Learn What Step #1 is and then DO it!

-




This morning, while training a client, I was reminded how language can mislead us or play tricks on our mental image of something we don't quite understand. As I was leading my client through stretches, I explained that the movements we were doing targeted our hip flexors and hamstrings and that ultimately the stretches could be used to gain flexibility to do the splits.

She smiled and said, "Oh! I would love to learn how to do the splits" and I replied, "Well, these stretches are a great start. Just keep at it and do these several times a week."

Her statement left me thinking about how often I hear people say, "I want to learn how to..." when the skill they are looking to learn isn't so much a matter of learning "how" but rather something that can only be gained by persistent training that develops the body.  Recently, at a consultation, a prospective student told me, "I want to learn how to do pull ups. I've tried to do them several times but no one has been able to teach me the technique for me to do even a single pull up!"

Certainly there is some form involved in physical skills and there are training techniques one can learn to hone them. However, most physical skills aren't all that dependent on the "how" as they are dependent on long-term persistent training of the abilities needed to master the skill.

While learning how to connect your Bluetooth speakers to your entertainment center can be mastered through a quick set of instructions, physical skills aren't just a matter of ten steps to completion. There is no simple trick that will suddenly make you strong enough to do a pull-up or flexible and strong enough to do the splits any more than a 30min instructional video on guitar playing will make you the lead guitarists for a band. These skills take physical development and practice. How much training is needed depends on the person's current level of skill and fitness. For example, someone already able to do several pull-ups will learn how to bolder a climbing wall a lot faster than someone who can't do a straight arm hang for more than a few seconds. Yet, when watching American Ninja Warrior on TV, many people are tempted to state, "I would love to compete in that! I just need to lose a couple of pounds and then I would totally do it!" Somehow, there's a tendency to forget about all that upper body strength, flexibility, coordination, explosive jumping power, and all the other athletic skills that take years to develop when imagining such physical feats.

I know that exercise programs sold on late night TV that promise to build incredible muscle mass in just 30 days and Youtube videos promising that you'll learn handstands in a few short weeks using their incredible 8 step system increase the confusion people have over biology of the human machine. Our bodies do change in response to training and they can develop incredibly fast.  However, they develop through training rather than by studying or watching more videos about the skill. Watching videos is a great tool for increasing your motivation to train more but you must still focus on the doing, if you wish to be able to do rather than just know how the doing could be accomplished, should one someday actually decide to do.

Instead of trying to master the intricacies of training for a specific skill, start by learning just one exercise, one song, or one training method and then actually DO it until you master Step #1.  You'll be one step closer to your goal without months of learning "how to" become a master at something you haven't taken a single step to do. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Be Happy that You Are "Too Skinny" in this World of Obesity

-
Image
In this culture of body acceptance, I find that a slim or fit person now gets pointed at for not being normal or judged as not having a "desirable human form." In the current social climate on fitness, it no longer takes an underweight physique for someone to be judged as being "too skinny" because the world's reference point, the so-called "average person" is now clinically overweight. Being called "too skinny" or to "go eat a sandwich", can creep into the psyche of even the most athletic, health conscious person. Unfortunately, in the back of their mind, this negative message can make one feel unattractive and persuade someone to begin overeating to "fix" this suddenly perceived lack in one's external beauty. This pressure to have a fuller body or to "not look like a boy" can occur despite our knowledge that being overweight, along with the lifestyle factors that lead to being overweight i...
Read more

Thoughts on Form

-
Image
Have you ever seen someone fit in the gym, who despite all those muscles and their ability to stay on the treadmill running for hours on end, still look a little "off."  Maybe their posture is bad or their legs look skinny or they have a bird chest despite all that bench pressing. This is where proper form, muscle balance, and activation of the correct muscles for a specific movement come to play. All too often, I see someone doing a movement wrong. Some of them use tons of momentum to lift a weight too heavy for the muscles that exercise was intended to target. Others use their major muscle groups to plow through a movement that was intended to develop the finer, supporting muscles. I've heard the excuse, "I'm bulking up right now, so it's OK to sacrifice form a little. I'll work on that later."  What they may not realize is that muscles are highly specific in their action and range of motion. If you train in the wrong position or usi...
Read more

Right Now, Right Here, Everything is OK

-
Image
Look up. Search your surroundings. The chances are that you are sitting or laying down somewhere rather peacefully.  Maybe you’re in a coffee shop or on a train on your way to work.  Regardless of where you are, you’re most likely surrounded by relative peace and quiet.  Yet, people often seem to be living in the middle of some current or immediately pending chaos in a perpetual state of alarm.  Sure, there are times when each of us ends up wading in hip deep water hoping that the street we parked our car on just three hours earlier isn’t one of the many streets that flood during heavy rains.  However, until we are personally standing in the middle of post-earthquake rubble or sorting through the remains of a fire, there is no need for panic or even worry.  You’re reading an article, for crying out loud, today can’t be that bad.   So, whenever you’re faced with that deep, yet unnecessary internal pressure that tells you, against all commo...
Read more