“I practice yoga.”
As a personal trainer, I hear people express (or accept) this popular concept without a second thought. But if you said “I practice working out,” people would be very confused.
There is something about yoga that allows us to approach it as a lifelong practice; we somehow know we can continue to improve ourselves through yoga forever, without reaching an end or conclusion. I think this has something to do with yoga’s origins in Eastern traditions. Yoga’s ancient spiritual roots seem to make people more forgiving of some of its less tangible aspects. For example, if a yoga instructor tells us that we store a lot of emotion in our hips, it may not occur to us to ask what that means or how anyone could know that. By contrast however, if a Western medical doctor shared some of the physiological specifics of running intervals or doing deadlifts, you might be tempted to ask for evidence—like solid research—that backs the claim.
I propose we start thinking about our workouts the way we think about yoga. Why? I’m glad you asked.
Internal Motivation vs. External Goals
For many people, practicing yoga has as much to do with mental and emotional goals as physical ones. Because yoga encourages the practitioner to remain present, pay attention to her or his breath, and check in with her- or him- self, yoga provides a workout for the mind as well as the body. In short, for many people, the purpose of doing yoga is doing yoga.
In stark contrast to this “the-process-is-the-product” understanding of yoga, we tend to view traditional ways of working out as a means to some other specific end. Being a trainer, I can tell you that most people work out to see aesthetic or performance improvements (and those goals are usually about creating body composition changes). Just as often, fitness is seen as a way to improve the quality of another aspect of life, like lifting luggage, playing with kids, walking up stairs, or carrying groceries. Very rarely does someone improve their fitness in order to be better at the experience of fitness.
Placing the fitness focus on external goals, as opposed to the internal experience of exercise, makes working out seem more like a chore—a step that must be accomplished to get what we really want, as opposed to an experience or a reward in and of itself. There’s nothing wrong with having external or aesthetic goals, but in my experience, most clients who are able to find true, long-term success also tend to fall in love with the process itself.
The “About-to-Die” Factor
Yoga encourages practitioners to check in with their bodies’ limitations so that poses, though potentially challenging, remain physically attainable for the practitioner without causing injury or strain. Good, old-fashioned fitness, on the other hand, currently has a terrible (and inaccurate!) rap for being so hard.
I’ve had clients complain to me after a great and productive workout that they didn’t feel like they were going to puke—as if that’s a bad thing! Marketing, media, and sports folklore would have us believe that if a workout doesn’t make us feel like we’re about to die, then we aren’t working hard enough. Aside from the fact that this is absolutely not true, it also makes the idea of working out extremely daunting and unmotivating.
There’s No Such Thing as “Right”
Add to the equation the fact that fitness has relatively recent Western roots, and you can see why we tend to be more exacting in our desire to do fitness “right.” It seems like we’re more forgiving with yoga. In fact, part of yoga’s appeal might be that because we don’t fully understand how it affects us, we can’t pursue doing it “correctly.” All we know is it’s been around for thousands of years, it challenges our bodies and minds, and it feels darn good.
But in Western science and medicine, we are taught to expect black and white answers. All my clients want to know the exact right way to do things, the exact right combination of exercises, and the exact right eating plan. I assure you: There is no such thing. But that doesn’t stop marketing and media from inundating us with claims of “scientifically proven” ways to lose weight or get shredded fast. (Insert eye roll here.)
Bonus: Meet Your Goals and Maintain Your Gains
If your goal is to get stronger, protect your joints, maintain fat loss, build lean muscle mass, increase balance and mobility, and improve your cardiovascular system, then consistency over the long term is much more important than intensity in the short term. Going really hard and then quitting for a while is the opposite of what you need.
Approaching fitness as a lifelong habit—a continuous, fluid practice—will not only protect you from things like overuse injuries and other ailments that come with doing too much too soon. It will also bring you closer to your goals and allow you to maintain the results you work so hard to achieve
Practice Makes… Even Better Practice
So why does any of this matter? Would approaching fitness as a practice actually improve anything? I think so.
