One of the things that I find particularly enjoyable about coaching is seeing the looks of wonder and excitement on peoples’ faces when they first experience a phenomenon known across the broader kettlebell community as the “what the hell” (WTH) effect.
This effect occurs when the results of a given training program (kettlebell or otherwise) include improvements to not only expected abilities but also unexpected ones which seem unrelated to what was trained. Examples include a bigger bench press or increased pull-up capacity after a get-up program, improved snow-shoveling capacity after a snatch program, and, in general, improved cardiovascular endurance after a strength-building program.
While you don’t have to do anything specific to experience the WTH effect other than to follow a program that’s effective in the first place and be intentional about your efforts, you can ratchet up your results even more by making one simple mindset shift: expect them to occur.
Using the placebo effect to your advantage
If it seems odd to suggest that expecting to experience the WTH effect (or results, in general) could actually make it more likely to occur, let me point out that this is the definition of the placebo effect.
As you probably already know, the placebo effect is so strong that people often experience results from ineffective treatments or experiences as long as they believe that they will help.
What you may not realize is that results from effective treatments or experiences can be amplified by the effect and that no one is immune, ironically, even if you expect to be. This is why research is often performed using the double-blind trial method, in which neither the participants nor the individuals responsible for administering the treatment and recording the results know whether the treatment is real or fake.
Of course, there are also those like Alia Crum, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology at Stanford, who research the effect itself rather than trying to reduce its effects while researching something else.
In one experiment, Crum divided cleaning staff members at seven different hotels into two groups. The experimental group was informed that their work was “good exercise [that] satisfies the Surgeon General’s recommendations for an active lifestyle” while the control group received no information.
Just four weeks after the intervention the experimental group had experienced decreases in weight, blood pressure, and body fat. And the kicker? They perceived themselves to be getting more exercise even though their behaviors hadn’t changed.
And that wasn’t just a random, unrepeatable result. In another experiment, she served 380-calorie milkshakes to participants on two separate occasions. On one occasion, the nutrition label incorrectly indicated that the milkshake contained 620 calories. On the other occasion, the label incorrectly showed 140 calories.
Objective measures of a specific gut hormone that regulates hunger (among other effects) showed a greater change after consuming the (incorrectly labeled) high-calorie milkshake than the (also incorrectly labeled) low-calorie milkshake. And subjective measures of satiety also corresponded to the labels rather than the fact that both milkshakes contained the same number of calories.
In other words, participants’ mindset played a key role in the results of both experiments. It’s not unreasonable to think that it can affect your results too.
Putting it into practice
While specific details about how the placebo effect works are still open for debate, Dr. Crum has suggested that understanding how to apply it is perhaps more important anyway.
I’ll suggest that one of the best ways is to join some type of community where the results you’re after are common. Then ask people about their stories, consider how you’re similar, and expect the results to occur for you too.
Of course, finding legitimately effective solutions as opposed to ineffective ones is still optimal. (Look for occurrences of WTH effects.) But either way, it can’t hurt to hedge your bets by believing that the solutions that worked for others in the community will work for you too.