Good morning!
Today we say goodbye to February and tomorrow we say howdy to the great month of March!
I often bemoan the month of March, as I dislike the ups and downs of the transition of winter to spring. Things are going to change in my attitude! February was a fantastic month for me and NFLF and March is going to be even better! In my military career I often heard, “attitude is altitude,” and while I agree with the idea, I do not always reflect it. March is going to rock and if you catch me being anything other than positive, just smile at me and say: “Attitude is altitude Mike.”
In my never ending journey to improve as a fitness professional, I read various books, studies, science findings and continue taking courses on health and fitness. Currently I am doing an online course on Posture and Movement Assessment. While a lot of this course is a refresher, I am enjoying the material and the emphasis on the importance of all aspects of improving our posture and movements.
Often it is thought an individual only needs to improve core strength to improve some aspect of their posture and ultimately reduce back discomfort. Without a doubt, having a strong core is essential to our posture and overall positive body functioning. However, while me helping you strengthen your core is certainly a great thing, ultimately that muscle between the ears holds the key to your posture.
I use this analogy a lot…
If you have never swung a golf club in your life, I can take you out to the driving range and give you instruction on how to grip and swing a golf club. After 100 swings, you will have created a repeatable swing habit. If you are someone (like me) who has played for many years and have a lousy swing, and you enlist a golf instructor to correct that lousy swing. You had better get use to being at the driving range, as it will take 10,000 swings to change that lousy swing habit! I am on like sing 4,000! ??
Change is never easy, whether it be my attitude about March, my golf swing, my fitness habits, or my posture. Much like needing a season’s pass at the driving range, I must train my mouth, body, and attitude repeatedly to create or change whatever my desired outcome is. Simply saying I will have a better attitude about March, will not help me be more positive about the month. Repeated gratefulness for the beginning of spring is required to change my pointless negative behavior. Strengthening my large back muscles (latissimus dorsa’s) is an important part of improving my posture, but no more important than training my brain to stand tall and engage my back.
In overall health and fitness, creating and changing habits are as important as lifting the weights or investing in equipment. Buying a Peloton Bike is an awesome idea and has made fitness fun and easy. Sustaining the use of that Peloton is more challenging than the cost of it. If an individual struggles with fitness habits before investing in a piece of equipment, they will ultimately have those same struggles after the purchase. Probably wiser (and cheaper) to create a fitness habit before investing.
We at NFLF spend much of our creative energy on how we can help the universe create better fitness habits. Whether it be directly through our training or by offering opportunities to any and everyone. A great example is our NFLF March/April Challenge. This Challenge like all our challenges requires only a MyZone MZ3 device and some team enthusiasm! I have chatted repeatedly about what a great tool MyZone has created and how it helps with creating a fitness habit better than any device out there. Our challenge begins in early March so if you are looking for a great way to roll into Spring and kick your fitness into gear, check out https://nofinishlinerunning.com/march-april-myzone-challenge.
Time is running short, so act now!
My running plan continues to work toward the White Mountain Milers Half Marathon in September, and here is the running plan for this week:
Training Run #1: 55 minutes @ conversational pace
Training Run #2: 50 minutes @ conversational pace
Training Run #3: 60 minutes @ conversational pace
There you go! Big welcome to March tomorrow and let us have a great month of fitness!
God Bless,
Mike
