Keys to Effectively Pacing Your Fitness

Grayson Fertig

Slow it way down in the gym. 

It doesn’t have to be just high-intensity exercise, but pacing your fitness is very important.  It doesn’t always have to be boot camp, crossfit, or triathlon training.  You don’t have to accomplish anything, you don’t have to break a sweat. Sometimes it’s ok to surrender to gentleness, enjoying quiet movement at a slower pace.

I can’t quite explain it, but a meaningless session can restore me in a way that nothing else can.  Even better than skipping it, just going into the gym and letting the workout become a walk in the woods delivers me into a certain state of mind. 

Refreshed from that time spent at a slower pace, I’m better able to push myself with high intensity/high output training sessions that contribute enormously to my long-term physical project.  On those days when the waves are small and you surf anyway, you learn things you can’t discover in overhead conditions.

Take Away:

We can become so fixated on the highly productive workout, so focused on all those numbers: time, weight, speed. In doing so we overlook the benefits of moving through familiar patterns at the gym without pushing too hard. By giving ourselves permission to coast once in a while, we recharge our minds and bodies and refuel for the challenges ahead.