Welcome to a weekly feature on my blog – Ben’s Zone. Written by husband… Ben. A foodie, coffee obsessed, ex-smoking, ex-drinking and Ridgeback loving Dad. Who is also seriously into his fitness. You can find him on the blog (mostly) on Sundays. Enjoy!
Callisthenics My Final Update
I’ve been writing about my journey into callisthenics for about 6 months now and I’ve decided that this is my final in this series of regular updates. That’s not to say I’m done, far from it, just that I feel like I’ve shared all I can about the start of the process. I will continue with Callisthenics because I enjoy it, I find it effective and because it’s really helped me dig into strength conditioning in a way I have never been able to do before.
I’ve learned that strength conditioning should be just as regular as cardio and can have just as much benefit in terms of how I feel, physically and mentally.
I also learned that I had to let go of old modes of thinking about reps and sheer volume and focus instead on the perfection of form, modifying the exercise until I could perform it slowly and with absolute completeness.
In working on a form, I found parallels with meditation and discovered that I could apply what I know about mindfulness in my practice as well as during meditation itself and, somewhere in there, I found a way to enjoy something I’d always hated.
The final challenge for me is to progress. The body adapts to the strains placed upon it, so what was hard yesterday becomes easier today, this means that to continue to push my strength exercise I must continue to increase the intensity of what I do. I find this notion hard as I don’t like change and find a lot of peace in routine. There is, of course, a question around how far I wish to take this. The answer to that is, I don’t know. I enjoy where I’m going right now and that’s enough.
What I will do is to continue to work with a trainer, Steve Llewellyn. His guidance has been invaluable in finding a programme that meets my strength needs and fits into the rest of my life.
It feels odd to be starting this kind of journey in my 40s. I’d always assumed that these sort of things were things you do in your younger years but as I get older I find I’m less concerned with preconception and more concerned with living life as I want.