Friday Book Report: Full-Body Flexibility

There are zillions of exercise books, give or take.  There are even zillions of books that cover stretching.  Full Body Flexibility by Jay Blahnik is a good one.

Here are the things I like about it:  First, it’s thorough without being complicated.  The theory is explained briefly and clearly.  The exercises make sense and come with good directions and pictures.

Second, it is well-organized.  Readers can find exercises sorted by body region or sport.  There are some specific series designed for waking up in the morning and unwinding at the end of the day.

I’d recommend it and will keep it on my studio shelf for anyone who wants to borrow it and to use as a reference.

Feel better at the end...

We want to work out the right amount.  We don’t want our workouts to be so easy that they’re boring or ineffective or so hard that we vow never to get off the couch again and our loved ones get tired of our requests for ice packs, ibuprofen, massages, strong drink, muscular bearers to carry us from place to place, and the like.

There are many ways to know that we have done the right amount of work.  My personal favorite is that despite the sweat and the soreness, I feel better at the end than I did at the beginning.

Bodies like to move.  Let them enjoy it!

Perspective...

When I did my heavy lifting over the weekend, I didn’t get as far as I would have liked.  There are reasons for that (some people might call them “excuses,” but I don’t go in for that kind of thinking; it doesn’t help me.).  However, dwelling on my particular performance on one particular day or on the underlying causes of that performance does not actually do anything productive.  For one thing, I could be entirely wrong in my assessment of why I was lifting less than I’d like—the difference between what I did and what my heaviest lifts have been was well within a normal daily variation.

It is hard not to judge myself based on the number on the weights.  It is hard not to feel like I’m somehow “better” when the number is bigger.  The thing is, even if I am better at the moment when I set a new single rep maximum, the very next moment it doesn’t matter:  I can’t do it again right away, because that is the definition of a single rep maximum.

What helps keep the perspective is that I can perceive a trend.  Over time, I lift more.  The weight I now use for warm-ups is a weight I found absolutely beyond conception when I first started lifting weights; I was amazed that anyone could ever lift that much.

As I age, I may hit a point where I will find new one rep maximums much more difficult to come by.  I’m not there yet, but it’s good to keep in mind.  I’m going to have to focus on other reasons why a particular workout is a good one, like that I showed up at all and put in good effort.

Working on the brain is just as important as working on the muscles.