Not enough

Recently a try-out client said to me, after a workout, that it wasn't really enough, was it? The client wasn't exhausted, it was "only 45 minutes" and not all of that was exercise, some of it was rest.

I argued that it was sufficient to get someone stronger and fitter and reduce body fat, if accompanied by a good diet and if that someone pushed themself during the 45 minutes.

Then, without any apparent irony, the client told me about injuries, setbacks, and repeatedly needing to scale back and re-start after overuse injuries and doing too much exercise.

This reminded me of something, beyond the usual "don't judge a workout by how hard it seems, but how well it gets you to your goals." It was the ability of people in general to not see the contradiction in feeling something needs to be harder to be valuable, but also that too much is bad for them. It's a painful and damaging circle. You push as hard as possible to get somewhere, you get hurt doing so (because it is too much to handle) and then start over below where you started. Then you do it again, trying even harder because the distance to the goal is further than it was in the first place.

Remember a workout is meant to get you somewhere. Measure it by your progress, not your exhaustion or soreness.

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