Musicians scale how they work with their instruments before they ever attempt the piece the way it’s fully written. Up and down, slow and deliberate with each note until their fingers know the shapes and patterns of the tune, then it becomes second nature. Nobody calls that cheating or easy. It’s called learning; and it’s how we do anything in life.
Crawl, walk, run. That’s the pattern.
Lifestyle athletes - and those curious about it - could stand to remember that.
In a recent client check in, a client told me about an instance [this week!] where she drove to the gym, parked in the lot, then turned around and went home. She never walked in, never even gave herself the opportunity.
I told her, “if you make it that far, make it inside. You don’t even have to break a sweat. You just have to get out of the car and get started in the gym.” Momentum over motivation is not sexy. And it’s a truth of life.
Both of these examples use “scaling” to help us work toward a goal. Scaling is how we do everything and it’s the conversation my friend Jacki Ford and I had this week.
Jacki is a nutrition coach, Level 2 CrossFit trainer, and the owner of Cuts By Jacki. On any given day she is dialing in someone’s macros, coaching their back squat, or doing their hair. Three jobs, same goal: help people become more capable versions of themselves by starting where they are now.
On this episode we get into:
What “scaling” means and why it’s matters
There is no finish line to health and fitness (that’s great news!)
What it’s like to go from “I thought I was gonna die” at her first CrossFit workout to coaching
The underdiscussed truth of the GLP-1 conversation
A lifetime PR she hit in jeans
Lifting Term: PR = Personal Record. Your best time or heaviest weight lifted in a specific movement or event. For example: the back squat, 100m sprint, and 1 mile run all have a specific time or weight associated with them. When you know it, you can train to best it; to have a new personal record if you want to.
Scaling isn’t the easy button.
There’s excitement that comes with something new. And for many of us, myself included, we have an expectation that we’re going to walk in and dominate this new endeavor from the start. Sure, that can happen but when it doesn’t we get frustrated and quit. Since we weren’t good off the bat, it’s not worth our time.
By accepting and repeating that pattern, we’re doing ourselves dirty. Denying our brain the chance to learn, to develop new brain-body connections. When it comes to the gym, so many people are like “oh, I can’t lift that heavy,” and then never try because in a world of instant gratification we’ve forgotten that scaling is what you do when you can’t “do it” yet.
Jacki says, “Everybody has a different ability when they come into the gym. For some, the win is just showing up to the gym. This is why I’m constantly working with my clients and asking, ‘Okay, what can you do today?’” Maybe that’s a wall push-up instead of one on the floor. Maybe it’s a lighter bar. Maybe it’s a PR. No matter what, you start where your body is, not where your ego wants to be.
One area Jacki and I align is knowing that health and fitness doesn’t have a deadline. Jacki says that it never stops, I agree. She’s been doing CrossFit for 16 years, coaching for 14 of them, and she still scales her workouts. Some days the weight comes down, some days the distance gets shorter. “I still scale because there’s some days where I’m just like, ‘I don’t have it today.’ So I’m gonna scale my workout and do what I can.”
Scaling is not weakness. It’s adaptation. Adaptation is support so you don’t have to sacrifice what you want (your long term health and independence) and need (time to yourself) because you don’t want to learn a new movement.
Scaling doesn’t stay in the gym.
“Scaling is applicable to life,” Jacki said. Cue the “ouchie” response from me. Sometimes I look at my calendar and think, I do not have what it takes for that project this week. But instead of not doing it, I look for the smallest step forward to keep momentum going, especially when I’m not into it. I’ve gotten so good at this, that I actually find myself bummed when I end up not pushing something forward each day.
Take this platform for example, I underestimated how hard it would be for me to write these recaps. Over 15 years in management, leading marketing teams…dude, let me tell you how shocked I was when I realized I’m no longer a great writer. Well, I’d hired people to do the writing for me, so the “muscle” of writing atrophied. But I’m not quitting this platform, I keep publishing. Working on a new piece each week, giving myself 10 days to draft, edit, and publish each piece. With each piece it gets a smidge easier. And yes, it’s a battle with my brain each time I sit down at my computer to write.
