Fitness 101
March 9, 2009 by Jeff
Filed under Get Started
The Basics
Exercising is probably the least favorite of all the “wellness pillars” for many people to address. Not only does it require a decent amount of physical exertion (depending on your goals), it also means that you have to carve out some time in your busy schedule to do it – time a lot us don’t have (or refuse to find, as I like to say). For those that actually have the desire to get in shape and get healthy, the time factor seems to be the most frustrating obstacle.
Moreover, consumers are constantly bombarded with cheesy infomercials touting the “fat-melting” features of the latest diet pill, exercise apparatus, or workout video (for the record, butter and ice cream melt, not fat ). Scientists and engineers have done some great things for the human race, but they have yet to invent a magic pill, cream, machine, prayer, drink or medical procedure that will make you fit and healthy. All of this has a net effect of adding to the rampant confusion that already exists regarding physical fitness. Like I often tell folks, it’s only as difficult and confusing as you make it.
Goal Setting
The first thing you must do is set your goals (short and long term). Examples of long term goals are: Do you want to lose weight? Tone? Build muscle? Decrease your blood pressure? Improve your mood? Play with your kids? Doctor’s orders?
Examples of short term goals are: Do you want to fit in your favorite jeans or dress? Loose the beer belly? Work in the garden? Train for an event? Train for a specific sport? Get your sexy back? Impress a loved one? Make a loved one jealous?
Whatever it is, I cannot overstate the significance of setting a goal before you do anything else. Not only does it give you purpose (insert Merovingian reference from “The Matrix”), it links the cost of your workouts to something that’s tangible for you. It makes your workout personal. It serves as your motivation and will help you stick with your workouts over the long haul.
Plan Your Work
Goal setting is undoubtedly the easiest part of this process. Most of us can think of one or more reasons to stay fit and healthy. On a personal note, my goals went through a gradual progression as life events changed my priorities. Growing up playing sports enabled me to combine sports and fitness.
As a young adult, my goals were aesthetics, functional movement, and disease prevention (I have a horrible family history of autoimmune disease). Now that I’m a little older and married with kids, my goals are a mash-up of the former along with being able to play with my children when they get older. Again, all of that is the easy part.
The obvious question for many people is “What’s next?” As I mentioned earlier, there’s a cornucopia of options available to us these days. For the vast majority of folks who are coming from a largely sedentary lifestyle, any program that incorporates resistance and cardio-respiratory movements will suffice (if you require sports-specific training, I would recommend finding a qualified fitness professional).
The trick is to find an activity that you like and fits your lifestyle/schedule. You don’t have to dedicate a portion of your monthly budget to a gym membership or add an extra wing to your house to accommodate a home gym. Activities like dancing, biking, hiking are all good alternatives. Bottom line, if you like what you’re doing, chances are much better that you’ll stick with it over the long term.
Movement works, sitting doesn’t. That said, formulating a fitness plan still isn’t the difficult part.
(As always, please seek out the advice of a qualified medical professional before beginning any exercise program.)
Work Your Plan
As you may have guessed, this is the main obstacle for most people. Perhaps there is no better application of the popular Robert Burns quote “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry”. Even with your goals set and your plan conceived, life gets in the way.
This is where sheer determination and “sticktoitiveness” play a vital role. In sports parlance, this is referred to as “gut check” time. It will rain, you will have frustrating days at work, your car will need repairs, errands will always come up at the last minute, and the house chores aren’t going anywhere……life will happen. It’s an absolute – put it up there with death and taxes. As they say, they key is how you react.
It’s always interesting to me how people find the time to do anything they deem important – happy hours, game night, video games, shopping, zoning out in front of the idiot box television, etc. So in that vain, it becomes a question of motivation. And that brings us full circle back to finding a personal reason to get fit. No one can make you exercise, only you can make that happen. You are your own best friend and worst enemy, depending on whether or not you decide to get moving.
Be consistent with you workouts. Get some support from friends and family. Ignore the haters (or use it as motivation). Don’t beat yourself up if you fall off the wagon – it happens all the time.
In the timeless words of the Phil Knight’s iconic brand, “Just do it.” It’s only your health that’s at stake.
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Jeff is a family man, news/information junkie, certified personal trainer and holistic wellness enthusiast. He's passionate about disease prevention, the amazing inner workings of the human body, sports, exercising, nature, traveling, and spending time with his family...not necessarily in that order.
