Wednesday, March 21, 2018

"Too Much of Everything Is Just Enough" or not...



I first encountered the idea of just enough effort in Pilates, but it is a concept that also occurs in yoga and one that deserves wider acceptance.

Some of us try to skate by on no effort at all.  Good luck!  If we’re hanging out on the stationary bike and reading, if we aren’t sweating or breathless, we’re pretty much wasting time.  If we have been lifting the same five-pound dumbbells for the last ten years, ditto:  our bodies figured out how to do that a long time ago.

Then there are those of us who behave as though every workout is a fight to the death.  We must go farther, faster, heavier than ever before at all costs!  And then we wonder why we are always tired, sore, and injured.

We should aim for the sweet spot.  Yes, we want to get our heart rate up.  We want to increase the weight we lift.  We want to get more flexible, more toned, and more balanced.  But we want to use our big brains (an important muscle!) to calibrate our effort for maximum efficiency.  We want to be a little sore, but not impaired.  We want to have a good time, but still struggle just a little to finish.

Enough is the right amount.

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