Keep exercise weird. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
For decades, there has been a big backlash in the fitness community against variety. A lot of the hardcore strength coaches will tell you that you don’t need to do a bunch of "weird" exercises, and that all you need are the basics forever and ever, for the rest of your life. I think they’re right, but also wrong. It’s absolutely smart to lay a foundation of strength and lean muscle mass and bone density early on with the basics. Then you build on it with a variety of movements, activities, and yes, even unconventional exercises. Some people love doing the basics forever. They progress by adding weight or changing intensity, volume, or frequency. That’s fine. If you love it, you love it. But I personally get bored with all that. I like doing the basics, I like laying down and maintaining the foundation of strength and lean mass, but I also like to play. I like different movements. I like exploring the Earth through multiple planes of motion.
I also think there’s something to be said for exposing your tissues to different stressors across different angles and planes. One of the reasons young people get so resilient, athletic, strong, and capable is because they play sports. And sports happen in three-dimensional space. You’re constantly asking your body to respond and react—to jump, dive, reach, stretch, and generate force in many different directions. You expose your tissues to every imaginable angle of stress, and they respond by getting stronger and more adaptable.
The problem is, after age 30, playing sports at a high level becomes not just hard but sometimes dangerous. Doing weird exercises is a way to achieve variation and tissue stress in a safe, controlled environment. You’re not going out and playing full contact football, but you might be mimicking some of the angles and force patterns you’d hit in a football game, only tempered and deliberate.
Another big benefit of training this way is that it’s fun. Moving in different ways is interesting. Just like eating different foods stimulates your palate, movement variety keeps your body and mind engaged. How about you? Do you prefer routine in the gym or do you like to mix it up? Let me know on Instagram or Facebook. |
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Mark's Daily Apple 1101 Maulhardt Ave. Oxnard, CA 93033 |
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