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ninevirtuesI took a BOSU class with my sister today. The BOSU is like half an exercise ball, and you can use it flat side down or round side down. (BOSU stands for Both Sides Up!) You can stand on it, use it for pushups, or lie on it for core strength training.
See it here: http://www.bosu.com/.
In any case, I struggled. The class was a hybrid of step (using the bosu or a step bench), toning (using large rubber bands and weights), and core strength (using the bosu). You would think I'm in good shape, right? Well yeah, I'm very good at the things I've been doing all along, and doing systematically, and very NOT good at things I don't do. As a result, during the core strength portion of the BOSU workout, I nearly rolled like a giant pillbug off the bosu, through the windows overlooking the pool, and into the water. (Sploosh! How'd you like to be the club administrator explaining to your insurer how that happened?)
Some of the ladies who've been taking the class all along sailed through the whole hour. I modified the class by using the BOSU for the parts of the class that required it, but leaving the arm motions out of the step-inspired cardio sections, and by not using weights for the complicated choreography that required them. My sister, who was also taking the class for the first time, left the weights in, but used a step bench instead of a BOSU.
Conclusion #1: Training works. (Quelle surprise. My professional life is built around that idea.)
Conclusion #2: Like everyone else, I do more of the things I'm good at, because I enjoy doing what I'm good at. When you present me with things I'm not good at, you can get me to do them if you feed them to me in small, entertaining, manageable challenges--- they don't seem overwhelming that way.
Okay, here comes my grand unified theory of exercise and home exercise program compliance. Ready?
A. There are seven (I think) different kinds of intelligence: someone can be musically brilliant but mathematically dim, for example. There are also many different kinds of athletic ability: Strength, endurance, power, agility, balance, flexibility. And, like intelligence, partly you inherit those abilities and partly you train them.
B. Any given activity will train some muscles (and not others) and some abilities (and not others). Therefore, every person's lifestyle leaves him (or her) with some strengths and some weaknesses. Example: A triathlete can be very fit and still have major weaknesses. Those weaknesses will be in balance, agility, coordination, and in side-to-side movements involving the internal and external obliques and the internal and external hip rotators, because all of the triathlete's training time is focused on going straight forward. Weight training can help, but standard weight training.... as I know all too well... doesn't fix or prevent everything.
C. My job, as a physical therapist, is to find the weaknesses that cause injury, and repair them. Part of that task involves getting people to make lifestyle changes, to do things (like exercise differently, give up smoking, or start exercising) that they don't enjoy and don't currently do.
Hmm.
So, I will have much more success getting people to change their behavior if:
- I explain to them why it's important that they do it (so they understand why).
- I make it a small and convenient change, so it's part of their existing lives-- not a big change.
- I make it fun. (Face it, much of adult life is not fun. Broccoli, taxes, dentists, bills, work-- no fun. I will have an uphill battle if I try to add something to an adult's life, if the target person considers my addition to be about as fun as a broccoli milkshake. Conversely, if it IS fun, they'll do it. Okay. Nooooooooted!)
See it here: http://www.bosu.com/.
In any case, I struggled. The class was a hybrid of step (using the bosu or a step bench), toning (using large rubber bands and weights), and core strength (using the bosu). You would think I'm in good shape, right? Well yeah, I'm very good at the things I've been doing all along, and doing systematically, and very NOT good at things I don't do. As a result, during the core strength portion of the BOSU workout, I nearly rolled like a giant pillbug off the bosu, through the windows overlooking the pool, and into the water. (Sploosh! How'd you like to be the club administrator explaining to your insurer how that happened?)
Some of the ladies who've been taking the class all along sailed through the whole hour. I modified the class by using the BOSU for the parts of the class that required it, but leaving the arm motions out of the step-inspired cardio sections, and by not using weights for the complicated choreography that required them. My sister, who was also taking the class for the first time, left the weights in, but used a step bench instead of a BOSU.
Conclusion #1: Training works. (Quelle surprise. My professional life is built around that idea.)
Conclusion #2: Like everyone else, I do more of the things I'm good at, because I enjoy doing what I'm good at. When you present me with things I'm not good at, you can get me to do them if you feed them to me in small, entertaining, manageable challenges--- they don't seem overwhelming that way.
Okay, here comes my grand unified theory of exercise and home exercise program compliance. Ready?
A. There are seven (I think) different kinds of intelligence: someone can be musically brilliant but mathematically dim, for example. There are also many different kinds of athletic ability: Strength, endurance, power, agility, balance, flexibility. And, like intelligence, partly you inherit those abilities and partly you train them.
B. Any given activity will train some muscles (and not others) and some abilities (and not others). Therefore, every person's lifestyle leaves him (or her) with some strengths and some weaknesses. Example: A triathlete can be very fit and still have major weaknesses. Those weaknesses will be in balance, agility, coordination, and in side-to-side movements involving the internal and external obliques and the internal and external hip rotators, because all of the triathlete's training time is focused on going straight forward. Weight training can help, but standard weight training.... as I know all too well... doesn't fix or prevent everything.
C. My job, as a physical therapist, is to find the weaknesses that cause injury, and repair them. Part of that task involves getting people to make lifestyle changes, to do things (like exercise differently, give up smoking, or start exercising) that they don't enjoy and don't currently do.
Hmm.
So, I will have much more success getting people to change their behavior if:
- I explain to them why it's important that they do it (so they understand why).
- I make it a small and convenient change, so it's part of their existing lives-- not a big change.
- I make it fun. (Face it, much of adult life is not fun. Broccoli, taxes, dentists, bills, work-- no fun. I will have an uphill battle if I try to add something to an adult's life, if the target person considers my addition to be about as fun as a broccoli milkshake. Conversely, if it IS fun, they'll do it. Okay. Nooooooooted!)
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-01 09:19 am (UTC)it does....
Date: 2005-01-06 05:30 am (UTC)But more than that, it's the opportunity to use what I know on the things that I like.... that would be sports.... not the parts of PT that are less interesting to me.