Play to your physical edge

Physical Edge

Our body is always speaking to us and one of the ways in which it communicates is in the form of discomfort, or pain. We often experience little tweaks here and there as a warning that something is potentially wrong and if we ignore these warning signs then these minor tweaks can turn into long-lasting injuries.

Playing to your physical edge equates to approaching the limits of your tissue tolerance and developing an understanding of how much your body can handle (it's like carefully approaching a steep cliff without jumping right off it). Remember that flow requires both tension and relaxation, however, too much tension in this regard can lead to injury whereas too much relaxation can lead to atrophy and degeneration.

When approaching your physical edge it's less about how something looks and more about how something feels and this requires attention and intention. The intention is to move well and be healthy and the attention is on sensations that get you there.

No this is not something we're going to delve into within this course but it is something I do want you to keep in the back of your mind. There is no such thing as a wrong way to move there’s just a lack of preparation in the fitness community we always stress the importance of proper form and perfect posture and don’t get me wrong, form is important, especially while under load but when we think of an ankle sprain, for example, an ankle sprain happens because your ankle went out of alignment into a position your tissues and your ligaments weren't prepared for. I mean why would they be you don’t walk around in ankle inversion all day but what if you did (demonstrate). Life is messy, improper, and unpredictable and while we can't avoid going out of alignment and getting injured we can train ourselves to be prepared when that does happen.

How to play to your physical edge

• Cold shower
• Rate of perceived exertion
• 4% challenge
• Standing meditation