Today my thoughts about writing are inspired by a stranger, a woman I see during weightlifting classes, usually Sunday afternoon, sometimes Wednesday mornings. She’s about my age — I’ve seen her in these classes for all the 15+ years I’ve been going — and we’re both starting look our half-centuries-old, though she far less than I. In fact, if you don’t look too closely at her face or her softening tummy, you’d take her for ten years younger that our late forties.
Weensy weights
The nearer I get to fifty the more I find correct form to be critical to my day-after-the-gym feeling, aka good ache or ohgodIthinkI’mbroken. Form like not rounding my back during a dead-lift, not pulling from the shoulder for a bicep curl, not pushing my knees beyond my ankles for the squats. In the choreographed classes I favor, the teachers run us through the moves at a variety of tempos, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes a combination. For me, the coveted burn inevitably happens on the slow moves. Pushing weight up and down for eight slow counts requires more of my muscles than a one-two, up-down motion. I load my bar with only 12-15 pounds for squats, less for everything else. This is a puny amount of weight.
My fellow weightlifter, however, piles on triple those pounds. She follows neither the instructors’ directions about form, nor their tempo. Her arms flare out during overhead triceps kickbacks, her back is the St. Louis arch when she dead-lifts, and during squats her knees overshoot her ankles by a good six inches. Until this past week, I hadn’t seen her follow the tempo; regardless of what the teacher says, she does the move in two counts, up-down, and then stands waiting for any remaining beats.
But Sunday’s instructor, himself a middle-aged fella, looked directly at her while addressing the class: “Don’t go faster than me. If you finish the move before me, you’re not doing the work.” She began to follow the suggested tempo.
Lo and behold: the first eight-count up and down squat, she barely made it back to standing. The eight-count squat immediately following she did at half her range. Then she skipped every other repetition. This continued for the remainder of the class. She wasn’t strong enough to lift her weight slowly, without resting in between.
But she looks great! So does it matter, really?
Enh, maybe yes, maybe no. If she’s not hurting herself, exercising with “incorrect” form is probably better than not exercising at all. Besides, everyone’s body is different, and perhaps form is all relative.
Revision notes
But I found myself thinking it’s a lot like writing. Sometimes when I’m inspired I throw words down and they look brilliant! They are fabulous! It is only when I re-read them the next day, with pacing and rhythm in mind, that I notice those slap-dashed words do not carry the weight of my ideas through to the end. And just as I love the burn of the slow moves in the weightlifting class, I love revising. I love looking for exactly the right word. I love playing with phrases and clauses.
I prefer to be able lift all my weight for all the repetitions, at whatever tempo is suggested. I prefer to have an idea about when to use a compound sentence, and when to use a simple sentence, and when to use a fragment. I’d also prefer to have the genius of Shakespeare and a muffin-top-free waistband.
Alas. Neither the muse nor the fat fairy has gifted me thus.
The burn …
No matter. I still enjoy the burn, and whether my words live on after my plump self has gone, I continue to find satisfaction in aiming to get the form right.
May it be so for you as well.
the Art of Practice 
Great post. I’d never thought about the way I exercise is related to the way I write. But you have something here. When I’m doing cardio, I do interval training, sometimes fast, sometimes slow – that’s often my writing speed. But when I use weights, I use precision, like when I’m editing. Interesting.
Thanks!
Lovely connection. As a Pilates instructor (when I’m not writing), I notice those bodies which don’t follow the form- usually it’s a sneaky way of not doing all the work… And sometimes I will write out a rave I think is fabulous, then look at 3 days later & think ‘Thank god I didn’t publish that, it needs so much more muscle and form…’. Thanks for writing, from here in Australia, cheers G
Sometimes an instructor will say, “if you start back up [from a squat] before I do, you’re cheating” but it has zero effect. But that’s maybe the best they can do — sometimes I just feel like ugh, I canNOT do this “right” and a little bit is better than not at all–like getting the rave down at all is better than not, right? It’s a head game, so often!
I would only say that specifically to someone who’s body I know can do it- I teach maximum of 6 folk at a time, not in a gym- and yes, half of exercise is about the head (like writing) 😃