Feeling the pain all over!
This exercise sure give me all the feels, all over! I can’t really tell you what muscle groups are not working here, nor what specific exercise I’m doing except a few and a lot: core, balance, plank, pulling and pushing?! And the right level of pain and punishment sounds like I’m right on track with my training with this one don’t you think?
Beating our body into submission seems to be the norm for fitness training!
Get it done.
F how you feel.
Sometimes you gotta punish yourself.
No days off.
The rewards will be worth it.
Sound familiar?
Yet if being hard on yourself worked, it would have worked by now, don’t you think? Has it?
Being able to actually do the move above gives be reassurance my balance is good, confidence my whole body is working with me (not me against it!) and evidence that awkward ‘strength in length’ feels dang good!
Years ago I realized my ability to sense my own body is very low. I was doing so much, and felt a sense of achievement in my training by the amount of pain I was in the next day. DOMs (delayed onset of muscle soreness) was a scale of how ‘hard’ I had been able to go. Turning over in bed waking up in the morning only to cringe then smile at my ‘success’, you know what I mean? I knew I didn’t want to have to be in extreme effort, pleasure or pain in order to feel the feels, to sense my body, my sense of achievement and success with what I was doing with my training and my clients training (interlinked cos I’m a strong believer in practicing what I preach!)
And so I started dedicating time to sense my body in my sessions, and more recently I’ve tried to sense it in stillness, which is a lot harder. With time, this small habit is starting to help me sense better not just the before and after but also the in between, as the changes in my body are occurring. I feel like KungFu Panda when I say, doing, is incomplete, without sensing! Sensing the fine and gentle changes in the body is a very powerful thing!
Pain is not punishment. Pain is protective. It's telling you to change something. Your habits and behaviours are good places to start
Not committing is often more painful than committing
Pain to change more than pain of staying the same is actually self sabotage
In the past, I dreamt of a flat stomach. Today, I prefer my abs (fun)ctional so I can do all I want, pain free, or just free
Exercise is not just another thing to do. Enjoying the pain all over is not a ‘good’ indicator of strength or body improvements! We can use our body’s responses as a framework for feeling better and better and in doing so make time our ally…. Sounds good to me!
No one’s standard, make your own standards. And most of all, make them for yourself!
