Does going to the gym terrify you?
It did for me in the beginning. This might sound silly to some people but I remember walking into a gym for the first time and feeling anxious. My mind wondered about what I needed to do. Whether others were looking at me funny or if this was the right decision to make.
Starting a fitness plan can be scary at first.
Especially when you look around and see people super fit and you’re just there thinking you don’t belong.
Since I was a teenager, I was told that unless you workout to the point of exhaustion you didn’t really work-out. If you’re not doing a crazy and rigorous exercise then you’re doing it wrong. So I’d workout with that mentality and in some cases ended up getting injured. But that was just another indicator that I was being tough and getting a great workout in.
What if I told you that information is false?
A recent study shows that “sustaining high-intensity workouts most days can not only overtax the body, but also sap ambition and enjoyment of exercise.” The idea of going extreme all the time when your exercising is actually counter-intuitive. We’ve been told that being extreme all day with our workouts is good when in reality, you’re hurting your body.
So how do we begin out fitness regimen without going extreme? Simple – just get up and move around.
Gregory Panza, a graduate student in UConn’s department of kinesiology, states that any activity is better than none regardless of how hard your work out is:
“If we can somehow convince people to get off the couch and go for a little stroll, or go walk around a shopping center, they can potentially see a difference. It’s not necessary to push yourself to uncomfortable levels of exercise.”
Now having said that, every person is different.
For athletes who are competing in a professional sport, these rules bend a little due to personal coaches and rigorous training programs. However since this is all that we see in Hollywood and media outlets, many people automatically assume that in order to live a healthy lifestyle we have to train exactly like those athletes.
This is when we feel overwhelmed and fall of the fitness wagon because we suddenly think “I can’t do this.”
If you’re trying to lose weight for health reasons, then there will come a time where you’ll need to test the waters and become uncomfortable with your workout. You cannot expect to get a six pack without going through some uncomfortable ab workouts. That’s just the nature of the beast. But that doesn’t mean we can’t start off SLOW, simple, and steady.
Slow and steady wins the race!
That’s super cliche but it’s true. If you were to speak to any athlete or someone who’s very physically fit, they’ll tell you that they didn’t just jump right in and went crazy with heavy weight. They took their time. They were consistent with training and were able to grow day by day because that’s was it takes. There’s no overnight success when it comes to health, it’s all one day at a time.
If you’re just starting out and want to incorporate some physical activity, just start by walking. You’d be surprised how one simple and easy step will have such a profound affect on your life.
What are some simple steps you can take to start living healthier and happier? Leave a comment below and start the conversation. Also if you like this post, make sure you share it with friends and family.
Til next time homies,
Photo by Alexander Mils on Unsplash