No, your other left!

I try to shoehorn exercise into my schedule, at best 5 days a week. My exercise buddy is a series of DVDs, with 25 minute workouts on them. I do them first thing in the morning, so I get it out of the way. I'm a big fan of the instructor, as he gets detailed on how to do the exercises properly, and he has an upbeat attitude, which is crucial when you're facing this kind of activity at 5:15am.

Something more subtle though, is that he's doing everything on the reverse side of what he's saying he is. So, when you are facing your tv, he'll be calling out "kick your right leg", but he's actually kicking his left leg. It took me a while to notice this, because its natural to think of the person facing you as using the same side you are (the origin of the phrase "no, your other left.") It would take some brain power to transpose your moves to the person on the screen (especially at 5:15am). So, he does the computation for you. He removes that barrier, so your brain can wrap itself around the move he's trying to show you (like perhaps, a 1 leg burpee).

And instead of telling you about this work - "I'll be using my right leg, but to you it'll seem like your left", he just lets it happen, trusting that your brain will follow along. He skips the explanation by moving ahead to just showing and doing. I'd think saying "left" and using your right would be a little like rubbing your belly and patting your head at the same time. It's a great way to get people to learn faster, and I definitely appreciate the effort.