It is clear that there are physical affords attached to exercise and if there wasn’t you clearly aren’t doing it right! When doing an activity analysis of exercise there are many performance skills that one naturally displays.
Today I set the bar higher for myself, I hop on the treadmill as per usual and begin to climb at 15% incline – which actually means 100% because ‘the makeshift hill’ doesn’t get any higher than this! I set the speed at around 6.0 and march my way until my breathing gets heavier. I endure and up the anti - so to speak. That word…’endurance’ is absolutely the biggest consideration I take when exercising on the treadmill and today it really is an endurance race. I have forty minutes to make something of this workout but it is the last 10 minutes, or the last 200 calories that is the hardest, that’s when my inner endurance kicks in and pushes me harder. This is when I take the speed to 7.3, 7.4…..8.2. I am now running up a ‘steep hill’.
Speed. Monitored only by me, for me…and today is a day for speed. This speed depends on my fitness, of course and since I began training like I do I have increased my fitness. When looking at physical affordances Butler (2011) poses the question ‘What is the capacity for strength, fitness, endurance, skill, flexibility, speed, height, balance?’ (p.2). It is evident that especially in my experience there is capacity for strength, fitness & endurance specifically and it can be agreed to some degree that skill is necessary to partake to the level I do. It is not until you evaluate your own capacity that you realise how important these physical affordances are.
Today I set the bar higher for myself, I hop on the treadmill as per usual and begin to climb at 15% incline – which actually means 100% because ‘the makeshift hill’ doesn’t get any higher than this! I set the speed at around 6.0 and march my way until my breathing gets heavier. I endure and up the anti - so to speak. That word…’endurance’ is absolutely the biggest consideration I take when exercising on the treadmill and today it really is an endurance race. I have forty minutes to make something of this workout but it is the last 10 minutes, or the last 200 calories that is the hardest, that’s when my inner endurance kicks in and pushes me harder. This is when I take the speed to 7.3, 7.4…..8.2. I am now running up a ‘steep hill’.
Speed. Monitored only by me, for me…and today is a day for speed. This speed depends on my fitness, of course and since I began training like I do I have increased my fitness. When looking at physical affordances Butler (2011) poses the question ‘What is the capacity for strength, fitness, endurance, skill, flexibility, speed, height, balance?’ (p.2). It is evident that especially in my experience there is capacity for strength, fitness & endurance specifically and it can be agreed to some degree that skill is necessary to partake to the level I do. It is not until you evaluate your own capacity that you realise how important these physical affordances are.
Butler, M. (2011). Affordances (cont). Unpublished, cited with the permission of the author. Otago Polytechnic School of Occupational Therapy, Dunedin.
Hey Lucy,
ReplyDeleteI'd agree with you that it would be without a doubt that exercise would afford a physical aspect. It is very interesting to read about your personal experience of the endurance exercise affords you! As well as the control you can have through it (speed set), I had not thought about these things when thinking about exercise! Do you think there are other aspects within the physical affordance, such as the feeling in your muscles and joints while you are pushing yourself to the next speed?
Hi Nancy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your reply. I am glad you agree with the affords. Yeah I totally know what you mean about feeling the muscles and joints when I push myself and its often the next day I really feel the affords. As they say 'no pain, no gain!'
Thanks
Lucy