In case you haven't noticed, my posts have been few and far between. Yet others have certainly picked up where I left off -- which speaks volumes about the type of community we foster here at CFSC. The post I'm sharing with you today comes courtesy of author Bill Hayes, who is currently writing a book on the history of exercise. The following is something I think most of us athletes can relate to -- especially those who have been at it for years.
- Dahlberg
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If only I had read Plato. That's what I thought when I saw my MRI: 28 images, impossible to deny, of a torn rotator cuff muscle -- a consequence of years of weightlifting... Plato could have warned me. In "The Republic," he advises "temperance" in physical training, likening it to learning music and poetry. Keep it "simple and flexible," as in all things, don't overdo. Follow this course, and you will remain "independent of medicine in all but extreme cases."
Plato was an athlete, particularly skilled as a wrestler... So good a wrestler was Plato that he reportedly competed at the Isthmian Games (comparable to the Olympics), and continued wrestling into adulthood. Ensconced at the academy, he spoke strongly on behalf of the virtues of physical education. He felt that one could balance physical training with "cultivating the mind," exercising "the intellect in study." The goal "is to bring the two elements into tune with one another by adjusting the tension of each to the right pitch." Equal parts thought and sweat...
As one can see most obviously in gifted athletes and performers, the body itself can be a source of knowledge -- coordination, grace, agility, stamina, skill -- both intuitive and learned... Of course there is the risk of taking things too far. Again, from "The Republic": "Excessive emphasis on athletics produces an excessively uncivilized type, while a purely literary training leaves a man indecently soft."
Even if I'd been sitting at Plato's feet as a young man, I would not have listened. Back then, looking good and getting bigger mattered most... Alas, today I'm paying a price in frayed muscle tendons. But in my aches and pains I am choosing to see wisdom gained... I have pressed pause... and stepped away from the heavy weights for a time. Now it is Plato's body to which I aspire.
* Something tells me Mr. Hayes should have done more mobility work.
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For time:
100 Ball slams, 30lb ball
Run 400 meters
100 Wall ball shots, 20lb ball
Run 400 meters
100 Pull-ups
Run 400 meters
100 Ball slams, 30lb ball
Run 400 meters
100 Wall ball shots, 20lb ball
Run 400 meters
100 Pull-ups
Run 400 meters
