Hardwiring

I always tell new members at the gym, the first few weeks are a bit overwhelming. Not physically, but mentally. Gradually adding in the physical part is easy. We want the work to be digestible and not make anyone too sore just for the sake of being sore. On the mental side of things, it’s hard not to feel overwhelmed. Not only are they learning new lingo, where stuff is, trying to remember a bunch of numbers and count but they also have to learn new skills in terms of how to move. 

When learning how to squat, you need to incessantly remind yourself to squeeze you butt at the top, sit back, not down, grab the ground with you feet, amongst other things. It takes up a lot of space in your brain. The point I’m getting to is that moving is a skill. Skills must be learned through practice and repetition to make them automatic. 

From Mastery by Robert Greene: 

“In practicing a skill in the initial stages, something happens neurologically that’s important for you to understand. When you start something new, a large number of neurons in the frontal cortex are recruited and become active, helping you in the learning process… The frontal cortex expands in size in this initial phase as we focus hard on the task. But once something is repeated often enough it becomes hardwired and automatic.” 

“This process of hardwiring cannot occur if you are constantly distracted, moving from one task to another. In such a case, the neural pathways dedicated to this skill never get established; what you learn is too tedious to remain rooted in the brain.”

Put simply, we must focus if we want to get better at things. 

Justin Miner

@justinminergain