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When the Going Gets ToughIn this magazine, we emphasize that it does not take grueling marathons or exhaustive weight sessions to improve fitness. For cardiovascular exercise, we recommend walking as a suitable alternative to jogging, the Stairmaster, running a treadmill, or heavy-duty aerobics. Please understand that the more vigorous types of cardiovascular exercise can be fine, also, but they are not necessary for improving one's physical well-being. Walking, if done at a fairly rapid pace, can improve aerobic fitness and help one lose weight.
Similarly, weight training to improve strenght and muscular shape does not require advanced equipment or hours in the gym. It can be done at home with a set of dumbbells. One should complete an exercise to the point that it is difficult to continue, but that doesn't mean grunting or screaming with effort is required. Athletes
When we de-emphasize the amount of effort it takes to improve one's fitness, though, we worry that we might not emphasize sufficiently the fact that following a fitness or dietary regiment is difficult. You see, part of the reason we emphasize that grueling workouts are essential to improving fitness is the fact that facing a grueling workout can be discouraging to continuing in an exercise program. Better to start off with something simple that a person can adhere to than start with a 10 mile jog every morning after not exercising for 10 years. It's far better to start off walking two blocks a day and progressing up to 1 mile or 2 four or five days a week and continue that for life than to quickly get in triatholon shape but then to stop exercising after that mission is accomplished.
How, though, does a person persevere and make exercise a life-long commitment? As alluded to above, it can be difficult to continue in an exercise program over the long haul. Discouragement can settle in fairly quickly if one does not get the immediate results one desires. Time constraints also plague the would be fitness enthusiast, as does boredom and perhaps half a hundred other factors, including injury and lifestyle changes. What's worse, as soon as one stops exercising routinely, it can be the hardest thing in the world to resume a fitness regimen. Some sort of inertia sets in that makes it difficult to get off up that couch and work those arms and legs. Perhaps it's the difficulty inherent in starting anew, particularly when we know that the first few weeks of any fitness program will be the hardest physically.
So, again, how do we persevere? Well, perhaps the most important thing to remember is that we all shall slip up sometime in maintaining our routine. What matters most when we do is how we respond to these falls from grace. Do we get discouraged, kicking ourselves for failing to live up to our commitment, or perhaps we tell ourselves we'll start again someday, but the relentless busy-ness of life makes 'someday' never occur?
Well, the question one must ask oneself at such times is: do I value the results I hope to achieve through a fitness regimen? If so, am I willing to make the sacrifices necessary to make a commitment to exercise 3 days a week (or however often you want to exercise)? You see, no matter how much one downgrades the intensity necessary to improve fitness and health, a commitment is always necessary. Perhaps one must pass up reading a few articles in the newspaper in the morning or skip that TV show you always watch in the evening, or perhaps surf the web a little less. Do I value the results obtained through exercise more than I do those things I might have to give up to obtain those results?
Some of you might say, yes, but...Ah, those 'buts' are dangerous. Nevertheless, people can become understandably discourage when results do not match expectations. For those of you who haven't seen the results you want while following an exercise program might first want to ask what do I really seek out of the program? Do I want to look like some supermodel, or like Arnold, or do I want simply to become more fit and look better than I do now? If the results still do not seem readily apparent, I have some wisdom from Stephen Covey (the 7 Habits author) to share.
He often encourages people who try his 7 Habits but don't see results with the lesson of the bamboo tree. When a person grows a bamboo tree, the bamboo does not shoot up overnight. Rather, a person plants the tree, then waters it year after year until the 5th year when the bamboo sprouts up enormously in a short time. You see, when we work for something that matters, results don't necessarily spring up overnight, but if one continues to seek the goal and pursue it in the correct way, the results will usually present themselves. All you have to do is be patient.
For those who tend to berate themselves for failing to live up to a commitment, ask yourself a question. Does it do any good to NOT do something and blame yourself for not doing it? Or, is it better to simply admit a failure and get back to doing what you sought to do in the first place? Don't believe the lies you may tell yourself or others may tell you that you're a failure for not living up to a commitment. Rather, like most of us, you failed, but are NOT a failure. Never believe the lies.