I’m in the middle of online summer school now, and my brain is full!
The two prerequisites I’m taking now through Contra Costa College for grad school in the Fall are Lifespan Development and Abnormal Psychology.
I’m learning all kinds of things about the field of Psychology and its many misadventures as a fledgling science. It is haunted by its history of, for example, early stone age evidence of trephination, or drilling holes in the skull to treat mental disorders. Fast forward to witch hunting trials in the 17th century, then more recently (2022) to the APA declaring after significant pushback that change efforts around sexual orientation and gender identity are harmful and these things should no longer be diagnosed as mental disorders.
It’s come a long way, and has a long way to go.
But while there is a lot of information that is fascinating, a lot of it is probably not that helpful to you, dear reader. So I’m going to try to focus these shares on areas where I sense that it is of particular relevance to *your* health and fitness journey. There is room for nuance and interpretation of that, as what I’m about to share below is about how dynamic and counterintuitive the things that affect your health and fitness can be.
Recently, a client asked (hi you know who!) “will this (accessory exercise) help my deadlift?” She likes Deadlifts, and understandably wanted to check out if the other thing I was asking her to do would help the thing she liked. Otherwise why do it, right :)?
And I kind of laughed, and then said something to the effect of “yes, and a lot of things help your deadlift, directly and indirectly.” Then went on to talk about the ways sleep, nutrition, cardio, and mental health connect to it also. But this conversation gave me pause, because it isn’t the first time I’ve had it, and it reflects something pretty common in the health and fitness space, which I will try to name a few different ways: simplified relationships, direct A to B transactions, or linear thinking.
If I take this medicine or supplement, it will make my pain go away. If I eat less, I will lose weight. If I exercise more, I will lose weight. If I do a lot of this one thing, I will get a lot better at it.
Now, I want to emphasize that seeing health and behavior in this way is totally understandable in the context of stress, and finite resources like time and energy. Surviving the modern world can be a huge, ongoing task. We often don’t have the ability to take deep dives into spaces that are not central to our survival, like our jobs. Your reading this right now can feel like it’s taking up too much valuable time, there are other things that could use your attention in this moment. This is always true.
So with finite resources trying to find simple answers that only call for small investment of time or energy makes a lot of sense. Shortcuts or “hacks” operate in this way. Low cost, potentially high reward. Except when they sometimes counterintuitively take you more time, energy, and frustration than the upfront (or intervention) cost of more planning and deeper understanding.
So the thing I want to share from class with you that I think is pretty enlightening is about babies and how they learn. This is from the textbook Lifespan development by Santrock, J. W. (2024).
The concept I want to share with you comes from Dynamic System Theory (DST), and it’s called “coupling.”
I found it fascinating that the way babies learn is so dynamic and interdependent. They cannot just do it on their own, nor are they expected to. Rather, it’s highly dependent on their environment, the often extensive support they get from their caregivers, the social and cultural context, and their changing bodies.
What if you took the words child, infant or baby out of this text? What if the word motor was removed too?
Ok some of the sentences would sound garbled, but overall I hope you see the possibility here. It would summarily say development is: Embodied, Embedded, Enculturated, and Enabling. Think about that.
The second big lesson from lifespan development that is emphasized throughout the text and course is that development continues over the entire lifespan. It is not fixed at any point in time, your genetics and early childhood experience are not destiny, but another complex, unfolding story of which you are an active participant.
That’s all fine and good, but if this is so how do we make decisions? Will that thing help my deadlift or not?
Well the simple answer is we make educated choices using the information we have (the available evidence plus our observations), and then check in regularly to see how it goes for you (your experiences and outcomes).
The more nuanced answer, which I will borrow from engineering and calculus, is to discretize the highly coupled system, and perform a differential analysis. This means instead of trying to find perfect answers that always work, we break down the process into small time steps – really small – and look at how things change over those small time steps.
In the coaching context you might call these time steps check-ins, sessions, or journal entries. How frequent those time steps are has a big effect on how good the feedback and adjustments will be. Similarly in a coaching context, if we interact more often, there’s a better chance we will be able to make informed changes to your process that includes the new information, and help you stay on track.
Will it always work? Of course not. Do I think this better reflects the real complexity of human behavior and leads to better outcomes? A resounding yes. Will it make your deadlift better? We shall see!
Here are some common examples of areas where linear thinking breaks down, and where I think DST shines:
“I keep trying to go to the gym but can’t stick with it.”
“I want to eat clean, but I keep ordering takeout when I’m tired.”
“I know I need to sleep earlier, but I’m on my phone for hours.”
“I keep trying to walk more, but I sit all day at work.”
“I lost some weight, but then I gained it all back.”
“I eat so healthy until I’m overwhelmed—then I want chips and chocolate.”
“My back always hurts, but I don’t have time for physical therapy.”
“I want to eat better, but my partner loves junk food.”
In DST terms, you’re not just changing one habit (linear thinking)—you’re nudging the whole system toward a new state of balance, then seeing how all parts are affected.
Some questions for you to reflect on (I welcome replies for any/all of them!):
-How does reading this make you feel? Does it make you feel stressed, relieved, or something else?
-What do you think about the leap I made from the way babies learn motor development to the way adults learn? Do you think that’s an appropriate metaphor?
-In whatever area you work in, are there examples of complexity that a person outside of your field might find difficult to understand? How do you talk to people about stuff like this?
-Do you see yourself as needing more or less support than others? Why do you think that is?
-Are there any parts of your health and fitness that you think you may hold some simplified ideas about? Could you imagine seeing them differently now?
-If it were true that your health and behavior were correctly described as this dynamic, interactive system, how might that change how you work towards your goals? How you feel about yourself?
-Do you feel like something is lost in this interactive view? If so, can you describe it?
In health,
Mauricio