The importance of being present
24/3-16
Today pulling on my shoes demanded what felt like miraculous agility. And moving up an ordinarily designed stairway seemed to be the ultimate test of hamstring mobility. That’s how sore I am from yesterday’s workout session.
Being sore is nothing out of the ordinary for anyone truly dedicated to the iron game. This time, however, I didn´t plan for it. Usually my soreness is invited, this time I intended to avoid it – but failed miserably. Yesterday’s session was low in volume, contained no use of shocking techniques and held longer rest intervals than what I ‘m accustomed to – all which seems, when listed like this, to go hand in hand with an ambition to go easy on myself and concentrate on developing strength rather than mass.
So how come I’ve ended up like this – moving through the following day in a fashion more becoming a zombie than an athlete?
Answer: presence.
In another word: quality.
Yesterday’s session may look easy on paper (so easy in fact, that my vanity forbids me to post it here), but the little I did I did with full presence, full commitment and a high level of concentration. A few sets of leg pressing were enough to demolish the quads. And a total of 30 chins was all it took for me to make sure that the lats are vividly felt today, the day after. If you follow my writing here at Penandbarbell.com you will be acutely aware of how low these numbers are for me. My total number of chins during a back workout not seldom climb up towards three figure territory…
This was one of those workouts where it really became apparent that quality beats quantity. The importance of being truly present outweighs that of the number of sets and reps being performed.
