Counting!

A sneaky high level strength and conditioning skill is counting your reps.

There are a lot of things to think of all at once. Screwing your feet to the floor, squeezing your butt, the weird exercise names, keeping your core engaged and on top of all that, you need to remember to breathe.

At first glance counting seems like just another annoying thing to occupy your mind. It isn't. In fact, not only will it make sure you get the proper dosage of reps, it'll actually help you do all those other things, too.

Counting forces you to be engaged. Ticking off each rep, 1,2,3,4... gives you an opportunity to check in on your form, and make sure you're doing all the aforementioned things like breathing and squeezing your butt. Each time you count, remind yourself to breathe, or squeeze or get your elbows up, or whatever the thing may be.

Like I mentioned, counting is high level. But don't just count, use counting as an opportunity to clean up your movement and be more engaged on with what you're doing.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain