Hard versus Soft-Style Exercise
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Two conditioning myths:
1 – “Train hard or go home”
2 – “I haven’t got time to train”.Both of these statements, in my opinion, are absolutely false.
Firstly, most peoples lifestyles nowadays are very stressed. The nervous system (the controller of stress in the body) then takes all of this stress, and does not differentiate where it comes from, he simply just calls it “STRESS”. Exercise, or physical stress, is a stressor nonetheless. So when someone is totally stressed out, you can imagine that putting an extra stressor into this already stressed nervous system, does not equal less stress and greater health. You guessed it, it leads to more stress, and less health! Very simple.
Secondly, everybody has time to train. Today is a rather monumental day for me as I am on my 500th day of performing my tai-chi/qi-gong exercises. on 23rd September 2006 I was challenged by my teacher to do 100 days of an exercise without missing a day. I successfully accomplished this and decided to keep count, and I am now on day 500! This takes me 10-20 minutes each day and keeps me supple, focused, relaxed, and strong too. Since doing these exercises in the mornings, if I miss a session in the gym that week, I never even notice it and usually feel better for taking the rest too.
To conclude, simply try cutting down on the amount of your “hardcore” exercise you do. You will feel better for this by resting your body and mind. Now try to fit in 10 minutes a day of “soft-style” exercise of yoga, tai-chi, qi-gong or the Zone Exercises that I teach.
My take on it all is this: If you can’t find 10 minutes out of a 24 hour day to exercise and look after your health, well that’s your choice… but I know where my priorities lie.
Good luck, and let me know when you reach 100 days
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