Today my usual Saturday schedule was disrupted by a series of events not in my control. So I ended up going to the gym instead of the pool for my workout. It took extra focus to remember what I needed for a workout, and when I arrived I realized I didn’t remember my locker number. I ordinarily come on weekdays, and the attendant knows me and hands me my key without asking. What’s more I had forgotten my towel, so had to ask to rent one.
As I was putting my things away I chatted with another trainer who noticed I was out of my usual routine. It’s good to change things I said, tentatively. But it can be a little unsettling. Now I know what my students feel like when I change things around on them.
“It’s got a lot to do with ego and control,” she answered, “not allowing things to be as they are, not accepting things, but needing to remain in control and in a safe place.”
I agreed and I reflected on one of my students, Fong, who had a perfect routine. He was flawless in his execution of each of the 15 exercises he did, in exactly the same order, with exactly the same weight each session.
He came to me and asked why he wasn’t experiencing improvement and I pointed out that in order to produce change, you have to provide change. In muscular training the principle of variety is used to produce physiological development as well as to prevent psychological boredom. Mixing up exercises and exercise order produces the best, long lasting exercise success.
With the years I have accumulated, along with a lot of inexplicable quirks my body throws up at me on a random basis, we have a tendency to settle into a routine, to find a groove and continue along. It is the body’s way to seek order to reach maximum efficiency through repetition of the smallest moves. However this does not stimulate growth, instead it reinforces current patterns.
If I want my strength to increase I will have to lift heavier, longer, or harder. The same is true in my life. If I expect to improve, I need to seek new patterns, seek new ways of doing things, question assumptions, challenge current routines and be willing to try something new. What about you, what will you change this week, or what have you changed and how did it feel?