laziness

All posts tagged laziness

Bull Fighting

Posted by scalesonfire on April 6, 2010
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There’s a basketball term that Marv Albert likes to use a when players aren’t too enthusiastic about defending their man during a game: matador defense.  You know, going through the motions while the other guy scores.  It’s funny because it’s pathetic, and equally pathetic in life-going through the motions usually gets you close to no results at work, with family, and in relationships.  Going through the motions at the gym though, is widely accepted.

The connection between how exercises should be performed, how they make us feel, and what type of effort they require has been lost.  How can people figure out what’s right for them if they never, ever, do sit-ups, push-ups and squats the proper way or to the proper intensity level?  These are basic movements, ones we all need to perfect before exercise becomes fun and provides us with a certain sense of freedom.  Most people seem to be searching for that freedom before form, and before that real intensity which 
eventually lands them in shape.

Bottom line, make your movements perfect, and understanding full ranges of motion, challenging intensity, and controlling the breath should be first priority if you have fitness goals.  Half sit-ups, and fancy movements are only cures for boredom.  Half-movements are tell-tale signs that a person doesn’t understand that fitness is a life-long exploration.  If they understood, they’d be working to make their movements more clean and complete, even if they add up to less reps.

“All I need is…”

Posted by scalesonfire on August 26, 2009
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Being that the Mega Millions lottery jackpot is on so many minds around me, it’s a good time to point out people’s feeling of entitlement to luck and lucky things. Daydreaming about things we have and paying money (even if it’s a dollar at a time) to feel luckier is a regular practice in our society because achievements and accomplishments have little to no value when people expect to get lucky. So what would you do if you won that three hundred-plus million dollars that’s glaring at us from every store window? If you’ve never had that type of wealth, never lived amongst individuals who are that wealthy, and didn’t work your way into that sort of wealth, then I’d imagine your dream involves squandering most of it on things that are now so expendable they’re free. And why not? Luck is free. Free of work and worry. Most of us view the rich as people who are born rich, and who have lived frivolous and carefree lives. Currently, we are a race of people in love with what we deem the finer things, but we’re much more in love with the idea of not working to get them.

So to extend my initial question: What if tomorrow morning you woke from bed with the exact body you wanted? What would you do? Most people placed in this situation would do everything in their power to do things that might have drastically ruined their old, out-of-shape body. It’s because there’s a common misconception that all fit people bend and break dieting rules and take multiple days off from exercise. Plus, most people who exercise are doing it so that they can look a certain way and eventually cut out exercise. Just as those struggling with their incomes might say “If I could only pay off that bill” or “when my kids move out, I’ll be able to maintain things,” we think we can fine tune things on our bodies without actually getting in shape. So often I hear “well I’d like to just fix this” and I burn to tell the person that that particular body part will never be “fixed” that way.
With the idea of luck and being lucky implanted in our minds though, most of us start off thinking that we will fix our abdomens, or upper arms or inner thighs. We look at magazine models and people with high metabolisms (whether they be fit or not) and pinpoint certain areas we’d like to change on ourselves, thinking that such a change might change our self-perception, and maybe even help us to place ourselves along with that model or that person walking the street. So we embark on fixing our stomach when we’re not strong enough through the core to do the necessary exercises at a rate that will flatten it; we think that running or (gasp!) walking will tone our thighs when we haven’t built the leg strength or cardiovascular stamina to run for more than five minutes; we want to tone our upper arms but most of us do body builder exercises for our arms, adding weight to the upper arm in particular, (Remember that women generally have thinner forearms and wrists, making the upper arm much more prominent when it grows. That area is also a place for fat storage on the female body because the least-worked places genrally are) making it very loose and flabby if only worked twice a week. When we fail in these endeavors, we look to those who have succeeded as being lucky, but really, they’re just not as lazy as we are, and they, like the truly wealthy, try to grow, hold and improve what they’ve already been given.
Hold yourself in a plank position today. Start at the top of your push-up, hold, with your back straight, your palms flat on the floor, your fingers pointed forward, and your hands directly below your shoulders. Tighten your stomach, lower back, and upper legs and breathe. Hold for three minutes facing forward, and take a push-up every thirty seconds. Do not rest. Breathe normally and remember, to focus throughout.