C is for Cookie, and Calculus, and Crunch

When I was in school, math was not my favorite subject.  As I informed my parents, nervously, “C is for Calculus…”  (They did not care.  It turns out that I was the one who cared about my grades.  That one C turned out to be useful.)  I have come to appreciate some of the coolness of math over time, but it will always remain a challenge for me:  my math gear grinds slowly.

I am not at all suggesting some sort of training program in which we have to integrate an equation while lifting heavy objects—that’s crazy talk.  Weight training is about physics more than math!  (Like the two can really be separated…)  This is about the C.

With a C grade, a person can go on to the next level.  The problem is that all that stuff that makes the difference between the C and the A is missing, making the next level harder.  We don’t get out of learning that information; we have to do it in the context of learning what builds on it.

This is extremely relevant to fitness.  We all have our macho moments in which we want to lift that personal record setting weight right now, darn it.  It will get up off the floor or the rack one way or another if we bust a gut doing it.  And we probably will.

In fitness, we need to get an A in form at each step in order to progress safely to the next one.  Not only does this help prevent injury, but it gives authenticity to each success.  No one really wants to brag, “I can bench press x zillion pounds with crappy form.”  Or, “Yeah, I got the y million pounds unracked and lifted once, but then I had to go into physical therapy for a month.”

Fitness is a class in which we all have to get 100%.