That's what was going on training-wise in the last couple of days. Howie's idea to throw in a rung of presses or whatever in between my heaps of paper work GTG-wise turned out to be THE solution in more than one aspect.
I had to realize under time pressure and with my head full of deadlines I felt sort of guilty if I planned a "normal" workout of 40 to 60 minutes (which is of course ridiculous if you think about it logically, but, as most humans, I more often function psycho-logically). Anyhoo, that suggests the assumption I probably wouldn't have had much of those workouts even if I had decided to do them anyway - if you can't concentrate on the lifts because your mind keeps wandering back to the work waiting to be continued, you just miss the main point. Doing just one set at a time that takes not more than a minute or two felt okay however, even every 10-30 minutes throughout the whole day, which obviously adds up to at least the same 40-60 minutes I felt guilty about, or rather more. I spare myself the heavily self-ironic remarks coming to my mind at this point, feel free to use your imagination :)
But there's more.
I hate paper/computer work for a special reason. I have always had a horrible sitting/typing posture. The sight would have made you cry, really. I never learned to type properly, so when I started doing a lot of translation work some 15+ years ago I soon became very efficient using just a few fingers but it meant hunching over the keyboard like a squirrel and shifting eye focus constantly from original text on paper to keyboard to monitor. Doing this 10-12 hours a day equals, mildly put, to an assassination attempt on your back, shoulders and neck.
In the last few years I kept trying to get rid of this bad habit and I got much better at keeping proper alignment but as I get into the "flow" I still tend to lose it. A good thing is that this old posture starts feeling uncomfortable after a couple of minutes, it stirs me to fix it. To also stand up and do a set of any kettlebell exercise (I mainly did swings, presses, chins, all kinds of squats, pistols, and TGU-to-windmills) turned out to be most beneficial: it not only greases the exercise groove but keeps my "body memory" of proper posture fresh. I seem to revert to the old habit conspicuously less frequently, and I also assume I spend significantly less time in that bad posture before noticing, at least this is what my back tells me at the end of the day :)
I had to realize under time pressure and with my head full of deadlines I felt sort of guilty if I planned a "normal" workout of 40 to 60 minutes (which is of course ridiculous if you think about it logically, but, as most humans, I more often function psycho-logically). Anyhoo, that suggests the assumption I probably wouldn't have had much of those workouts even if I had decided to do them anyway - if you can't concentrate on the lifts because your mind keeps wandering back to the work waiting to be continued, you just miss the main point. Doing just one set at a time that takes not more than a minute or two felt okay however, even every 10-30 minutes throughout the whole day, which obviously adds up to at least the same 40-60 minutes I felt guilty about, or rather more. I spare myself the heavily self-ironic remarks coming to my mind at this point, feel free to use your imagination :)
But there's more.
I hate paper/computer work for a special reason. I have always had a horrible sitting/typing posture. The sight would have made you cry, really. I never learned to type properly, so when I started doing a lot of translation work some 15+ years ago I soon became very efficient using just a few fingers but it meant hunching over the keyboard like a squirrel and shifting eye focus constantly from original text on paper to keyboard to monitor. Doing this 10-12 hours a day equals, mildly put, to an assassination attempt on your back, shoulders and neck.
In the last few years I kept trying to get rid of this bad habit and I got much better at keeping proper alignment but as I get into the "flow" I still tend to lose it. A good thing is that this old posture starts feeling uncomfortable after a couple of minutes, it stirs me to fix it. To also stand up and do a set of any kettlebell exercise (I mainly did swings, presses, chins, all kinds of squats, pistols, and TGU-to-windmills) turned out to be most beneficial: it not only greases the exercise groove but keeps my "body memory" of proper posture fresh. I seem to revert to the old habit conspicuously less frequently, and I also assume I spend significantly less time in that bad posture before noticing, at least this is what my back tells me at the end of the day :)
5 comments:
Gabi, this was a very good post and very interesting. Props to Howie for spreading the word.
From my perspective, your translation must be very good if you can use the jargo "Anyhoo" appropriately, which you did. I'm a lifelong Midwesterner, and I didn't trip over it at all.
Thank you, Aaron!
"Anyhoo" - it's one of those expressions you wouldn't find in a dictionary. I probably just pick these up unconsciously while reading blog and forum posts, where they of course always appear in context. This helps to get not only the meaning but the living usage, too.
Wow, awesome Gabi, glad I was able to help! =)
As for the typing, start out with your fingers on the appropriate keys (right index on "j" and left index on "f") and then start pecking using the finger closest to the letter you want. I bet you within no time you'll be typing like a pro. That's how I started and you'd think I had worked in a steno pool half my life.
Great post and you are right on with the GTG stuff. I have seen some of my best progress using that principle, especially with a newborn and lots 10 to 11 clients to train every day.
Well done!
Wow, thanks, Howie,
that sounds so foolproof it might work even for me :)
Franz,
thank you! Isn't it interesting, one knows about this principle and knows how effective it is, too, but it is often the case one needs some constraining circumstances to put it to use, as if it was just a band-aid solution. I wonder why.
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