Revisiting The Assumed Objective of Exercise

Walk through almost any major fitness center and you’ll witness personal trainers encouraging their patrons to “Get one more!” ignoring potentially dangerous breath-holding, squirming, and the explosive unloading and reloading of the musculature – whatever it takes to complete a set, right?

Ken Hutchins termed this misunderstanding the assumed objective of exercise, the assumption that there is some importance connected to the number of repetitions one can perform. The real objective of any exercise is simply to weaken the musculature momentarily in order to stimulate the body’s natural growth response. Once stimulated, the body will attempt to recover, repair, and most importantly, over-compensate by strengthening the muscles and surrounding tissues.

Activities performed as exercise can really only do three things directly. The activity can trigger the growth response (exercise), it can prevent or interfere with the growth response (overtraining), or worse – it can directly cause an injury. Overtraining and injury are not desirable results from an exercise program, and yet, the more-is-more attitude pervades the media, fitness literature, and popular opinion.

At a leadership workshop in San Diego this week, speaker Marshall Goldsmith asked his audience to think of questions from which they might benefit if asked every single day. Presumably, knowing that the questions would be posed at the end of the day would influence the individual throughout the day toward positive behaviors which would in turn allow them to score well when answering the questions later. Ultimately, by asking the questions and monitoring their responses over time, they identify and rate their behaviors and values in a way which can lead them to greater satisfaction and happiness.

As he polled the audience, several workshop attendees wanted one of their questions to be “Did you workout today?” This is a simple yes or no question that cuts right to the chase. “Did you workout today?” Initially, it seems like an excellent question. However, this question assumes that working out every day is a healthy ideal. Yet we know that daily workouts lead directly to overtraining and quite often injuries. The question, “Did you workout today?” pays homage to the assumed objective of why we exercise.

The real reason or the primary objective for why we exercise is to improve muscular strength, which improves the body’s ability to move and function, as well as enhancing cardio-vascular and bone health. The best way to do that is NOT by working out every day. The most effective method to improve muscular strength is to weaken the musculature momentarily in order to stimulate the body’s natural growth response. Then, allow an adequate respite from exercise so the body can mend itself.

Perhaps a more appropriate question might be, “Did you give your body what it needed today?” On some days, the answer should be “Yes, I rested.”