Absolutely correct. The science of recovery is every bit as important as the science of training, yet it is often overlooked. Here is some good information about this very subject:
Train smart!
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InvisibleWombat** I highly recommend you bookmark and read Berardi’s site and search for articles at t-nation.com by “Ian King.” There is a lot of new science being done in the area of training and recovery and it pays to have that information available.
I agree on the intensity vs. 48-hour concept. If you’re not working out with a goal to muscle failure (I think that’s the technical term for “can’t do even one more rep”), I think you can work out every day.
However…(saw that coming, eh?) don’t make it a chore. I’ll be honest and state that I hated working out for about the first year. I didn’t like giving up my free time, I didn’t like driving to the gym, and I hated the pain/effort. In year 5, I actively look forward to it. It’s such a part of my routine now that I miss it when I travel (and can’tfind a Bally’s nearby).
If you can give yourself a mental break, you’ll hate it less.
The nature of these posts is one of the things that moves me away from working out or exercise, as opposed to playing a sport or a game. It’s so deadly grim. I readily admit that it’s likely that I never did and never will have the overall muscle tone and shape that some folks derive from going to Bally’s. In fact, there’s no question in my mind why they don’t put mirrors up outside the racquetball courts but they’re all over the workout clubs. I mean, racquetball is terrific exercise and it’s mighty good for you, but not many guys play it just so that they look real good, I’d guess. It doesn’t SOUND as if the work out regimens are much fun. Moms today tell their kids, “Go outside and get some exercise,” when they used to say, “Go outside and play.” I’d like to see someone’s post at least mention that aspect, too. It sounds like the main payoff is the ability to preen, hence the mirrors all around. Does anyone smile when they work out? Laugh? Have fun? Don’t mean to sound so curmudgeonly, but aside from the general satisfaction of progress, is there any fun to be had in working out? Can there be any game playing in the activity? Are there any playful aspects? That would enhance it, for my money.
Any sport can be taken too seriously and become drudgery. In fact this is the one reason I like gym exercise, because I find there to be less competition and hostility than other sports. I do it at my own pace, I socialize with people who don’t care about my level relative to theirs, it’s great. Likewise with running. Quite frankly organized sports make me want to throw up for their deficiencies in this regard. But, different strokes, y’know.
I enjoy it and there’s certainly a social aspect to it, if you have a good gym. It’s not anything I can really put into words, but I really like flinging a lot of weight around after a stressful day of work. There’s just something viscerally satisfying about loading a crapload of weight (relatively speaking) onto a bar and moving it around.
I mean, I’d have exactly the same reaction as your post if my only workout option was playing raquetball or basketball or something–I mostly hate playing sports.
I’m sure preening is a big part of having mirrors, but another important purpose is so that the lifter can see that they have correct form while they lift the weight.
I would say that doing weights or aerobic machines at a gym are not fun. People probably don’t hate it, but I’m sure most people would give it up if there was a magic pill which gave the same results.
If you play sports you can have fun while you workout. But working out at the gym is not necessarily about having fun–it’s about getting healthier. You put up with half an hour of sweating on a stairmaster so that your heart will last another 10 years. You spend time lifting weights so that you don’t throw your back out when you pick up your child. You lose the extra weight so that you have fewer weight-related health problems. You workout at a gym for the benefit it provides and not for the fun you have while doing it.
Having fun should be secondary to getting healthy. If you can do both, great! Do that. But don’t give up on getting healthy because it’s not fun.
CC: Chalk me up for one that would rather be playing sports!
I would far rather be playing soccer or tennis than working out every other day, but I can’t play often enough to offer me the same physical exertion.
I play in various leagues now, and I allow one game/match/whatever to substitute for an evening’s workout.
I’ve never personally understood people who would rather work out, but I know plenty of folks that don’t like team sports. Give me a three-setter, and I’m more than happy.
There is. I can’t speak for anyone else, but there are aspects I really enjoy. I don’t know if you’ll appreciate it, but one of my fondest gym memories happened during a particularly exhausting deadlift day. I got to the last real exercise before the cooldown, 10 sets of 3 with the Romanian deadlift, at about 50% of my one-rep max. After about 6-7 sets in, I couldn’t stand up any more and I collapsed to my knees right in front of the barbell. The exhilaration I felt at the thought of getting back up to finish off the rest of the set was just amazing; I don’t think I can match it up with any other experience I’ve ever had (except for maybe the time I hit my one-rep max and don’t remember the actual lift so well).
Good point. And just to clarify, I don’t play sports for the competition, so I may be a true outlier in many respects. My calculus in playing racquetball, for example goes like this - any point or any game has to provide either exercise OR fun, preferably both. If my heart’s not pounding, if I’m not breathing faster, sweating or grinning about the point, or the game, in other words no exercise or no fun - I consider my time there to be a waste. I long ago stopped paying attention to who won the game, although we do keep score, I forget as soon as the game’s over. Competition and hostility I can find on the road, on TV, in the news, and elsewhere. No need to pay money to get involved in it intentionally. xo, C.
Gotta disagree with you, especially on the last quoted sentence.
I have been lifting seriously for the last twenty-five years. Because I like it. And because it keeps me healthy. But the reason I lift instead of racquetball is that I hate racquetball and I like lifting.
I think you should find an activity that you enjoy, and use that as a vehicle to get into shape.
But I make my living sitting down, and thinking. Lifting gets me up and moving, and it is almost purely physical. And it gets me back into touch with my physical self to feel the muscle burning on the last rep, or that gloriously drained feeling when I drop the weight after my last set, or the experience of reaching for the strength and finding it, when the weight goes up one more time than it did before, when the muscles and the weights and the will have all turned to iron. The futuristic gleam of the chrome, the dark cold feel of the bar newly gripped, the cash-register jingle of the plates on either side when I come up with the sixth rep, the chalk and sweat and masochistic cameraderie of the serious gym rats - that’s what keeps me coming back.
And the look on the face of the smart-ass twenty year old who wants to work in with the old guys, and drops out twenty five pounds before the pump set - that’s just a bonus.
I’ll still stand by my statement that having fun is secondary to getting healthy. It’s great that you enjoy your workout, but what would you do if you did not enjoy any form of working out?
Too many people say they don’t enjoy working out so they give up. They do nothing. I’m saying that’s not a valid stance. If you can’t find an activity you enjoy, then do the one that you hate the least. Not having fun is not an excuse for not working out.
Maybe we don’t disagree - I would just phrase it that having fun is important to getting healthy. Because
It’s too hard to do something you hate just to live longer, if you are anything like me. If you are going to stick to it long enough to derive any benefits, then there usually has to be more to it than the grimly Sisyphean “I gotta do this” routine.
Try all kinds of activity, I would say, and stick with the one you like. If you hate them all, then, as you say, do the one you hate the least. I personally find aerobic activities like jogging boring, so I do Stairmaster because I can read while doing it. If you want to define that as doing something I hate because it is good for me, fine, but I would see it as finding an activity I can enjoy - reading - and using it for my own benefit.
