeling much different, except for a little bit more satisfaction and craving for my protein shake afterwards, I felt like I’d just discovered a new key unlocking my potential.
Why fasting: physical
There are some good physical reasons to train in this state but they don’t relate to your performance.
The best physical reason has to do with lowering your insulin resistance. Studies show that training in a fasted state increases insulin sensitivity, which allows your body to better regulate blood sugar levels and be more efficient in using energy stores in your muscles. Training without eating allows you to better use the food you do eat throughout your body.
This modern health benefit is terrific is a world ripe with obesity and type II diabetes (caused by resistance to insulin) there’s a deeper physiological truth behind fasted training.
It physically connects you back to your primal ancestors who ran miles and miles on starved stomach to catch their prey in the primordial persistence hunt. If we couldn’t run on empty stomachs we wouldn’t have survived as a species. It’s literally in your physical NATURE to exercise this way.
Why fasting: spiritual
This connection back to the primal long distance runners gives you the true reason to train fasted.
It’s a spiritual expression of human potential. Almost all world religions incorporate fasting as a mechanism to become closer with the divine. When you combine intense motion with this physical connection to the spiritual realm you unlock a deep power within yourself.
This is the reason why I always train fasted, to reach deeper through my body and connect with something more meaningful.
If you’ve never tried this but are intrigued at what you could learn about yourself if you tried here are 3 practical steps to adopt to properly prepare your body, mind, and spirit for fasted training.
Step 1: The body
If you want to train fasted you need to focus first on hydration.
Drink MORE water than normal and you’ll feed your body what it needs to move intensely. Make sure you take salt, a couple hundred MGs with your water to prepare for what you’ll lose with sweat (think about what Gatorade does). And dial it back at first, only do 50-70% of your normal workout.
Remember you’re not after performance goals here, your after mental and spiritual gains as well as specific physical processes (see insulin resistance above).
Step 2: The Mind
When beginning training fasted you need to be in a different headspace.
Again forget about performance, it DOESN’T MATTER. You need to aim at the idea of resilience and overcoming. You’ll feel different physical sensations than you’re used to. The important thing is to dial back intensity at the beginning and learn to recognize some of those sensations and push through.
You’ve likely already felt these at some point in your fitness journey, they just tend to happen a bit sooner when you start exercising in a fasted state:
Light headedness
Muscle Soreness
Dizziness
Fatigue
The important thing is to push through in ways you haven’t before if you can and if you begin to feel too uncomfortable to STOP immediately and regain your composure.
The more you do it the more you’ll be able to identify what’s just a bit uncomfortable (99% of the time) and what’s truly dangerous (less than 1%).
Step 3: The Spirit
This is where the real benefits lie so you need to pay attention to them right at the beginning.
Related to the mind, the ideal of resistance should be at the foreground of your mind and pushing through. Each step you take without the proper ‘fuel’ for the body trains your spirit to fight adversity and push through excuses that make you want to quit. Each time you do, you’ll find yourself being pulled closer to the divine, just as fasting has done for religious practices.
The gratitude you feel for accomplishing such a difficult task and your willingness to keep pushing cannot be overstated.
So don’t be afraid of some strange discomfort because that is the ONLY way you will transcend your current limitations.
Takeaways
Fasting isn’t for everyone.
As with ANY advice on exercise and diet check with your health care provider FIRST and make sure it’s something you are capable of. But for most people it’s not a danger to your body, it’s just scary and unusual. And that’s precisely why you should try it.
The more outside of your comfort zone you’re willing to push, the more likely you’ll be able to grow into your true potential.
And this means spiritual growth through challenging to body to move without the food that gives us comfort and security to move our bodies intensely.
Fasted training is one method I use to help my clients unlock their true potential through physical challenges. If you’d like to talk about how that can work for you and the excuses that hold you back in fear, book a call and let’s destroy those limiting beliefs together.