Paradox Land is a nice place to visit

I hang out in paradox land a lot.  It’s a useful place once we get used to it.  Today’s bulletin about cognitive dissonance is about form in exercise.

 

On one hand, perfect is the enemy of the good.  Any workout is better than no workout.  This is absolutely true.  We don’t want to sweat the small stuff when what we really want is to sweat.

 

But then there is that other hand.  That hand reminds me that when we don’t pay attention to our form, we get hurt.  We also train our bodies to do things poorly, which may not cause injury, but sets us up for chronic pain or weird overuse suffering.

 

Once again, the middle way comes to the rescue.  We want to be mindful enough about form to avoid getting hurt and not so mindful that we paralyze ourselves trying to execute perfection on the very first day.  Good form is a process, not an achievement.  We may not be capable of getting our knees in the right place on our first squats, but as we get stronger and build our endurance, we learn how to engage the right muscles to do better and better.  We refine as we go on.

 

In short, working out is a skill like any other skill.  We improve when we practice.  Good guidance at the beginning helps us stay safe while we learn how to take care of ourselves.