Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Quality versus Quantity

The constant struggle between these two can be found in so many areas of one's life....Would you rather have a large circle of friends that is filled with people that really don't know you, respect you, understand you, etc just to say you have "a lot of friends"??Or would you rather have a small intimate group that you know you can count on and call on when you need a good laugh, a shoulder to cry on, or someone to get you out of a sticky situation?? I definitely used to get caught up in the numbers...The more the better...Right??But as I have grown I have a small group of friends that are a part of my life, that know me, "get me", and that I choose to spend my free time with, whenever I get it....Or you can apply it to clothing or material items, shoes and such....Would you rather have 30 pairs of poorly made boots (well maybe that's an excessive number) or 1 great pair that will last FOREVER??!!Anyway you get my point...The same applies to the gym and your workouts....Let me preface this by telling you that it took me years to understand this concept...So I really hope by reading this you see what I'm saying and can save yourself some time and see results quicker!! I used to spend hours in the gym...Literally....Doing total body workouts, every day, the same moves, a million crunches (well maybe 1,000...seriously), thinking that it took all of that to achieve results or maintain what I had achieved, or whatever...Not realizing that I didn't need to spend 2-3 hours, 7 days a week in the gym...In fact you shouldn't..It is a waste...Anything over an hour is not beneficial...Unless it is a special situation like you are lifting AND doing cardio, then maybe a little over an hour is okay...But I shoot for cutting myself off at an hour regardless of what I am in there doing. It makes me work harder because I know I have a time frame, keeps my heart rate up, and gets me in and out and on with my day....Let me also add to it, when it comes to quality versus quantity in certain exercises....It is better to do 10 crunches with good form than 100 with bad form....Trust me I don't do that insane amount of crunches anymore....There are even days I don't do any ab work...I just try to keep my core engaged with every exercise I do, so it is constantly working....This concept was a struggle for me to wrap my mind around and then to give into and stick with...I am so OCD and a definite Type A, that to give into this theory was a personal battle that I feel pretty confident that I have FINALLY won!!!And the amazing thing is, is that once I gave into this, I actually started seeing more results! So yes....DEFINITELY always QUALITY over QUANTITY!!!!!

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