Spinning vs turning

Spinning on a stationary bike is inherently rapid. It requires effort even at the lowest levels of resistance and is arguably worth the time spent doing it.

On the other hand, sitting on a bike and slowly turning the pedals while watching TV, and then logging it as exercise, is deceptive and hazardous. Hazardous to health if that’s the only”exercise” the person is getting, but more importantly hazardous to the trajectory of their quality of life.

Few things can take the wind out of someone’s sails and drop them to their knees in defeat like realizing that all the effort they invested in something was worthless.

So it is important to regularly check the quality of our efforts and their alignment with the results we seek.

If the girl I saw turning pedals at the gym had the goal of going to the gym, she won.

If her goal was to sit on a stationary bike for thirty minutes, she won again.

Both of these goals are respectable achievements on the path toward getting impactful results, but they are not the results that got her out of bed this (any) morning.

To get the results that will change her…

that will impact her health and life…

She needs to keep going.

Not just keep going to the gym if this is how she contributes to spend the time, but keep going down the path toward what she really wants.

The six pack…

The guy…

The girl…

The status…

The self-confidence…

The getting her body back…

She needs to keep winning at harder and harder games. She needs to win, move forward, and keep checking the quality of her reps and whether she is closer to her ultimate result.

Eventually, she either turns those pedals more rapidly or she is just spinning her wheels.