This morning, when I checked my Youtube channel, I saw this comment:
@suesingh4130, do you have just one lesson that addresses the whole body that i can do every morning due to time constraint, thank you
My first reaction, inside my head, was:
“Oh my, I’m afraid there is no such thing as a whole body address-it-all exercise.”
What we could do, though, is to
- identify our weak spots, and
- choose the most suitable exercises, and do at least
- the minimum amount of repetitions per week, to safeguard those spots in a preventive manner.
I was pretty happy with that in my head, even though, I reasoned, there might be weak spots that are not straightforward to safeguard. For example, a painful shoulder might not need specific shoulder exercises, but
- an exercise to keep the chest flexible,
- including the structures that support the shoulders, which in turn might require
- to strengthen the legs (adductors anyone?), and
- to make sure that forces from the feet travel up to the shoulders most efficiently.
Simple question, but the answer in my head became already quite elaborate, a huge graph growing.
And then, half an hour later, at 7:30am I was already sitting in my favourite coffee shop – which I am still, as of writing this. I was looking out of the large window, watching people jogging and sporting by. And while I was watching them moving about, their shoulders going back and forth in relation to their chests, pelvis, legs and feet, I was thinking:
“Oh my, every movement is a whole body exercise.”
Back to square one? No, my premise still stands:
- identify your weak spots,
- choose the most suitable exercises, and do at least
- the minimum amount of repetitions per week, to safeguard those spots in a preventive manner.
What is a suitable exercise, though? For some people it’s as straightforward as doing ten minutes of run-of-the-mill exercises per week…
…for others, including myself, there’s knowledge we only earn by living inside a body that keeps asking questions. Decades of trying things, going from brutal to gentle, from ruthless to compassionate, testing what helps and what doesn’t, always learning, never giving up.
If this is a burden or blessing, I leave that framing up to you. What we can say for certain, however, is this: It brings to light the deepest understanding of the body, of ourselves as a whole, and of one another, and it opens the clearest window into mind, soul, and heart. And ultimately: the world.