For one, calling something a practice takes the pressure off doing it perfectly. What if not doing it “right,” (missing a lift, having an unexpectedly slow and difficult run, etc.) was just part of getting better at fitness? Thinking you have to do something perfectly makes it more likely you won’t do it at all. I often see clients approaching fitness with the idea that they must succeed in a specific way, and it inevitably leads to them feeling like failures—all it takes is one not-so-great workout to leave people unmotivated to try it again. On the other hand, “practicing” something seems harmless. Fun, even! I think approaching fitness as a skill to be developed and improved would increase the likelihood of people getting started, while increasing motivation for continuing.
The future of the fitness industry should be anti- fast results and anti- instant gratification. We should be approaching the weight room as a place to learn skills that we can practice and improve, month after month, year after year, forever. There is so much joy to be had in fitness, so many different ways to progress, and so much pleasure in movement and overcoming obstacles.
So, let’s start approaching fitness like we approach yoga. Let’s take our time to learn the basics before moving on to the hard stuff. Let’s aim to be constantly improving and taking on new challenges, and pushing our limits. Let’s celebrate our victories in the gym, not just on the scale, and let’s do it for the simple reward of using our bodies for something challenging and wonderful.
—Jessi Kneeland for Greatist
26 Responses
Unfortunately hippy-placebo-nonsense doesn’t seem to work well on me, having analytically looked back at it. One of the reasons I’m not so bothered by not doing yoga any more.
Of course, if it did, I’d think everything was great, even if I wasn’t getting the results I wanted, which might be what it’s all about anyway?
way to throw an insult in there…
I look at my zumba dance classes as practice 🙂 Thank you for reminding me that as I practice, I get better!
This maybe good advice, but this not a “Tiny tweak”. Rather, it is asking for a fundamental shift in perception by the wellness seeker, and that’s a BIG ask. The article is asking us to abandon our goals and exercise for the enjoyment of the experience itself, very zen. Or to use more catholic language: “The struggle is the reward.” And that may be fine for some, but for others, its completely impractical to the point of insulting. I have health issues, and I need to exercise so I can function in the world. For me, and I suspect many like me, that exercise experience is often painful and almost always unpleasant. If you’re like me, remember, the struggle is not the reward. The reward is the reward, and its worth it.
“Placing the fitness focus on external goals, as opposed to the internal experience of exercise, makes working out seem more like a chore” Maybe lifting or running is a chore to you, but when I’ve had a bad day I want to go lift. When I’ve had a good day I want to go lift. Lifting is my zen. Lifting is my place of peace. Sure, there are other things that lifting accomplishes, but it’s not a chore to me and to many others. Just like running isn’t a chore to some people, it’s a release. Yoga, now that’s a chore. Force me to contort my body in unnatural poses and the last thing on my mind is peace. I’m counting down the moments until I get to leave. I’m thinking about how uncomfortable it is.
Thank you so much generalizing all other forms of exercise for other people. You’ve officially made me hate yoga even more.
I could be wrong but I got the impression I got from the article was to focus more on the enjoyment fitness. rather than just the instant physical changes some people want. I didn’t personally see it as an implication that yoga is somehow a superior exercise. Just that some people’s outlook on exercise could be changed so they find it more fun. Just my 2 cents 🙂 hope you have a lovely lifting day!
I’m confused how some seemed to get “Yoga is the best.” from this article when it’s simply using yoga as a way to show how we THINK about exercise in general. People who love to run or lift or whatever are still drastically in the minority throughout the world because most people find exercising too daunting. They don’t know where to start or how to do anything or what they should be doing. That’s the problem. Changing the way we THINK about exercise can make the process that much more enjoyable for those who don’t like running or think lifting is way out of their league. Let’s stop making these articles as if they’re written as personal attacks and consider that there are so many other types of people in the world besides those who are like you.
I think the article was aimed at people who STRUGGLE with fitness.
The author is encouraging people to change the way they think about fitness and workouts in general. Yoga is really just another option in the getting-healthier spectrum, but people approach it differently than they do lifting weights or running. If you are already in the mindset that lifting is your zen, then this article isn’t aimed at you. You’re already happy with your method, then that’s awesome!
