In Praise of Slowness

In a modern world where being on time is already being late, one might wonder if the pace of this mad race is still as beneficial. Time seems to be accelerating at all levels. And in sports, does this speed really have a beneficial impact on our results and athletic performance? In other words, do we always have to ride and/or run fast to progress? What if, in the end, we were to praise slowness together?

By Jean-François Tatard – Photos: Pixabay.com

In your modern life, you find in the multiplication of experiences a kind of equivalence to the quest for eternity. As if a full life were a happy, rich, and intense life. But can you be absolutely certain that this bulimia has no deleterious consequences on your effectiveness? The acceleration of your world is at all levels: the Internet and globalization are shaking up your clocks. From an economic point of view, you are asked to be ever more productive. In the same life, several changes occur (work, marriage, change of association, change of club, change of sport, multi-tasking, etc.). The multiplication of communications and exchange channels (SMS, email, Messenger, Whatsapp, etc.) also contributes. In short, the conclusion is the same: do more in less time!

Acceleration therefore refers to time but also to the compression of all these things you have to do, especially your sports training!

Speed is sometimes essential

And not just a little. Don’t expect to win any race, even a local one, without giving it your all or at least showing off your skills a little. The downhill mountain biker must combine speed and perfect execution to win a race. It’s precision riding. The person who treats your injuries cannot spend time on introspection in an emergency. They must combine speed and intuition in a crisis situation because on Sunday there’s a race where everyone expects a result. The amateur athlete must combine an adapted posture with their work and family obligations and an organization that allows them to train at an adapted execution speed. Your modern lives make you think you no longer have time for yourself: “I don’t have time to go for a ride, I’m flat out, I have to hurry.” Yet, you know what? You have 5 times more free time than a century ago…

Competition is fierce. Everywhere. But the question is whether to go fast on D-day, it is essential to go fast all the time.

Why this feeling of overload?

Infobesity and mental overload are among the ills of this civilization! Pressure is a new evil. Your parents certainly didn’t experience it like you do. And contrary to popular belief, your brain is not made to perform several similar tasks at the same time. “Multitasking seriously harms efficiency,” my father used to say!

Remember when you learned to ride a bike. There was no question of making a phone call at the same time or watching the news. Subsequently, and through experience, cycles are created that allow other tasks to be performed simultaneously. However, time is needed to switch from one to another. Execution speed cannot be downloaded like in Matrix. So you have to arm yourself with patience. Through repetitions, errors, corrections, and slow execution to move from a conscious action to an automatism. Be careful, guys (and girls), because beyond a loss of efficiency, speed can ultimately turn into burnout!

So you have to arm yourself with patience. Through repetitions, errors, corrections, and slow execution to move from a conscious action to an automatism.

The benefits of slowness

Slowness can therefore be very useful for executing, with patience, a gesture that will later become automatic and almost perfect! Slowness is necessary for the cycling time trial specialist to learn the most aerodynamic position, which at first is muscularly traumatic. Slowness is necessary for the mountain biker who must learn to master trajectories and weight distribution to best adapt to obstacles. Slowness is necessary for the triathlete who will have to execute their movements in the water with precision and great slowness. Observe them, their cadence is not at all that of the BMX rider who turns their legs at more than 180 revolutions per minute. To go fast in the water, it is a perfect gesture that must be learned and which has nothing to do with speed.

Slowness is also necessary for the runner to learn to propel energy forward rather than bouncing like a Marsupilami and losing all the benefit of power. Observe athletes in general physical preparation when they work eccentric muscles. The movement is slow! And it is in this slowness that the muscle benefits most from the exercise.

In terms of pure training, slowness does not only have virtues for improving movement. “Slow” training, or at least basic endurance training, offers unsuspected benefits unknown to those who are “all out, all the time” enthusiasts. Slow training promotes what is called capillarization, to open blood capillaries and promote blood exchange. This improves muscular endurance, and thus promotes long-term progression. Slow training allows you to primarily consume fat reserves, and therefore to lose weight without losing muscle. Finally, slow training allows the body to regenerate, circulate waste, and recover better after a race or a difficult training session.
So speed or slowness?Slowness is therefore just as necessary as speed. Slowness is not an inability to execute a faster cadence. It is a form of resistance to time. Not to be carried away by time but to keep time for breathing. A certain form of wisdom is recognized by the will not to rush time, not to be jostled by it, to increase your capacity to welcome the event, to be even more effective and to be ultimately even happier. This slowness requires you to give time every chance and to let your soul breathe as much as your body through sometimes idleness but also listening to the body and rest.