Tuning
A Mindset for Health and Performance Exploration
One of the hardest things to do when trying to maintain health and performance is to sustain the necessary behaviors to stay in the game. We often think of those ideas as stable end states but they aren't. Often when I work with groups of people and we talk about different aspects of this topic they want a description of absolute value. What is the number I need to achieve to get there? In reality, even the measurements that we use to describe our biology are moving targets. We aren't walking to the top of a stationary hill, we're paddling out into the ocean.
Under short term circumstances fixed numbers can provide some point of aim which is not unimportant. It gives us somewhere to focus our attention so we can stay proactive in our pursuit. Getting too fixed on absolute values, however, fails to take into account the larger picture and can often blind us to the contextual effects of the indicators we may be using. Biology does not care about our measurements. Real life is complex and multifactorial. Sometimes when we get too anchored in the acute illusion of stable feelings or measurements we can be discouraged when unexpected changes occur. This is can make for a fragile approach and sabotage the long term success that comes with sustained attention and effort. I'd see this all of the time with training clients in the gym. They'd have an expectation that a certain weight lifted would stay stable or improve with a linear timeline. This thinking would have negative outcomes when they picked inappropriate training loads for that day simply because they thought they "should". Never mind what contextual signals might be occurring that were saying to alter the plan.
Another mistake we can make is relying too much on single points of large assessment. Fitness challenges, competition, bloodwork, or movement assessments can offer deeper audits into what is going on under the hood but we do not and should not wait for these audits to pay attention. Every day is an opportunity to get insight into what's going on on when we do pay closer attention to the daily signals then we're less likely to get surprised and we can take steps to stay on the path of performance longevity. Track and Field Coach Dan Pfaff tells us, "Every training session is a running assessment of the athlete." It isn't just good practice for coaches to be constantly tuned in either, anybody can benefit from this mindset. In fact, the idea of “Tuning” can be a formal approach to the long term management of health and performance. Tuning will be a hub of our conceptual framework as we engage in our personal health experiments moving forward.
What Is Tuning?
Computer Science researchers, mc schraefel, et al. define tuning as the"ability to select and adapt appropriate KSP <knowledge, skills, and practices> to build and maintain health and wellbeing across contexts as tuning (schraefel and Hekler, 2020). Tuning leans on the analogy of musical instruments but can certainly be extended to automobiles and other machinery. Tuning under those conditions is when all of the component parts work together in harmony to produce the best performance possible. That can be harmony in sound for music, the hum of well tuned engine, or a high performing human being.
Learning to tune in is about developing the ability to sense what's happening (the sound) and then make adjustments until things are in harmony. This process is constantly chasing the reality of detuning. Even if nothing particularly bad happens to an instrument it will lose its tune just from being "left alone". That's because nothing is ever truly left alone. Even when things seem static there are subtle environmental effects taking place. "Things fall apart" is the law of Nature. To keep an instrument in tune, we must tune it.
In computer science disciplines that focus primarily on how humans interact with health technology one of the biggest hurdles is keeping people doing what they already know is good for them. Life is nothing if not ironic. What research has shown over and over is that the development of habit for habit's sake doesn't stick. Instead habits must be matched with a running account of personal heuristics. This has been shown to develop far more robust and sustainable performance longevity behaviors.
Tuning In
Tuning an instrument doesn't happen all at once. The same goes for a car. That's certainly true for something as changeable as a human being. Instruments are tuned every time they're played. Instruments that get played more often and played harder, get tuned more often. With that said there are times for overhauls to occur. Parts break and need to be replaced. Once in awhile the car needs to go up on lift and get a thorough inspection to make sure everything is firing on all cylinders and guitars need to restrung. The same goes for us.
Tuning into our internal frequency of health is an ongoing processes with ranges of acceptable sound. There's no singular, absolute state of perfection. The process is continuous and is even effected by what song and genre we want to play. Additionally, to make best music we can instruments are also tuned relative to the others in the band. This means that we are tuned in not only relative to ourselves but to how our frequency is contributing to the music we are trying to create with others. Ultimately the point is to stay flexible in our approach so we can adjust our sound however we might need to.
Getting In Tune
To get in tune you have to play your instrument. That means using your body on a regular basic. Not just haphazardly clanging the keys but the intentional marshaling of the song. The key word there is: intentional. That doesn't necessarily mean having a regimented approach to listening to your body but it certainly could. The point is if you want to develop your ear you've got to play.
Perfect pitch is when a person can recreate a musical note without any reference note. They use an internal sense of if their instrument is playing right and can just play. there are certainly individuals who have a God given inner sense of bodily harmony but just like musicians with real perfect pitch, they are few and far between.With that said, just having it is not a reliable strategy for long term success. Instead we have to constantly tinker with differing strategies that give us insight into how well our body is functioning.
Engaging in personal health experiments can be an interesting way to gain new insight into how exactly our instrument is playing. They offer an opportunity to listen more closely and see how well we are really playing. Thinking about the ongoing process of performance longevity like tuning an instrument rather than a fixed place we arrive can save us from disappointment and foster an attitude of exploration and learning.
Thanks for reading,
Rob
If you haven’t already be sure to check out my invitation to engage in a Personal Health Experiment beginning March 15, 2024.
So good!!!!