Basic Pursuits

Ross Enamait's site Rosstraining is a premier source for great exercise ideas. Ross seeks ultimate fitness for his athletes and is certainly an expert in attaining it.

In reading his recent article The Power of Patience I was struck by how much the patience problem among dedicated athletes resembles the patience problems of folks just trying to learn to exercise for health.

In my experience the number one cause of initial failure of exercise habits is trying too hard. To say the same thing another way, people don't have the patience to start a reasonable level and proceed at a reasonable pace. They feel bad and quit or get hurt. It's the same point that Ross is makes about his athletes.

The biggest cause of secondary failure is poor recooperation management. People get into their program and start feeling better and better. And better. They want more and more exercise and rest less and less. Then they experience the over-training symptoms: insomnia, grouchiness, loss of interest in sex, depression, lack of focus, headaches, etc. They quit.

All of the benefits of execise come during recooperation. Without recooperation, the body just builds more and more stress until it can stand no more. Recooperating requires patience.

This is a great read for whatever level you're exercisng, just walking for health or training for a triathelon. To me it showed that humans are humans no matter where they are on the exercise continuum.

Ross Enamait is an innovative athlete and trainer, whose training style is among the most intense that you will find. Ross is committed to excellence and advancements in high performance conditioning and functional strength development. He has a sincere interest in helping today's athlete in their quest for greatness.

Ross has authored several training manuals, and is available for private training in the New England area. You may contact him directly at ross@rosstraining.com

The Power of Patience