A student once asked a zen master how long it would take for him to become enlightened, if he meditated for an hour each day. The master told him “10 years”. The student then asked how long it would take if he meditated for two hours each day. The master told him “20 years”.
Sometimes less is more. Hard work, striving, and pushing yourself hard to be your best have their place, and are sometimes required to achieve results. It is easy to assume that more is better, and that the harder you work, the better the results should be. Yet some things in life cannot be overcome by force and willpower. Sometimes moderation is actually better, because it is more efficient than extremes. When it comes to working out, there is such a thing as overtraining or trying too hard, and it is easy to err in that direction especially if you are a guy. Working through some pain has its place, yet refusing to acknowledge the pain and ignoring it can come at great cost. As someone who spent a lot of time in the gym when I was a lot younger taking training to an extreme, there is a price that can come with that. And even if the price is not a direct injury, it can be in creating the imbalances and subtle compensation patterns that can lead to injuries or chronic weaknesses and conditions with chronic tension and pain. Some of the best looking and balanced bodies are people who have not necessarily spent much time at the gym but are into activities or sports that emphasize balance and full use of the body like swimming, skating, gymnastics, martial arts, or dancing. Not every muscle in your body is meant to be as big and strong as it can get, and the body is meant to move, more than it is meant to move heavy objects.
Pain sometimes tells us to stop, in order to avoid creating more pain. Pain can be a symptom of overtraining, overuse and lack of rest. Excess in anything usually leads to some kind of imbalance. Just because someone trains intensely and is able to lift a lot of weight or do a lot of pullups, or even has a nice looking physique does not mean their body is strong, balanced, and free of excess tension, or feels good to them to be in. I have lived that truth first hand!
Sometimes the hardest exercises are not the best. Some exercises require so much force that they make it impossible to sense the differences necessary to improve the overall skill of a movement, because the largest muscles and any existing compensation patterns will automatically take over for dormant muscles which have not been developed in terms of mind/body awareness. I’m not even speaking of heavy weights necessarily. A pull up or even a push up requires a fair amount of force to complete the movement, such that it is probably too intense to cultivate better body awareness and coordination in the shoulders, arms, and back. Some of the muscles in our body need to become active and learn to do more… others need to learn to do less. Learning to sense and feel the SUBTLE differences that entail getting a small muscle to activate and participate in a movement can only come through a lessening of resistance, and a focus and emphasis on the movement itself, not how much force is exerted. Really honing in on a weakness is about being very precise and specific. Many body imbalances are basically this: some muscles are doing too much and are chronically tight, others are not doing enough, and are chronically weak or dormant.
Moshe Feldenkrais is the author of several books including Awareness Through Movement. He promoted exercises that cultivate feeling and awareness, rather than those designed to achieve strength or flexibility. In the book Mind~Body Fitnees for Personal Trainers by Linda-Christy Weiler, the author touches on the same theme. She makes the distinction between what she calls mind-body fitness and conventional fitness. Conventional fitness is very tangible and goal oriented. Aspects of it include strength, quickness, and flexibility training, with the goal being gaining an ability to lift more weight or do more reps, move faster, increase range of motion, or being able to perform an activity like running for a longer period of time. Mind-body fitness on the other hand is not goal oriented in the same way. It is not about results. It is more geared toward relaxation and stress reduction, energy efficiency, and greater ease and skilled movements.
I have not studied Feldenkrais in great depth but think his general philosophy has great insight and is extremely thoughtful. I worked with a ballroom dance instructor for several years, and came to find that a lot of the stuff that I had been attempting to rectify at the gym started to gain awareness by dancing. Actually not dancing as in learning steps like the cha cha or rumba, but taking the most basic of those steps and focusing on really, really slowing down the individual movements. Following a movement in awareness means bringing attention to what is happening within each step… where your weight is, where your body/hip is settled, feeling how the different parts of your feet are engaging with the floor as you step, the bending and straightening of the knees, etc… everything that is happening within the movement. It takes time and a different kind of effort to cultivate that kind of awareness. It’s not something that tons of immediate practice will help with, because improving body awareness is a skill that takes time for your body to assimilate and adjust to. The exercises I have in mind for clients are partially based on ballroom dancing, partially on yoga, and partially based on my own exploration of those things. I will have a section on this site eventually with videos showing what I’m talking about. I am certain that I have less natural dancing ability than most people, so I truly believe most people can pick up on what I am trying to teach more easily and quickly than I did.
Asymmetrical Awareness 