Brea Shaolin Kung Fu

The Difference Between Exercising and Training

Why did/do you you go to school?  Why do you think there are grades and exams and reviews in school? Why not just pick up a few books and start reading randomly? Why do you work at an organization with a structure? Why are the most successful organizations the ones with the best policies and strategies? Why not just walk out into the world and figure out some random way to make a living? Why do you practice the same movements over and over again? Why not just move your limbs the way you want to or draw some random colored lines and hope they make sense?

Success doesn’t work that way. And a transformation from skilled to unskilled, fat to fit, weak to strong, or unhealthy to healthy doesn’t work that way either.

Exercise is as any activity requiring physical effort, carried out especially to sustain or improve health and fitness.  It is exercise for today – focused on the short-term.  Training, on the other hand, is way more than that.

Training is the act of learning, practicing, analyzing, monitoring and progressing per a plan that is designed taking into consideration the student’s current position in the relevant space and future goals. It involves careful instruction, self-reflection, structure, testing, commitment, and adherence.  It is exercise with a purpose.

It is important to understand that random acts of physical activity, though better than a carefully planned regimen of sitting around, eating junk, and doing virtually nothing, won’t take you far in acquiring skill. You need to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. You need to learn to understand your body and it’s capacity for strength, agility, and flexibility. You need to practice movements that have a purpose. You need to strive to progress. You need to train.