I'm about half way into the textbook "The Customer Experience Edge" by Reza Soudagar, Vinay Iyer, and Dr. Volker Hildebrand. The thesis of the book is: The customer, and NOT the product or service, needs to be at the center of the entire enterprise. In my opinion, the authors are spot on and the book is a tremendous read. The book has me reflecting on one of my long held assertions around exercise; an assertion I adopted over 10 years ago. My assertion about exercise is analogous to the thesis of the book.
When we exercise, the human body (our physiology) should be at the center of the workout.
We should place our physiology at the center of everything we do and then build the exercise around the function and demands of our body. We should not put the STYLE or MODE of exercise at the center of this process and hope that our body, our fitness, and our health are positively impacted. Unfortunately, that is exactly what the majority of exercisers and fitness trends do. We can't start with TRX, or Yoga, or Barre, or Pilates, or a free-weight, or any other single mode of exercise. Instead, we are wise to start with the body. After we understand our physiology, how the body functions, and how it responds to stimuli; then and only then can we determine how we should workout in order to produce the best possible results.
This was such an obvious thought process for me; but much like the corporation that places it's product at the center of the enterprise; too many exercisers are putting the type of exercise at the center (and "hoping" for results) rather than placing our body at the center. As soon as one adopts this paradigm, it provides a powerful filter for our exercise and fitness decisions.