Keeping Good Form is HARD

I consider myself on the "dark" side of exercising right now.  I'm three days in to exercising for the first time in ....well too long to admit.  I am embarrassed and ashamed to admit it, so that will be for another post, another day.    Today I am talking about form.  Form is HARD!  Usually you hear about proper form to prevent injury.  Yes, that is important.  The form I am referring to is the constant checking of what muscles you are engaging for an entire workout.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm a crazy person for worrying about form all the time??  Perhaps I am.

Workouts are not easy to begin with, but checking your form every couple of minutes is a very under-appreciated task.  If you're going to exercise, you may as well do it as good as you possibly can, right?  At least, that's my motto.  Yet this creates a daunting task.  This means that I need to engage my core.  Squeeze those buns.  Stand up straight while not over extending.  I want my neck relaxed and in a good position.  Oh yeah, and keep my heart rate above 160 bpm while staying motivated with some good music.  .....and that is on one stage of interval program that is only going to last for another minute before it changes.  Then I readjust all over again!!

The whole spectrum changes as soon as you change your workout, too.  From lifting weights, to yoga...yoga is even harder.  There isn't momentum behind you in yoga, you are simply there.  You and your muscles and checking form constantly is the only way I feel like I'm putting that extra deposit in the bank to make sure my workout counts.

My hope, my goal.  Is that when I push through this "dark" side of exercising, it will be in a matter of a few weeks.  Where I won't have sore joints and knees from the shock of being physically active again.  Where my muscles hardly remember what they were put on this earth to do.  They will re-learn what it's like to be worked!! Where I have a bounce in my step and an excitement in my stomach to exercise again.

I crave it.

I can't wait for that moment when I have a rhythm to my running when my lungs can start to inhale deeper than they can right now.

And because I'm focusing on form in this post, I truly hope that my form improves with it.  The core form that will improve with my fitness level if I do it properly now.  It's like I'm laying foundation, and it needs to be a good strong one.