Today I want to write to you a little about one of the foundations of fitness: Form follows function. I feel like I should write about this principle after such a brutal workout yesterday. If yesterday's I Can Do Anything Workout kicked my ass, then I'm hoping it didn't scare off those of you that are beginners.
I have been working out consistently for 1 year and 4 months now, and for the past 7 of those months I have been doing high intensity workouts like the ones here on my blog. I used to weight train with machines at the gym, which is fine. Weight training has its place and I am by no means putting it down, however it is not the most effective way to train your body.
Our bodies are built to be adaptable. This is how our species has survived. If we are put into a new situation or environment, our bodies will change within a matter of days or weeks in order to function properly. You can use this principle to your advantage when training your body.
Think of a challenging movement in everyday life. Let's say you were a CIA spy hanging off the side of a building, a mere slip away from your death. Would you be able to pull your body back up over the side of the building? Now if you were to plan and train for this event, how would you do it? Would you go to the gym and use the lat pull down bar with 50 lbs of weight? Or would you start doing pull ups? Using nothing but your common sense, which training method do you think is more effective?
Answer: Do the pull ups.
What if you can't even do one pull up? How are you supposed to train your body? You start with a beginner's variation of the exercise, which is to stand on a chair with one leg or have someone hold your legs for support. If you can only do one, then you only do one, but you do one pull up every hour or every day until you can do two, then three, then four, then five... This same concept can be applied to any exercise. Within a matter of weeks, if you were hanging off the side of a building, you would be able to pull yourself back up. I promise.
This is an example of form follows function. The most effective way to train your body for real life is to put your body in real life positions and movements using body weight exercises. Regardless of how difficult or scary an exercise may look, just do it the best you can, the beginner variation if you must, and you will be shocked at how quickly you will master the movement! You won't get these kinds of results from weight training!
So think about this when you are training. Do you want to train for speed? Focus on moving as fast as you can through your workouts. Want to train for balance? Focus on body weight exercises that force you to balance, even if you need to hold onto the wall at first. Want to train for flexibility? Stretch your body as far as you can everyday. Put your body through the movements and your skill with that movement will improve, plain and simple.
So if my workouts are a little intimidating, remember this principle. My workouts should look hard and scary. They should be movements you're not used to. Put your body through them anyway, and your body will change and adapt to the movements more quickly than you expect. Don't be hard on yourself. If you can't do as many reps as I can, only do as many as you can do. If you can't do the exercise at all, do a beginner's variation. Keep at it, do your best, and do better than you did yesterday. Compete against yourself and your own body. This is how to get results.
We are training for life here. Looking amazing is just a bonus.
Monica
PS A great way to compete against yourself is to write down your reps and times from my workouts so that when you return to that workout in a month or so, you can try to beat your previous scores. You'll be amazed at how your body will improve in just a matter of months!
