Studies of which I have no reference to give you, have shown that if you focus on the muscle group you are working with, the results will be more impressive than if you don’t. Which set me to thinking about what I think about when I exercise.

On the treadmill – the one where you can watch TV, play games, check your email or listen to music – I blank the screen and stare straight ahead at the houses and greenery outside and let thoughts come, go and collide with one each other without making any judgement much like a meditation. I can get quite zen-like on the treadmill.

On the circuit the thoughts are a lot more inward, namely – how not to get tangled in the machine – oh yes! Look at the pictures. That’s exactly what they look like to me. Very cinfusong. I mean confusing.

While using the rowing machine I imagine that I am rowing on the river, any river, and sometimes think of the time when I almost took up actual rowing on the river but never did because I hate getting up early in the morning and the lake was in a dodgy area of town and I would need to drive there in the dark in the winter and I hate getting up from bed when it is still dark and I never did go because of all that. I mean just look at the picture below.

During the Zenpilates class – “What the hell am I doing here, I thought this was a yoga class…?” True story, like all the others.

While swimming…

When using the ab wheel – “Please don’t let me fall on my face please…!”

All this thinking about your muscles as you’re working out does mean a rudimentary knowledge of the human anatomy, less rudimentary than “stomach”, “front leg muscles”, “the butt muscles” and “the back of the arm muscles”. But if that’s all you are capable of then that’s still ok. I hope.

What do you think about while exercising?