I hope the tip in the previous installment helped you gain a different perspective and contributed to your philosophy for better results in your fitness program. Today’s tip focuses on a widely accepted exercise floor approach. While unintentional, it often prevents us from achieving the full benefits and results we should be getting from our training sessions. Are you guilty of this?
Tip 2: Pay attention
If you ever get the chance to look at images of older exercise facilities–the ones of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s–I encourage you to do so and study them carefully. A quick search of images should get you there. After doing so, visit one of the modern commercial exercises facilities and also study. Now answer this: What is one of the main differences you see on the exercise floor of the modern facilities of today compared to the earlier times? If your answer is distractions, you nailed it.
The larger and flashier the commercial club, the greater the tendency to make us forget we should be concentrating on our workouts and pay attention to exercise.
Why is this a problem? To better illustrate it, take a few seconds to think back to your open water course. I’m willing to be that without exception, such experience was all about the acquisition of brand news skills and information. Your learning environment was purely dedicated to the attainment of those skills to make a successful and safe diver out of you.
You knew you had to understand this crucial information before putting it to practice so you paid undivided attention.
The environment for exercise should not be different. For our bodies to reap the full benefits of the exercise experience, our minds have to acknowledge its importance, which cannot be accomplished unless we immerse ourselves fully. Turn the TV off, put the magazines away, and focus only on the fact you have a limited time and your whole focus and energy should be dedicated to your program. Exercise is after all, how your body learns about motion and inertial demands.
You may think is a not a big deal and your only concern is burning calories. And that’s another flawed view. It approaches fitness as it it were only an issue of direct linear mathematics with only one or two variables.
Wow!
I hope that this new age of information continues trumping that nonsense and purging it out of view of fitness. Thankfully, evidence against the futility of caloric approaches–like the nauseating concept of 3,500 Kcals in one pound of fat–continues to appear and makes it clear that many who still cling to those modes do it out of pride or commercial interest. If that is the case and you prefer to continue believing there’s a fat-burning zone, there’s no need to read further. I can honestly say I cannot help you.
But if you truly want the best out of your fitness program, you need to understand that exercise is about learning, and that learning has two opposite ends. That means you either learn something well or you learn it poorly. If you are distracted during exercise your body is not learning about motion properly, and if it’s not learning properly then it’s learning poorly. Lack of coordination, poor kinesthetic awareness, and difficulty acquiring new movement skills are common of those who give focus to their TV show a higher priority than focus on their exercise.
Ditch the distractions and increase the productivity of your program just by paying attention. In the next and final installment, I will discuss what happens when we let emotions take the place of our wits. Don’t miss it!
Until Next Time!
