October 1, 2017
A friend recently called to ask a few questions about my upcoming Foundations of Functional Fitness class. She's a healthy and fit gym-regular so she really doesn't appear to need more information about exercise BUT (she sheepishly confessed) she SECRETLY doesn't actually enjoy working out in the gym and would love an excuse to cancel her membership.
Before she cut her nose off to spite her face, however, she was wondering if my class is only for exercise novices? When I told her this class not only perfect for her, it's perfect for EVERYONE, she was surprised (as I'm sure you are now.)
So here are 3 reasons why gym workouts AREN'T always good for your health.
1. Most American regular-exercisers fall into one of two categories: folks who are totally / exclusively into cardiovascular exercise and folks who are totally / exclusively into lifting weights. And most gyms tend to really sock these notions home because they're literally packed with high tech equipment implying "this is the only place you can get / stay fit." But just because you can run MANY miles on a treadmill doesn't mean you'll never tear a muscle or break a bone. Conversely, muscle-bound power-lifters typically have posture and flexibility imbalances.
2. It's also been my experience (both in my own workouts and in working with umpteen clients) that some of the most popular gym workout techniques these days are either irrelevant or dangerous: when routines are machine-based your muscles aren't learning to be fully functional, and if routines are more crossfit-ish the unsystematic intensity OFTEN leads to injury.
3. (And this may be the most disturbing reason of all!) Regular exercise has been proven to increase neuroplasticity...in other words it increases your capacity for creative thinking and accepting new ideas. Yet walk into any gym and what do you see? People exercising while surrounded by sometimes hundreds of TV's (and BTW many types of programming – especially the News – has actually been proven to elicit fear.) So what gym-regulars are effectively doing is cranking up the "Fear Factor" while their minds are particularly open to new ideas.
WHAT???!!!
(And I'm not even going to mention the still-pretty-much-fixated-on-just-looking-good-rather-than-being-healthy-gym-culture-thing...that's a whole other blog, right?)
So click here to learn more and to sign up for this unique workshop which is truly suitable for anyone from an exercise novice to a full-blown gym rat (but don't delay...it's only days away!) And I promise you'll walk away with a much better working knowledge of exactly what a high quality mostly bodyweight-only workout should always look like plus plenty of tips on how to safely increase your strength (plus more importantly, YOUR HEALTH) over time.
