Right Exercise - Wrong Exercise?

Ever wonder about what is supposedly ‘right' exercise and what is ‘wrong' exercise? And isn’t it strange how we never wondered about those sorts of questions when we were active (read: madly exercising) children?

In 1990/1991, hubby and I did a trip around the world. I have many rich and wonderful memories from those years but one of my favorites happened in China. I’d gone out for an early morning jog in Guilin only to find rows and rows of Chinese adults all gracefully doing Tai Chi while the younger adults did ballroom dancing alongside a river.

I was mesmerized by the sheer beauty emanating from the sense of peacefulness that radiated out from them.

So a few years ago I signed up for a Tai Chi class. I loved (and still do) that sense of quiet peacefulness that comes with those flowing movements. Only problem was that I somehow managed to choose an instructor who was into ‘doing every movement exquisitely perfectly.’ In his mind there was only one way to do right exercise.

Talk about being a highway robber of fun. His demand for perfection simply took away every bit of joy I could have had doing it.

I wasn’t doing it to do it perfectly. I was doing it because it made me feel peaceful and wonderful. BUT…when I had to focus on right exercise – i.e. just how, and at what speed, every finger uncurled or lifting an elbow 2 centimeters higher in order to b>‘do it right’ it lost all it’s delight for me.

'Right' exercise was wrong for my health

I might have been doing something physically ‘good’ for my body – but my mental state at the time was doing an equally good job of undoing that good all because of someone else’s ideas of right exercise.

Sadly, we have been brainwashed by the idea of being ‘the best’ or ‘correct’ at everything we tackle. What is wrong with having a ‘passable’ workout or a ‘mediocre’ walk or just an ‘average’ cycle? It sure beats doing nothing!

Do 'correct' exercise for YOU

It didn’t take me long to chuck that correct exercise guru and find a dvd so that I could do it at home and as imperfectly as I liked. And later I found a group who met in a local park who did fabulous Tai Chi and no-one frowned or yelled ‘ELBOW’ or anything else at me.

And you know what… I promise you my body didn’t physically care about the difference between whether my elbow was 2 cm lower or higher or not… But from a neuro-peptide point of view it did.

And given that Mind becomes Matter – well, as far as I’m concerned, my mental state when I’m doing exercise is all important.

If I want my mind to produce healthy matter I need to have healthy thoughts. Toxic thoughts only produce unhealthy matter. Matter is what my body is made up of.

'Right' exercise fits into your life

Her practical solution? She puts on her exercise dvd and her and her 3 boys have 20-30 minutes giggling and laughing to see who can copy the movements in the most silly and ridiculous way.

No such thing as doing what is culturally defined as 'correct exercise’ for them. Instead, they do as a family what feels right for them.

Your body doesn’t reject silly fun, it revels in it! Promise!

This mother gets a stress reliever, she also gets some body-fun, her and her boys have a great bonding experience and get to laugh uproariously and her boys stop being demanding because they get her attention.

Now THAT's what I call 'right' exercise!

As she says, this works vastly better for her than having to take extra time from her family, and go to an exercise club. She’d go for a while, feel guilty because she’d feel she should be at home. She’d get home stressed and would miss out on all the potential fun.

Re-define 'Correct' exercise for yourself

When I was little, body-play was self-directed fun, fun, fun. I skipped as fast or as slow as I wanted and I had not the slightest care in the world about if there was a right way or a wrong way to moving, whether it was aerobic or not, how many calories I burnt doing it, whether I was wearing the appropriate clothes or whether I looked good doing it or not. Now I’m not saying that if you’re into weightlifting that you don’t have to be careful about how you lift, and the same goes for many other structured exercise. But Mind over Fatter programme , you can just have fun and relax.

No-one should be able to dictate that you have to climb a tree any particular way, or play ‘on-on’ with any style that makes it ‘right.’ There are not wrongs or rights – there’s just what comes naturally, whats fun and what's sustainable for you.

And pssst….. don’t tell all those people that are awfully serious about this whole exercise lark – but I’ve got a new way of defining ‘right exercise’.

It’s any kind of exercise that makes you feel like you want to do it because it’s fun and because it makes you feel great.

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