Thoughts From Grayson: Change it up!

Grayson Fertig

Dear Forever Fit Sciences,

Thanks for your interest in Forever Fit Science. Our hope is that each time you visit the site that you leave with a pearl or two that you can apply in your life. Our goal is to keep you in the game as well as keep you interested in the game. Each take away can become the starting point for your next session. I love the sculling drills the Holman twins gave us because of how practical and applicable they are. I’ll be curious to hear how many of you give their drill a try.

I’m always making a case for the value of sub-maximal training efforts in high return categories and their cumulative effect over the long term. While this may be a way forward I’m definitely not saying it is the only way forward. In fact, the only way to test the effects of sub-maximal efforts is in the realm of maximal efforts. Can 3 weeks of sculling positively impact your times? If a basketball player spent 3 weeks refining his jump shot would his game time execution improve? To make strength gains in your core would you be willing to hula hoop for 10 minutes a day?

One of the reasons a sub-maximal strategy is effective is because to meet the day feeling good one’s nervous system has to be highly functional. To a large extent keeping one’s nervous system functional has a lot to do with greasing the wheel. What’s the right amount of grease? An amount applied regularly.

Thoughts From Grayson: Change it up! As an action takes place regardless of the “maximalness” of it, the success of the action, regardless of the perceived difficulty, requires the nervous system to be able to send signals across the appropriate pathways within the body/nervous system. Water works to reach the ocean both at a trickle and gush, regardless of the intensity the intention of the water is the same. The same could be said for nerves (efferent, afferent, mixed) their intention is to get to where they are going. Regularly greasing the nervous system with sub-maximal efforts like taking a stroll can have profound effects on other activities.

Sculling, hula hooping, and refining an isolated skill all are a way forward. At any age you can move towards a deeper level of understanding and connection in terms of your relationship with the physical world. The best athletes in the world are always taking care of the little things and it is our hope that you too will start to change it up so the big things take care of themselves.

3 little things that could completely change it up!

Pretend your left handed. If you’re right handed see if for the span of your workout you can do everything you normally would do but do it with your mental focus being the non-dominant side.

Change the music up. Most people who are in physical pain have lost their swagger. Bringing a sense of rhythm into your workout can override the static movement patterns you’ve adopted to deal with physical pain. To get out of pain you’ve got to go the other way. Free yourself with some new music. Try listening to A Tribe Called Quest via download, Spotify, or Pandora.

Don’t try so hard. Play around with how much you can back off your intensity without sacrificing the result. You should be thinking of exercising as if it were golf. Efficiency is the key. Doing more starts with you doing the same with less effort. Make whatever you are doing look and feel easy. How do you do that? In your workout tomorrow tap into some right brain thinking while you rep out your sets.

Lots of love to ya,

Grayson

Director at Forever Fit Science

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