Wednesday musings, 2/17/16

“If sweating were the best indicator of a good workout, tanning would be in the top five. Great training shouldn’t tear you down, it should build you up,” Shawn Mozen*

A fairly new client recently asked me when she was going to walk out of my studio with her legs shaking. I politely told her if I do my job right, she wouldn’t. She isn’t the first client I have had this conversation with. Many of my long term clients regularly comment on the fact that while our sessions are work, they never feel like they are going to die. Gone are the days (at least in my world), where “feel the burn” and “no pain no gain” are the mottos of good training. Instead, my clients and I explore movement as a skill, practicing from different perspectives and with different emphases. The result is people that are stronger, not defeated by their training, and that find enjoyment in their sessions. Another new client, used to a different training style, was a bit perplexed when we started. Instead of going quickly, I asked him to go slowly. I directed him to focus on movement quality, find a sense of efficiency, and differentiate how various joints work. This more mindful approach (his words) utilized with traditional movements led to him experiencing a greater sense of ease, a reduction in pain, and a better connection with how he moves, in addition to losing 5 pounds. The point is, if you love HIT type workouts, do those, but not every workout has to destroy you. In fact, perhaps if instead of viewing exercise as a time to work out we looked at is as a time to work in, we would be less inclined to punish ourselves, beating ourselves up with exercise and instead build ourselves up. 

*I read this quote in a blog by Kathryn Bruni Young. The link can be found here: http://kathrynbruniyoung.com/our-blog/ (entry May 31, 2015).