Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

Braidwood over at Authentic Threads has an EXCELLENT entry about focusing on your workout:

• Do you like to read or do something else while you are working out? | Authentic Threads

I think it’s better to be mentally focused on working out when you work out. Doing something else to distract yourself from working out reminds me of taking vocabulary courses instead of reading books. When you do that, you are missing the experience of the activity, to get to the side effect.

Of course, It is helpful to have a good vocabulary and it will probably increase your life to exercise regularly, but it is fun to read books and it is fun to be in your body. While you are here, you might as well get the full richness of life if you can.

I’m a big fan of distracting myself while I workout. I like to play video games, surf the web, listen to music and even watch my walking DVDs while I’m on the treadmill and exercise bike. The idea of focusing on the run, which is what most long distance runners do, is foreign to me.

But Braidwood is right. It’s fun to play and use our bodies. If we HAVE to exercise, we might as well find something we like to do and focus on it. I would never think of doing something distracting while I’m playing DDR. It’s too fun to want distraction AND it’s a great workout. I should focus on that a lot more than putting in the miles on the treadmill.