Perfection In Movement
I have written about our Technique Wednesdays before. It is a day that we break down a move, athletes ask a lot of questions and as best as possible I answer them. When the class is done, I hope that people have a better understanding of how and why we do a move. This helps athletes feel a little more confident and know how to adjust things for themselves to make them stronger.
I try and spend the time to break down what perfection means to people. During class, I don’t care how much weight you move or how fast you are, as long as the movement is done as close to the athletes perfection as possible. That means that day in and day out we are striving for our movements to become better, stronger, less risk of injury. Together, all of those start creating perfection. I want people to understand what a perfect squat looks like and feels like for themselves. And lets clarify, the perfect squat for me is only the perfect squat for me. Every body is different and although there are similarities in how a squat should look, there are going to be specifics to each person.
So now that I have introduced perfection, what about not being perfect? Is there a time we don’t have to strive for perfection in the gym? OF COURSE…as long as you know where you are doing and the reason you are veering away from it.
First of all, sometimes I want to have fun. And although I have been called a sadist, I do really enjoy working out. And sometimes to do an all out Hurricane, sometimes a squat isn’t perfect or the hips move more than they should in a walking plank or maybe the arms lose their power in the sprint. But the workout (and not worrying about perfection) pushes the athletes harder. It gets them to focus on something other than technique but still no time to think about their shopping list and it gives no time to look over and see how someone else is doing.
Second, as we are learning new moves, it can take a lot of time. I can spend weeks helping a new person learn a perfect kettlebell swing or a perfect squat. But that person may not want to have that much attention paid to them. That person may not even care at that point if their squat is perfect. That person may be really overwhelmed and doing the movement safely might be the best thing for them.
Third and lastly for this post (but I’m sure my list could go on) moving outside of perfection can have it’s own benefits. I coach a six count burpee (Squat, jump to a plank, bottom of the pushup, back to a plank, jump to a squat, stand up). Every movement is controlled. It is a great looking movement, but it misses pure explosiveness. So the other day, I wanted everyone to do As Shitty As Possible burpees. I wanted them to work the explosiveness of getting from their feet to their bellies as fast as possible. This movement was far from perfection but yet it got the heart rate up and got the athletes moving fast. I guess that could go with my first point; it was fun.
There are other times in my Powerlifting class that we move out of perfection but I will save that for another time. Even though I don’t think perfection in movement and life are comparable, I will say that their biggest similarity is, sometimes it is just really fun to say FUCK IT.
*This whole conversation about perfection is really hard for me. I think that life is full of people wanting to be some aspect of perfect when really it is our mistakes that create the best lessons in life. Movement is a little different. I think that sometimes we walk into a class or a gym and just do what we think we should. Sometimes we care what we are doing and sometimes we are so focused on everything else that we aren’t even paying attention. Life and the gym are not parallels in this instance. Perfection in life is over rated and misunderstood. Perfection in the gym is something I want to strive for because it helps me know that I am progressing in a safe manner and learning how to use my body in the best way possible.*