Listening To The Body

Pushing our limits on exercise or the body's capabilities relies more on the destination than the journey itself. In life, you're already learning the aspects of stress through various endeavors whether it's physical, emotional or mental. When it comes to exercise, there shouldn't always be an Endgame but a continuation of consistency, challenging the norm and programming our body to its potential in a long term fashion.

The last few weeks or so, I've gone on a rampage of conditioning workouts that range from microworkouts using supersets to multiple exercises in one circuit where I challenge myself to push my amount of time without resting to really tackle the workout. Quite a number of hours were clocked in and still finding ways to test my body's ability to stay in top condition. There is a time however, to cut back a little or take a full break and recover.

After turning 35, it's starting to hit me that although I'm in great shape now, each year from now on will force me to adjust but it won't stop me from doing what I want to find out. I have pushed my body to grueling workouts that I couldn't do as a teenager if I tried and I have worked around various injuries that still boggle my mind to this day asking "how the hell did I pull that off." Little by little, i'm reducing the amount of jumping I do, focusing more on joint health and doing small workouts that keep my energy levels up but still have the drive to see what my condition is in certain ways.

I do have slight problems in my legs but that's due to the rod and pins that I have to keep in there and have to adjust according to my body's needs and not what others think I ought to do. I don't go around doing sadistic plyometric workouts that harm the joints and don't lift as heavy as I use to do but always learning what I can do for bodyweight workouts and developing strength endurance and stamina. The microworkouts keep me energized throughout the day, the big workouts where I test my conditioning is just that, a test of wills with consistency.

There are limits to what the body is capable of but there are limitless ways to see how far you can take it. I don't however want that feeling when I get older of banged up knees, hurt joints, stiff muscles and inflexibility; I want to be in the shape regardless of my age and be able still be limber, strong and have loads of energy. This is where the step ups lately have come into play, it's a phenomenal exercise for developing cardio without the use of a treadmill and keeping my legs strong throughout the day instead of just a few moments. One of those things of having conditioned strength.

There's no reason why you can't find out what you're capable of, but it is important to be smart in how you do it regardless if you lift weights, bodyweight exercise, cables, Flow Movement, Isometrics or whatever. You have the power to be as powerful as you can be, the question is, how are you going to go about it and are you consistent with it?