It's human nature that all of us seem to gravitate toward the things we do well. Certainly there is nothing more validating than performing at your best. We all have our own skill set and its always fun to have a chance to "strut your stuff".
The greater challenge comes in pushing ourselves to do those things that we are less skilled at. Nowhere is this more true than in the area of exercise and fitness.
I am always struck by how people (women and men) stick to what we know and what makes us look the best. Runners run, flexible folks do yoga, strong people lift weights. And while its fine to work with your natural gifts, the problem is that it is usually the thing that we MOST need and LEAST want to do that will ultimately result in an injury. Typically, it is the weakest link in our chain that will cause the injury...maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but at some point in the future -- unless we address it.
I've known big muscular guys who can bench 300 lbs, but can't come close to touching their toes. Sure, it's unlikely that these he-men will injure themselves lifting up heavy packages, -- but they may end up blowing a disc in their backs just bending over to pick up a pencil. Their weakest link isn't their strength -- its their flexibility.
On the other end of the spectrum, I have a girlfriend who is a choreographer/dancer. She is probably the most flexible person that I know. You know, one of those freaky Cirque Du Soliel types that can lie on her back and rest her leg comfortably on her shoulder.
Well, what does my pal...this gumby-esq creature focus on? You guessed it -- she is an avid yogini (female yoga practitioner). She works at becoming more flexible. Why? She already has a lock on the flexibility market.
And guess what happened to her? Well, she actually tore her gluteus maximus (the butt muscle) doing a kick. She was soooo flexible, that she kicked her leg up and it just kept going and going -- RIP-- YEEE-OUCH!!.
The problem was, there was no muscular stability there to help her "put on the breaks" when she threw her leg up and she tore the muscle. Sadly, it was a long and painful recovery, because its the largest single muscle in the body and its involved in a lot of the activities of every day life.
Keep in mind that all fitness programs require three basic components: muscular fitness, flexibility and cardiovascular/metabolic conditioning.
Muscular fitness is made up of two major categories. Muscular strength (how much weight you can lift) and muscular endurance (how many times you can lift a lesser weight before you get tired).
Those huge Olympic Power Lifters you see on TV are an extreme example of muscular strength. An example of muscular endurance would be doing as many sit-ups as you could before fatiguing.
Weight or "resistance training" with body weight, machines, free weights, tubing, bands, etc. can all be effective tools in enhancing this type of fitness.
Flexibility, on the other hand, is having a full "range of motion" around each of your joints. You want to have enough flexibility to move your body freely without restrictions in order to avoid injury. And yet too much flexibility (as in the case of my dancer friend) can also spell disaster. Stretching, yoga and Pilates are all exercise techniques which can improve this.
And there is also cardiovascular training which is sometimes termed "metabolic training". This is the kind of working out that makes you get good and sweaty -- and a little out of breath. You want to be working your heart, lungs and circulation at a higher rate than they work at rest to train them to get stronger. In this way, they work less hard when you are at rest because they get stronger to handle those heavier workloads. These workouts can be of a consistent intensity -- or they can be of varied intensity alternating periods of harder work with periods of lighter work which allows for "recovery". Walking, jogging, swimming, biking, rigorous tennis playing, cross country skiing (and many more activities) fall into this category.
These kinds of workouts are also effective for burning calories, both during the exercise and in the minutes (sometimes hours depending on the intensity) following exercise.
The point is MOST of us do not take an honest inventory of what our weakest link is...we focus on one of these three or perhaps two at most. We often avoid one of these entirely and ironically that is usually the thing we need MOST. Moreover, it is usually the thing that exposes us to injury or health issues because it isn't being addressed.
If you are exercising on a regular basis (and unfortunately only 1/3 of us are -- but that's a whole other blog) try taking an honest inventory about your "weakest link".
What is it? What could you do more of? What is the thing you like doing the least, because you aren't particularly good at it? What do you think would happen if you tried doing a bit more of it?
Well, sure -- at first you might feel like one of those dancing hippos in Fantasia (loved them!!!), but over time you would get better at it.
Not only would you have the accomplishment of getting better at something that you weren't particularly good at -- but you would also balance your fitness, which means that you'd probably perform better in many other areas of your life, as well -- while lessening your chance of injury.
So, in the spirit of our 30-day Best Me Ever Challenge, think of one thing that you don't do well, but know that you could (and should) do better with some work. What is that weak link in your "fitness chain"? What small steps could you take immediately to begin to improve? Is is 5 minutes of stretching, adding a 30 min walk to your only 2 days of "cardio", putting in more resistance training to tone up? Commit now to taking just one small action that will move you in the direction of more balanced wellness -- and a healthier, more fit you.
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