This immersion in an activity is very important. Athletes speak about rare, career defining moments where they were “in the zone” and it is this that they are referring to. This mindlessness, scientifically called the flow state by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in 1975, describes a mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in an activity. We simply played, and as we played we learned to use our bodies and grew stronger and better each time we did a new activity. We ran and played and explored and jumped and threw and came in when it was dark. At one time, maybe many years ago if you’re my age, we didn’t count sets or reps or worry about how many times we ran around the yard. This communal gathering atmosphere is only part of what is missing in today’s fitness world. The only chance many of us truly have these days to connect with others on this massive tribal scale is at events like these marathons. Now, instead of having the whole tribe present, flushed with the thrill of the chase and the success of the hunt, we have a group of people isolated physically from each other by iPods and home theatre systems and email. Have a think about how long a hunt used to take place in tribal cultures – about four hours. Peak finishing time in a marathon is about four hours. Think to popular sports hobbies like the marathon. The reality is sports and games are a social construct for us – a way to reconnect with our past. While professionalism in sport has seen performances improve, the increased standards have seen greater and greater specialization necessary to succeed at the elite level. In the sporting world, as athletes and organizers sought better and better performances, we have seen the death of the amateur spirit of Olympic competition. Before you know it we started to see machines and treadmills. Looking at pictures of old time gymnasiums the focus turned from rings, monkey bars, vaulting, and odd implements like Indian clubs and kettlebells, to benches and fixed weights. It’s not hard to see the loss of perspective on health, vitality, and fitness starting in the fitness and sporting fields as early as the 1920s. But if you’re not that rare 0.1% athlete who may actually make the Olympic games (you know, just like the rest of us), then trying to emulate the training programs, volumes, and intensities of those elite athletes is only going to hurt you. If you want to go to the Olympics, then you’re going to need to be okay with seriously beating yourself up over a number of years. Having spent the last few weeks looking deeply into overtraining syndrome and speaking with various people who have suffered in varying degrees from it, I’ve been left wondering what on earth we’re doing that our training, the thing that is supposed to be making us “healthy” often leads us in the exact opposite direction.įor once, I’m not actually speaking of performance. What if we’re doing it wrong? What if everything we think we know about training is so backwards, mixed-up, and confused that we’ve missed the bigger picture? Does it really matter if you deadlift another 10kgs? Or drop fifteen seconds off your 5km run PR? Is training for performance actually making you unhealthy?
0 kommentar(er)
