One of the more harmful tendencies in fitness is measuring gains.
Measuring progress is incredibly detrimental to your health as you have nothing rational to
measure against as this moment is unique, and your experience is being influenced by so many
tangible and intangible things. To try to do as much as you did the last time or to try to do more
or even to get happy or excited when you notice you can do more is just taking you down the
wrong path. Because some days you shouldn’t do more you should do less and forcing yourself
to do more is damaging! Ultimately you will do less as you age and change and dealing with that
will be much more difficult the more attached you are to your physical prowess.
This doesn’t mean that you won’t get stronger or more flexible or have more endurance then
previously (at least initially) as you exercise, it just means that you don’t get attached to that and
you realize that that’s not important for health. What’s important is that you’re activating your
body. This activation is a natural by-product of your participation in any exercise or activity. See
the quantity of your action is not important and should only be a by-product of the quality of
your action. In other words, it doesn’t matter how much you do what matters is that you do the
right amount. I like to say it’s not the quantity of the touch it’s the quality of the touch.
Everything that’s good for you becomes harmful when it’s done in excess (except love).
This right amount is always changing as your body is incessantly changing. Just like your mind
has moods so does your body. Sometimes you feel strong and sometimes weak, sometimes you
feel loose and sometimes tight, sometimes you’re energetic and sometimes lethargic. Your body
is responding to a whole host of obvious and not so obvious conditions. Our actions should
reflect our mood just as our actions take into consideration the mood of those around you. What
makes a workout healing is our ability to tune into our experience (what we are feeling) and
decide what is appropriate. Not worrying about how much we are doing or how much we did last
time or how much you want to do, mindlessly pushing your body to a greater and greater degree
in the name of health, simply to fulfill some misguided desire that more is better! Ultimately this
pushing takes an adverse toll on our bodies. After all the universal law states “the harder you are
on anything the faster you destroy it”. This is why walking is considered the healthiest exercise.
We have been conditioned to want more stuff! Whether it’s food, money, beauty, youth, strength,
flexibility, cardio, stamina, friends, likes, comments, cars, houses, adoration, etc…
This is the rat race internalized. It’s like we are all running around trying to fill a hole within us
that’s not there, we have just been told it’s there so much we believe them.
Instead of trying to make gains, how about trying to care for oneself? If you didn’t know the only
way you can care for anything is to touch it gently.
The post The Absurdity of Measuring Gains appeared first on Power Yoga.
