Curiouser

My blog-related reading is taking a back seat to finishing my other reading goals for the year, so no book this week.  Instead, I’m thinking about the connection between curiosity and movement.

I have two tendencies (at least!) that make me want to explore this.  One is that I am almost always in a rush.  Faster is almost always better, in my idiom, in the Monty Python sense of the word.  The other is that I’m almost always self-critical.  Clearly, I am doing it wrong, whatever it is.

But I have managed to notice something.  When I am compelled to slow down, as in yoga or Pilates, the constant criticism doesn’t help.  I’m not saying I’m not bad at lots of things in yoga and Pilates.  I am.  But when I approach whatever movement or balance or pose or exercise it is with a sense of curiosity rather than censure, I learn stuff.  What exactly is happening when I fall out of my own personal Tree (pose)?  How is one side different from the other?  What happens if I shift my hip or ankle or knee?  What if I think about baseball instead?  Some of those things help.  Some not so much, but even laughing is an improvement over the constant I-suck-at-this message.

Maybe everyone else is not like me.  But maybe some people are and could use a change from high-speed negativity.  Maybe we can learn.

Second thoughts...

Wait:  isn’t that the same picture as yesterday?  Nope.  Just similar.  I liked both of them and decided to use them to illustrate that there are nuances.  Not a news flash, I’m sure.

In a fitness context, however, nuances can make a difference.  This is one reason why it is useful to work out with a trainer or friend at least every once in a while.  Someone else will see our movement from a slightly different perspective.  They will notice that when we feel like our head is on straight, we are actually tilting it a little to the left.  They will catch that little cheat we do with our hips or shoulders or whatever.

Small corrections can have big impact on increasing strength and avoiding injury.  Let’s work out together!

Pansies represent thoughts...

Fitness trackers can be wonderful things.  Depending on the brand and model, we can know how many steps we have taken, how many calories we have burned, what our heart rate is at any given time, and (although I have no direct experience with this) even what kind of weight lifting we have done.  How cool is that?

However, like sorcerers, we need to be careful with the servants we summon to help us.  They make bad masters.  There is nothing magic about 10,000 steps.  We will not suddenly become healthy on that last step, not significantly more than on the 9,999^th one.  We need to make sure we are using the tool, not that the tool is using us.

If a tracker is encouraging us to take the stairs or walk the dog an extra block or two, fabulous.  If, over the course of a week, we discover that we are closer to 5,000 than 10,000 steps per day, we might consider moving a little more.  But if we find ourselves obsessing because it is 11:30 at night and we have 3,859 more steps to get in, we might want to rethink our relationship with the tracker.

Short version:  use the tool, but remember that you are the one with the higher cognitive functions and good judgment.