I would like to be able to run (seriously, I dream about running and it’s damn near euphoric), but my lungs are a huge obstacle, so I dread it. This article has good advice for someone like me – to approach it much the same as I would yoga. In meeting this challenge, I would not just be looking at running for its external benefits (weight loss, lung strength, etc.), but also for the internal benefits of if I can take this on, what else could I accomplish? It’s a mind over matter kinda-sorta deal.
He generalized all other forms of exercise, because it’s not aimed at any one person or form. Approach your choice with a mindset of it being a practice, rather than a chore or near-impossible task. You don’t like youa, you don’t have to practice it *shrug*
I, too, struggle with motivation. I enjoy running, but my lungs, after 35 yrs of smoking, and 15 yrs off cigs, just won’t cooperate. I thought I’d see gradual improvement, but factor in the aging process, and it all seems to work against me. But I’m now going to try to be “in the moment” when I run, and listen to my body & lungs; I’ll try to adopt the attitude that I’m running because it feels good, and not to lose weight. I want to feel joy from my fitness, like I did when I played tennis, and not see it as torture. This article, and your comment about your lungs, gave me some motivation. Thanks!
I had just started dancing. It wasn’t “exercise”, as I have a major hang up with going to a gym. Dancing is not going to the gym though. Paradigm shift.
The author is not trying to get you to do yoga as much as he is trying to get you to focus on working out. The author wants you to remember you have to practice to get good at exercise
Very good advice.. I think this is my attitude to running now (after injuring my Achilles!). It is true.. We can be too hard in ourselves and yoga teaches us patient and to… practice!
THIS IS FABULOUS. One of the BIGGEST challenges I’ve had with fitness is “doing it right” and never quite feeling like I could. Being surrounded by people who make fitness a living, it’s made me often feel like a failure. I LOVE this perspective. I really do! Thank you!
PS: Unbelievable how many “fitness junkies” have taken the intention of this article the wrong way. Ever stop to think YOUR attitudes are the kind that make fitness so unenjoyable for the rest of us? You may have taken this article as “Yoga is superior” but based on the many responses below you’re basically saying unless you go hard in fitness the rest of us are somehow inferior to you and your “go hard” perspective. Chill out people.
Thanks so much for this article. I’m just starting to get back into fitness, after accelerating a condition of runner’s knee with squats and leg presses a couple of years ago. Now my knees ache most of the time.
I’ve been nervous about starting again, and reading this article was just what I needed at just the right time!
Not sure where the negativity comes from. I took this article as simply another perspective on fitness that could help (or not help) those who are interested in maintaining a healthy, rewarding fitness routine. As for me, setting goals and reaching for them is ingrained into my “practice” and I’ve learned to listen to my body to avoid injury and challenge it when it feels right.
Thank you so much for a great article. As someone who regularly trains for and runs marathons, I have had the “hippy-dippy, airy-fairy” response from fellow runners who learn that I also practice yoga. As a regular yoga student, I have had no such negative reaction from fellow yogis who learn that I also run. Do yoga and running complement one another? You betcha. Is it a good idea to think about applying the yogic concept of “listening to your body” to other fitness modules? Totally! This author is to be commended for thinking outside the box. New ideas usually have lots of naysayers. Don’t be deterred, keep leading by example. Thank you!
As a personal trainer and Yoga Instructor, I found this article refreshing and right in my line of thinking! Nice job!
Love your approach to fitness, thank you for this wonderful article.
Excellent article, thank you!
If you dislike “western science” so much, please get off of the Internet, forever. And take your false equivalency with you. There are only 2 kinds of science (just like music), good and bad.
Not wishing to be pernickety, but practise of yoga ( ie: to try harder to improve at it) and practice of yoga (ie: the custom/ habit of doing it) are different things….not really the point, I know, but as an introduction it kinda undermined the article for me….
Refreshing article!
One “practices” yoga because it is part of a religion. I don’t buy this idea that it is because people can see it as a lifelong pursuit. I ride bicycles. I see myself doing that for the rest of my life, just like I see riding in cars as something I will do for the rest of my life. But I don’t “practice” riding a bicycle, because it isn’t a religion, it is just something that is part of my life.