Why 'harder and faster' isn't always better
Welcome to the weekly warble here at Ideanthro Movement.
This week I'm going to talk about why 'harder and faster' is not always better when it comes to health and fitness.
Before I start, I will just clarify that I'm not saying that you don't need to put any effort into your exercise to be effective. Clearly you do. But you don't need to annihilate yourself while working out. In fact you shouldn't be annihilating yourself. There is a sensible middle ground.
When we exercise at our limit (as hard, or nearly as hard, as we can) our bodies default to the movement patterns that they are most familiar with. The problem here is that by the time we reach adulthood, must of us have at least a few funky movement patterns. This is significant because these movement patterns might be injuries in the making or simply preventing us from learning good technique. If we always push hard, we reinforce those patterns and exacerbate any future issues. But if we slow down and move mindfully, these movement patterns can be relearnt.
The simple truth about always exercising as hard as you can is that it actually produces really good results... for a while. But therein lies the trap. While it does great things in the short term, it also slows down long term progress because it sets you up for injury and prevents you from learning great technique. The greatest medium to long term progress comes from a slower and steadier approach.
And this is why at Ideanthro Movement we don't push crazy hard. We do encourage effort, but not at the expense of quality movement. Moving mindfully with good technique comes first.
If you'd like to know more about our approach to health and fitness feel to contact us here.
Cheers
Jack