Counting

I love math but I hate counting, it bores me.

Earlier this morning while I was exercising I noticed everyone was counting while they were working out. Some were counting to 5, others counting to the very popular 10 and still some were counting all the way to 30. Every now and then when a person is done with their exercise I will see them write down the number on a piece of paper, this way they can remember what number they counted to and it means their work is done.

I used to try this method of exercising. I'd count, I'd write, I'd look at the numbers and.....well...I'd just get bored. I'd go to sleep counting to 10, everything went to 10. There were no numbers after 10 because the entire world of numbers only went to 10. It was very limiting...

Boredom like this can never be good for a workout. If your mind gets bored so will your body and muscles that make it move. Do the same thing over and over and you will not want to do it anymore. Exercise is not meant to be a place for timeout where you go and count. It's a time for your body to release itself, to stretch out, to grow, and to change for the better. This doesn't happen if you are bored.

There are two main things I see wrong with counting.
*Lets say you are counting to 10:
1) You get too fatigued before you get to 10 and sacrifice your form to get there.
or-
2) You get to 10 but you have yet to challenge your muscles and allow for growth.

The first example gives rise to an extremely big problem that I see with the way we have traditioanlly exercised. People will give anything just to get to that magic number they have set out to acheive. In their mind, getting to that number means they have accomplished something, they are working out hard and they deserve to get in shape. They have sacrificed and they want the reward of feeling good about themselves. They put on big weights because they want big results, and they want them fast.

Unfortunately this is not the way the body works. While the goal of feeling good about yourself is the right one, sacrificing patience and form in your exercise will only make your body feel bad, even painful. When you begin to give up your form to "finish out" an exercise the work stops on your muscles and begins to damage your all important joints, ligaments and even your back. This is a good example of one step forward and two steps back. If this process is continued it will eventually result in pain, then pain will be associated with exercise and sooner or lately we won't want any part of it....this is bad! Never give up your form for a number that you count to.

The other thing I see wrong with counting is not going long enough. Very often people will stop working their muscles when they have reached their magjc number but they have yet to actually feel a workout. When Arnold the govenor earned Mr. Universe awards he used to call this "the pump." This is when the muscles actually begin to burn and blood rushes to the muslces to allow for growth. This is important! It is when exercise happens and its what you should strive for when you workout.

The hardest thing for people to grasp with this is the concept of "listening to your body." Your body will tell you when you are hurting it for the right and wrong reasons. Learn to know the difference between a heatlhy muscle burning pain and a detrimental joint or tendon pain. It will have a lasting effect on the outcome of your body. The difference between muscle pain and joint pain is pretty simple. Muscle pain will be a soreness found within the muscle belly, it will be tender to touch and will go away in about 1-3 days. This is a good thing, this is your muscles growing and bloodflow moving throughout your body. The bad pain...(this is joint pain and ligament pain) is found where your bones attatch, the joints. Sometimes this pain can be pulsating and long lasting (up to a month). This is not good for your body and it is what will happen to your body if proper form is not maintained throughout exercise. Make proper form of exercise a constand practice and learn to recognize the difference in the two different types of pains. Most importantly....chase after the good one.

Instead of counting, choose a resistance and just go with it. Go until you feel the burn your body is asking for. Choose the level of your resistance with caution and never let the proper posture dissappear for the sake of a number. This will not only help you do more with less time but your body will also thank you for it. You will get better results, feel more energy and finallly wake up those muscles you forgot you had.