Tom’s Corner: The Importance of Focusing

Written by Tom Marchand

One of the most prevalent changes in the way people train today involves the number of methods available to us to take our minds off what we’re doing. While at work or in our homes, we’re frequently expected to do several things at once, and that is to multi-task . We have our iPods to provide music while we run or row; televisions for visual stimulation during longer cardio workouts, books, newspapers and tablets to give us something to do while we train, and more. Now, some of these strategies can be relatively harmless, but, at least occasionally, it’s not a bad idea to concentrate just on the training task at hand. In other words, to focus, especially while training with weights. In fact, because I began training in those long-distant days when none of these distractions were available, I believe we should focus in on our workout and the sensations that it produces. When we concentrate on using perfect technique on each rep of every set of a weight workout, we’re not only helping to prevent injury from improper form, we’re also making sure the targeted muscle group does indeed get worked. You’re also giving your mind a chance to think about only one thing for a change!

-Tom Marchand