Solo vs. group training?

Is it better to exercise/train with other people or by yourself?  In my mind, this is an invalid question because you should be doing both.

Many people find that having a running partner or a “workout buddy” helps them to stay motivated.  A partner can provide encouragement and conversation.  The danger, however, is that you and your partner go to the gym and spend 50 minutes chit-chatting and only 10 minutes exercising, or the pace of your run is slowed to accommodate your conversation.  I would suggest that if your partner is there to provide relief from the drudgery of your workout, you may want to reconsider how you’re working out.

 Better, surely, to integrate your partner (or group) into your training.  Some forms of dance and martial arts require this.  My new favorite, however, comes from Exuberant Animal and involves using your partners to provide resistance:

Pretty incredible stuff.  I consider myself to be in good shape and I was amazed at how challenging some of these activities were.  I strongly encourage you to integrate some of these concepts into your practice.  For those of you in New England, Exuberant Animal is holding a weekend seminar just outside of New York City on March 6-7.  Information can be found here.

So why train alone? 

In a word; Clarity.  When you are by yourself, you can fully tune into your body and your environment.  You can feel everything.  Exercise becomes meditative.

This is particularly true of any skill based form of training.  With martial arts and parkour (dance too, I imagine) the challenge is 90% mental.  When you are standing on a ledge looking at a jump, you may know that you are physically capable of making it, but it is still a tremendous challenge to take the leap.  Training partners, through their encouragement, cajoling, or just their very presence, provide a buffer between you and your self-doubt that is comforting and allows you to overcome many challenges.  However, when you are alone and there is nothing standing between you and your fear, making that jump feels twice as satisfying because it is wholly yours.

Last night, around 10 PM, I was filled with a sudden restless desire to go out and train.  I strapped on my shoes and spent the next two hours running and climbing my way through UNC’s campus.  There were still a few people out, but I largely had run of the place.  The darkness and the harsh florescent streetlights had turned the campus into an alien world and there was a strange energy in the air.  Everything felt new again.  I trained like a maniac until I was completely exhausted.  It was an experience I could not have had with other people.  But, at the same time, I cannot wait to take my training group to some of the new places I discovered so we can help each other improve and enjoy each other’s company.



Saturday Afternoon Training

The latest entry in my video training diary. 

It was unseasonably warm yesterday and we took full advantage.  I was joined by Alex, who is making great progess, and first-timer Rory, who blew me away with his natural ability.  Hopefully we'll see more from them soon!

I'm taking a small break from handstands to give my shoulders some rest and working on my kong-to-precisions, which are coming along nicely.

I'm wearing a new pair of shoes:  FiveTen Freerunners.  I'm not sure how I feel about them.  They have amazing grip but are incredibly stiff (even for a new shoe) and too padded for my taste. 

You can find the rest of my training diary here.

Please enjoy!  As always, I appreciate your thoughts & comments.

Exercise

The E word.  People hate it, don’t they?  I suppose I would too, if my only regular exposure to exercise was under the neon lights of a big box gym, pounding away on a treadmill after a long day at work with nothing but bad TV and crappy music to distract me.  Well, it doesn’t have to be that way.

Let me preface all of this by saying if you have an exercise routine that makes you happy, makes you feel good, and is getting you the results you want, you’re doing it right.  Even if it’s in a big gym and your routine involves treadmills and weight machines.  We are all different.  If, however, you are one of the many who find “traditional” exercise to be boring and ineffective, I think I can help you.

Play, but play seriously:

I believe Bruce Lee first said that.  Exercise should be fun.  It should be something we look forward to.  If you don’t enjoy your exercise then you won’t do it – and maybe you shouldn’t.  This is why I advocate play-based exercise.  Now, when I talk to people about play as exercise they seem to think it means kazoos and clown makeup.  “Play” does not mean “silly.”  I define play as “the exploration of the possible” and it can be serious business.  Exercise should be a path to self discovery and a greater connection to the world around you.  You should learn a little something every time.  If you take this play concept to heart I guarantee you will never be bored by exercise again.

That is broad, heady stuff, I know.  I do have some more specific recommendations to get you going:

Find an activity:

While any truly solid exercise program will include some conditioning, don’t just condition endlessly with no greater purpose.  Find a physical activity that grabs your interest and begin to practice it.  For me, the activities are martial arts and parkour.  Dance is a great choice, as is climbing, skin diving, yoga, street hockey… the list goes on and on.  Practicing your chosen activity is great exercise in-and-of itself, but maybe more important is that it provides strong motivation for supplemental conditioning.  Can’t climb that wall quickly and fluidly? Do some pull-ups and work towards a muscle-up.  Having trouble with some dance footwork?  Find good foot speed and agility drills.  Conditioning becomes a means-to-an-end rather than a means-to-no-end-in-sight.  Much has been written on the importance of goal setting for people who are looking to get in shape.  Finding an activity you love makes setting goals extremely easy and effective.

Make it primal:

In my experience, the most universally effective and fun forms of exercise have one thing in common:  We’ve been doing them for hundreds of thousands of years (millions of years if you count proto-human species).  Put simply, for as long as we have existed we have been running, jumping, lifting, climbing, throwing, exploring, swimming, fighting, and dancing.  Base your exercise around some or all of these activities and you’ll do well.

High touch:

Get your hands dirty.  Eschew man made and smooth surfaces for natural and textured ones.  Blast your brain with sensation.  It makes things much more pleasurable and jump starts neurogenesis.  I also strongly recommend you begin the slow process of learning how to run barefoot.  You won’t believe the difference it makes until you try it.

Train the whole animal:

A lot of physically active people think they can get away without any strength training.  Please do strength training.  It will make your life better.  Do not, however, fall into the rut of only training strength and cardio.  There is more to your body than the musculoskeletal system and the cardio-respiratory system.  Your nervous system needs stimulation and development too.  Practice speed, coordination, agility, and balance regularly.  You will prehabilitate yourself from injury and enjoy increased athletic performance.

Rest:

This should be easy advice to follow, but it trips up a lot of people.  Rest regularly.  Your body needs time to rebuild itself.  You know that acquaintance of yours who’s a total gym rat?  They guy who spends his life working out?  Notice how he always seems to have a sniffle?  Don’t be that guy.

Why are you doing this?

I’ll close with some thoughts on why we should be exercising.  Clearly, the health benefits will improve the quality of your life.  But it doesn’t stop there, does it?  You want to be able to support your family and be there for them.  Now push it out a step further.  You will be a better friend if you are healthy vs. sick.  Push it out further and recognize that we are all members of local and global communities.  I’m sure you’ve noticed that we humans have some pretty big challenges we must confront.  How will we do if we’re too sick to apply ourselves?  My guess is not very well.  We train to be strong, functional, useful members of society.  If you have been lacking the motivation to begin, I hope this gets you moving.  We need you.