Maybe I'm Not the Only One Who Forgot That Part?

A long time ago now, my older kid watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail for the first time.  He was my first child and I tried to be careful to avoid exposing him to inappropriate things as much as I could (yes, this is hilarious, in retrospect, but at the time I was very young and earnest and innocent).  Having played back what I could remember of the movie in my head, I thought it would be fine, that he’d laugh, and we’d all had a good time.  I totally forgot the scene when Galahad gets to Castle Anthrax.  There are many things one does not necessarily want one’s child to yell excitedly at kindergarten and at least one of them occurs in that scene.  But I did not come here to tell a funny anecdote about my kid.  I mention the scene because later in the scene, when the other knights come to rescue Galahad, he asks if he can have just a little peril.  Which in context is hilarious.

In fitness, we, too, want a little peril, although maybe not from the activities Galahad was contemplating at the time.  (One would have to be VERY vigorous to get a workout out of that, frankly.)  What I mean is that we don’t want to be too comfortable in our workouts.

 

Now, I spend a fair amount of time making sure that people are comfortable in their workouts.  This is because many people have exercise anxiety, or a cultural expectation that workouts have to make them feel like dying, or concern about an old injury, or the like.  Workouts need to be a normal part of our existence, not some terrifying visitation of punishment.

 

However, if workouts are too comfortable, we don’t grow from them.  We need just a little peril.  We need to have a certain amount of doubt that we can, in fact, finish that last rep.  We need to push ourselves a little past where we are confident.  Not so far that we get hurt or even that we trigger large fears, but a little.

 

The underlying principle here is that we need a particular kind of peril, called eustress, to make positive adaptations.  Eustress is the kind of stress that is good for us.  It’s just difficult enough that we can manage it, but not so hard that it kills us (or gives us Black Knight type flesh wounds).

 

Go play.  And play hard.  With just a little peril.