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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