It is pretty amazing. The damage we can do to ourselves without even being present to the process. I work extremely hard at helping other people work hard on themselves. I pride myself on the consistent, hard work I do to my own body. I admonish others to work to their own limits and set a mean example of exactly that in my own work. Whether it be strength training in the gym, Pilates in the studio, or my feeble attempts at following my yoga instructor, I try to work with high quality, excellent form and love pushing myself to that end to achieve the best results for the time spent at work.
Imagine my utter surprise and gaping mouth when my Acupuncturist told me to "go home and practice doing nothing for the weekend; relax, try not to be so efficient with the use of the day."
He might as well have been telling me to scramble to the moon. I was dumbfounded.
Here I was sitting in his office after having completed a treatment session for a minor pinched nerve in my cervical spine. He asked me how I got it? I really wasn't sure, but suspected some mis-alignment in my computer posture or an improper setup of an overhead asana during a yoga class. I didn't mention the new Monkey Bar Gym tool I was using, as it was too new to the exercise regimen to count as a source of the problem, but I did know its impact had exacerbated the shoulder I should have been resting.
Yes, I do something different everyday for my health, body and mental state. Pilates in the studio with a Master Teacher, on Monday, 45 minutes of cardio, using a spin bike, elliptical, or running, etc., followed by split body routine on Tues; a specific leg workout on Wed; Hot Vinyasa Yoga on Thurs; Cardio and split body stretch and strength on Fri; Sat or Sun, I may spend 60 minutes in a Yoga or Pilates Mat session.
In addition, I demonstrate and handle a variety of weights to set up my clients in any number of these activities for themselves. Occasionally, I sneak a massage or Korean spa treatment into my month and frequently use the hot steam of the shower or steam room to let go of the extra baggage.
When I am not physically working, I am mentally engaged in creating, writing, coordinating clients/students schedules and programs; studying, crafting and doing something with one of my numerous projects of life.
Thus, doing nothing seemed like a death sentence. The thought of not using the available minutes of the day to write, create, move or act was seemingly a near impossibility. Yet, I said to Dr. Loh, "yes, I will try." My Facebook post that afternoon, was "how do you spell bored?"
Sitting alone for lunch in my favorite Indian restaurant on the nation's biggest recorded New York snow day in a decade, in the middle of the Winter Olympics 2010, I overhead a couple discussing their individual efforts in shoveling out their respective cars. Dr. Loh's advice of "doing nothing" was again being admonished by the contrasts of their chosen actions.
The female was overheard saying, "I just spent 1.5 hours shoveling to clear my car yesterday. My back and shoulders are killing me." Yet, the male, slightly larger build, grey hair and a receding hairline, commented nonchalantly when she asked, "Did you clear your car, yet?"
"Actually, I was going to wait for the guy behind me to clear his car, then I was planning to back into that spot and get mine out. Maybe tomorrow."
The Zen of doing nothing, in conscious non-action.
Rest, recovery and non-action do have their place in our health and fitness efforts. Trainers, teachers and students of fitness all need to work toward wisely incorporating the zen of being "inefficient" into our individual practice, from time to time.
Finding this optimal balance between work and recovery can be very difficult challenge. The issue is not that many of us don't do enough work, rather that we usually pile on too much work and fail to devote enough time to recovery. The fact is that many athletes (and wanna-be athletes) are unsure about how much recovery they need after each quality workout, and also about how much rest to build into each week, month and year of training.
pponline.co.uk Peak Performance offers a quiz that is recommended for athletes to determine if the optimum recovery time has been achieved before resuming hard core training:
The simple quiz is used to assess wellbeing, and provide a useful way to self-monitor training and recovery. There are only six points, and the whole test takes less than one minute to complete.
Simply rate each statement on a 1-5 scale as follows: 1 = strongly disagree; 2 = disagree; 3 = neutral; 4 = agree; 5 = strongly agree.
(1) I slept really well last night.
(2) I am looking forward to today's workout.
(3) I am optimistic about my future performance(s).
(4) I feel vigorous and energetic.
(5) My appetite is great.
(6) I have very little muscle soreness.
It is recommended to evaluate oneself in this way each morning when you are ready to start your day. If your total score is 20 or above, your overall state of recovery is pretty good and you have probably recovered enough to carry out a high-quality workout on that day. If your total score is below 20, it is probably a good idea to rest or work easily until your score rises again.
I used the quiz and got a sub-par score.
So, I went home, put my feet up and read a book on my Kindle reader and chewed all my new nails off.
Gina Jackson made a conscious career and lifestyle change to fitness in 2000 and assists clients in lifestyle fitness training programs; she is the Fitness Consultant, creator and energy behind the Prescription4Fitness.com Prescription4Fitness.com and Fitness4Goldcoast.com Fitness4Goldcoast.com, both of which provide fitness resources, tips, articles and MP3 downloads designed to assist all in realizing their fitness goals.
In addition to being a webmaster, Gina holds an MBA, from New York University, has Advanced PFT recognition as a member of the International Association of Fitness Professionals (IDEA); and is certified as a NY Power Pilates Teacher and a proud Business Member of the Pilates Method Alliance.
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