My Journey With Health And Fitness – Focusing On Form

There has been a lot of Canada geese at the beach for the last several weeks. All of the goslings are pretty grown up by now but they are still hanging around with their parents. This morning I witnessed a young girl of about 5 trying to pet some of the geese. Her (I assume) Mom was busy looking at her phone and as I neared them I was getting anxious because I know what these birds can do if they get angry. I picked up my pace a bit as I wanted to get that little girl out of danger when finally the Mom looked up from her phone and pulled her daughter away from the gaggle of geese. When out with children people need to be a little more diligent.

It was an interesting strength class today. Ok, it was more like a bootcamp class. I realized I have come a long way in the past year. Most of the exercises they have us do I have now mastered. I stopped feeling like an uncoordinated buffoon months ago. So now I am focusing on my form. I watch how I do the exercises paying particular attention to how I am holding myself. I also make sure that I am not letting my body twist in any way and that I am not ‘swinging’ the weights but rather I am appropriately engaging the correct muscles. Yes, I have become one of those people that obsessively stare at myself in the mirror while working out but I’m doing it for all the right reasons.

I also know I am challenging myself without even considering whether I can do something or not. For example, in today’s circuit round of exercises we had to do a 30 second plank hold in each of the 4 rounds. Without hesitation I did each of them as one armed plank holds because 30 seconds is too short for me. During the first round I also realized the weights I normally use for shoulder presses are now too light for me to benefit from so I bumped them up on the next round. Don’t get me wrong, accepting challenges is different for knowing my limitations. I do not do anything in a kneeling stance (too painful on my bad knee) nor do I do step ups onto a bench (the bad knee doesn’t bend enough for that) but I know the modifications I can do to get the most out of the exercises.

I am going to keep watching my form while challenging myself to do more. That’s the fitness world I now live in.