What should I do in the gym today? What if I don’t get a certain exercise in? How many exercises should I do? Do I need to do a lot of different exercises to get results?
Are these some questions you ask yourself from time to time?
If you do, you’re not alone. I used to ask myself these questions often.
The answer are “no”; “not a lot”; “not as many as you think”; and “it’s ok if you don’t do many exercises.”
Materialism – Workout Relationship
As a result of the expansion of technology, our way of life and our minds have become so fast paced and our bodies can’t catch up. In my opinion, it’s because they don’t want to. It’s not only effecting our health, but I believe it could be effecting your workout too. The same is true with advertising and our society pushing more “stuff” into our lives, potentially making us feel like our lives aren’t good enough unless we have more.
Because society is go, go, go and advertising is more, more, more, I’m sensing through social media and through my own personal experience with my clients that the workout may not be effective enough if it doesn’t contain lots of stuff or exercises. Or if the workout isn’t always on the move with lots of intensity.
I used to workout this way. I wouldn’t be satisfied unless I got a lot of stuff into that one hour or debating if I was resting too much. I would question if I was bringing enough intensity or getting enough things or moves into the workout. I’m telling you through years of experience and practical work with clients that it doesn’t need to be that way. You don’t need a lot of exercises to have an effective workout.
Client expeience
I worked with a client in the past that would often ask “what’s next” or “am I resting to much” or “can we do more”
Obviously, if I saw that the client could handle more, I would make a responsible decision to push the workout, but on this occasion that wasn’t the case.
My client was so worried about doing more instead of focusing more on the task at hand. The body is very delicate and deserve a lot of attention especially during movement. If we are so worried about doing more, we may not be giving enough attention to each individual movement.
My recommendation
If this article is speaking to you at all, I’d consider slowing your workout down. And I don’t mean lessen your effort of each rep you’re taking, I just mean focusing in the body and getting to know how your body moves. Focus on 1-3 movements for the whole workout instead of the normal 6-8. Your body may feel better and recovery better too. If it doesn’t feel great, try working a different variation or adding in some mobility movements between sets. Whatever it may be, practice getting more connected to your body as opposed to getting more exercises into your workout.
Hope this gave you some insight and stay Primal.
