Look good naked
Increase athletic performance
Subtract fat
Add muscle
Get stronger
Existential satisfaction
For fun
To improve posture and alignment
To improve mobility
All valid reasons, and any one of these alone is a worthwhile goal (but let's admit it, it's really all about looking good naked). Nevertheless, I'd like to offer a new reason: To facilitate personal development.
Allow me to elucidate.
Training offers a gateway and systematic approach that can be applied to everything in life, from improved business acumen, healthier relationships with others, and even better thought processes. Sure, you can try and improve these indivually, but working systematically to improve your physique is, in my opinion, the easiest way.
The Point Of It All
The skills you learn in training; discipline, habit formation, planning, and fortitude are extremely transferrable to other aspects of life. Workout-neophytes benefit from pushing themselves beyond their comfort zones. People who have never trained tend to not understand what I call "therapeutic discomfort". Discomfort in the form of pain or injury are (somewhat obviously) undesirable. However, there is a different kind of discomfort. The one that comes from pushing yourself to sweat, breathe heavy, and move in ways you didn't think possible. It's this kind of postive stress that leads to the initial quick adaptations in the beginner. Beginners (as long as they don't have pain and are cleared by their physio/doctor for exercise) benefit from hard training using simple exercises, namely because they are not strong enough to hurt themselves and don't have the motor control to perform more difficult movements. Simple but hard is the way to go.
Transferred to real life, imagine what would happen if your business started to take a downturn, or you suddenly got tired of your newborn baby? Shit would go to hell that's what. In these situations, you need the tenacity to push through discomfort and weather the storm of a few bad business decisions to pull the business through, or two months of sleeping less than five hours a night to keep your baby alive. Whatever the case, physical strength begins with mental toughness, and working out is a great way to develop both.
Medium to advanced trainees need to modulate their training so as not to push too hard. Since they are so strong, overtension in muscles and slightly bad technique under those loads can cause serious injury. These trainees need to learn to control their training to provide an optimal stimulus and need more variation and complexity to bust through training plateaus. Their focus should also be on perfecting technique, improving posture and alignment, and increasing body awareness through mindful practice.
A successful business person, or someone managing a family needs, in addition to tenacity and strength, an analytical and nuanced approach. Not every decision is right for every situation, especially when handling people. The focus then becomes not just surviving, but optimizing, which is the ultimate goal. How do you make decisions that lead to positive experiences on your short, ever-decreasing time here on earth?
The Gateway
Training offers a unique medium in which to practice these skills. Humans tend to be over-conceptual and are trapped in a world of thought. This is not always positive. Meditation and other mindfullness practices were created to help us get out of this quagmire of thought-induced stagnation. But let me ask you this.. How much are you thinking about your mortgage when you're doing heavy kettlebell snatches for time? How much do you worry about that guy who was being an asshole to you at the party last saturday when you're doing a max-effort deadlift? And how much do you worry about little stuff that really doesn't matter when you're doing hill sprints? Probably not so much I'd guess.
The Other Side
I hope after reading this article you give your training another moment of thought and realize that you're not just training to look good naked (although that will happen), you're training your body as a way to train your mind. In essence, my body carries my brain. It's the vehicle for my mind, but it's also the gateway to mental and spiritual awesomeness.
Use it.
Transferred to real life, imagine what would happen if your business started to take a downturn, or you suddenly got tired of your newborn baby? Shit would go to hell that's what. In these situations, you need the tenacity to push through discomfort and weather the storm of a few bad business decisions to pull the business through, or two months of sleeping less than five hours a night to keep your baby alive. Whatever the case, physical strength begins with mental toughness, and working out is a great way to develop both.
Medium to advanced trainees need to modulate their training so as not to push too hard. Since they are so strong, overtension in muscles and slightly bad technique under those loads can cause serious injury. These trainees need to learn to control their training to provide an optimal stimulus and need more variation and complexity to bust through training plateaus. Their focus should also be on perfecting technique, improving posture and alignment, and increasing body awareness through mindful practice.
 |
| As well as sitting like this looking awesome |
A successful business person, or someone managing a family needs, in addition to tenacity and strength, an analytical and nuanced approach. Not every decision is right for every situation, especially when handling people. The focus then becomes not just surviving, but optimizing, which is the ultimate goal. How do you make decisions that lead to positive experiences on your short, ever-decreasing time here on earth?
The Gateway
Training offers a unique medium in which to practice these skills. Humans tend to be over-conceptual and are trapped in a world of thought. This is not always positive. Meditation and other mindfullness practices were created to help us get out of this quagmire of thought-induced stagnation. But let me ask you this.. How much are you thinking about your mortgage when you're doing heavy kettlebell snatches for time? How much do you worry about that guy who was being an asshole to you at the party last saturday when you're doing a max-effort deadlift? And how much do you worry about little stuff that really doesn't matter when you're doing hill sprints? Probably not so much I'd guess.
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| Training, the marijuana of the health and fitness world |
The Other Side
I hope after reading this article you give your training another moment of thought and realize that you're not just training to look good naked (although that will happen), you're training your body as a way to train your mind. In essence, my body carries my brain. It's the vehicle for my mind, but it's also the gateway to mental and spiritual awesomeness.
Use it.
