This Must be Wrong

One of the older clients in my 10:30am class came up to me and said, “there must be something wrong, I need you to come watch me do these.”

I walked over to her spot, and she said, “these lunges, they don’t hurt, I must be doing them wrong!”

For a little context, this person has been training with us for a year, and has been practicing lunges, for about 6 months. We do lunges by holding on to the rings, and not focusing at all on depth, but balance, coordination and stability. I want her to feel comfortable shifting her weight around with her feet separated.

She has arthritis, and one of their knees is cranky and creaky. I was hesitant to start training lunges, but really needed a way to train a single leg movement so we tried.

Often times she would say they weren’t challenging, like they needed to hurt to be effective. “No pain, no GAIN,” she frequently quote to me…  I would remark, I want them to feel like no big deal to you. Well that’s what finally happened that day. They felt so easy, and routine that her hesitation around her knee was gone, and the movement felt smooth and confident. Her conclusion, this must be wrong!

I explained, you’re getting stronger, this is what it feels like - stuff that used to feel impossible or hard becomes routine.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain