Planning to change your plan...

A multinational corporation advertises for a secretary.  A golden retriever applies for the job, passes the typing test, and is granted an interview.  The human – resources manager asks, “Do you speak any foreign languages?”

And the golden retriever replies “Meow.”

Ok.  So I JUST GOT MY BUTT kicked by Coach Rick Lademann at Beyond Motion in his group style metabolic training class.  Why? 

I train primarily for Baseball.   I use my own workouts to make me a better baseball player: pitcher and hitter.  I still find myself working at gaining strength and then translating that strength to useful skill development like agility and an ability to toss a baseball.    

All I mean is  I don’t work out like most people.  I don’t rely on a group class to design my program for either endurance –strength training (not maximal strength: important distinction) or a traditional body builder workout.  You know the kind: back and bi’s, chest and tri’s.  Legs and shoulders. 

And I don’t rely on a set of machines to determine my workout.  Nope.  

Here’s what I do:  I take several movements (science has shown that alternating joint actions and balancing the planes of motion during a workout leads to long term healthy movement / strength promotion) and I execute them for strength.  I time my rest period using 45 seconds of rest and I’ll execute 4-5 sets of work.  I focus on 3-5 major movements and leave my ancillary stuff for a day just to work on all the little movements that help the big ones.

Why did I get beat up by a class?  Different energy system needs and significantly higher volume of work load.  When you do about 40 curls with sets of 10 separated by 2 other movements, the volume of 2 15lbs dumbbells suddenly becomes pretty high. 

But the great thing is that my perspective was changed through the class. 

Early in my career I was very cynical about  yoga.   Currently you may have seen all the articles in the media about yoga practioners who are having problems with their joints because they practice so much yoga.  Yoga is a useful  method to work on flexibility and endurance – strength.  It’s not the whole picture of fitness but it’s a great way to gain range of motion training and if you like the philosophy of it, well, all the better for you.  However, I was cynical about yoga because many of its practitioners were a little one track minded about it.  I was cynical, until I took a class.  I LOVE Yoga.  I always feel really great after a class and I’ve decided that it can be a useful component of my own fitness.  

The great thing about developing a long term perspective is being able to make lots of small choices over time to try new ideas.   Having a plan is about understanding a focus to attain your goals but having a plan is also focused enough to achieve your goals and flexible enough to actually account for obstacles that always occur in our lives.  I challenge all of us to keep challenging our perspectives and to incorporate new ideas if it makes sense to add them.  We don’t “change things up” for changes sake.  We change something if it makes sense to improve our perspective. Plan on changing your plan.  

Mo-tate.  Motivate your life to Motion!