Scaling is about figuring out what you can do today, learning how to talk to your brain so you can keep moving forward, and adjusting your expectations accordingly. Scaling helps you stay in the game and keeps you ready to play the next day.
There’s no finish line.
Social media sells the after-photo. It does not sell the years or decades it took to get to the goal; the strength, the look, the confidence. In fact, those that do share that often get hate thrown at them in the comments. Sorry not sorry that you’re offended by the truth.
Jacki was blunt, “Social media has a million different influencers saying, ‘This is how I did it.’ But, they’re not telling you exactly how long it took them to get those results and that sets people up to fail.”
When Jacki started her journey, she didn’t step on a scale or chase a number. She changed her habits and lost 50 pounds over nine months without looking at her weight. Over time, she could feel the difference in her body and the way she moved. She knew she was building muscle by the way her clothes fit and how she felt when she looked in the mirror. Her method was focused on showing up and stacking small wins instead of chasing an end date or an aesthetic. That’s some herculean shit, but that’s a convo for a different time.
This is not a common mindset for new health and fitness enthusiasts. Few take this approach because they’ve created an“end”, when they lose 10lbs, or squat 300lbs, or fit into “those jeans”. But when it comes to health and fitness there isn’t an end, it’s a lifelong journey. “There isn’t a timeline,” I said. Longevity means more than how long you live. It means how long you keep evolving, keep doing for yourself, and keep getting better at being you, indefinitely.
A personal story: I went from squatting 705 pounds to five abdominal surgeries in two years. From ectopic pregnancies, a kidney cancer diagnosis, a full kidney removal, to needing my abdominal wall rebuilt from a massive ventral hernia. When it all fell apart, literally my abdominal wall fell apart, I wasn’t starting from zero. I scaled back up from a ceiling I already knew I could reach, because I’d already proven it to myself once. That knowing is the mechanism that got me through the SEVEN YEARS it took for me to regain confidence in myself and my body, one little win at a time.
The GLP-1 conversation, minus the shame
Jacki and I both work with clients who get support with GLP-1s. Some use them as genuine support alongside doing the work, and some use them to skip the work entirely. “If it comes down to it, and you need it for other health reasons then yes, a pharmaceutical is okay... but the trend of the GLP-1 is rough when it becomes the plan itself,” she shared.
This is a hard conversation because the research around GLP-1s is interesting, I think. There is a correlated response for GLP-1 patients and their health. What’s unknown at this time is if the medication itself is what’s making people healthier or if it’s because those who are the most successful, seeing the result inside and out, they’ve adopted the lifestyle habits and routines as part of the process.
There is a foundation for fitness and longevity. In my program, I teach it as: Daily Movement, Sleep, Nutrition, Community, Stress Management. With a focus on those five pillars we create sustainable habits as the foundation for a client’s overall health and fitness. My GLP-1 clients (who are all under Dr. supervision, not clinic-supervision. There is a difference) see sustained results over time because they have a foundation to lean on when they want to or have to stop the meds. Without the foundation, patients are likely to go back to old habits, which means “going back” to where they started. And a pharmaceutical is one of the rare things you can’t really scale because typically when you go down the medical route it changes your body; you’re not “factory made” anymore. There’s no going back.
Just like with your preferred type of movement or fitness, GLP-1s are a personal decision. And as part of the decision-making process, ask yourself what you’re optimizing for. Is the goal health, or is the goal aesthetics? No shade either way. Just be honest about what you’re chasing, because the plan changes depending on the answer.
Your Turn
Jacki’s advice for someone who’s never been able to make a fitness or nutrition stick: “Show up for yourself. Show up. That’s the only thing that works.”
Now ask yourself: where in your life are you currently sitting in the parking lot? What’s the smallest possible version of “going to the gym” you could do today? You don’t need the full workout. You don’t need the perfect plan. You need to go.
GET IN TOUCH WITH JACKI:
Instagram: @jford79 · @amplify.nutrition · @cutsbyjacki.
Training in the Philadelphia area? Drop in at Crossfit Delaware Valley.
QUESTIONS ABOUT WILDEFIT COACHING:
Email us at yo@wildefitcoaching.com
