Exercise – Getting Started!

You know you want to…you understand all the benefits that exercise can bring - if you want to lose weight then you will do so more quickly and also appear slimmer by increasing muscle tone.  Exercising will help you take control of your body, increasing your confidence and the endorphins that you release will make you feel great!  You will have more energy and you will increase your fitness.  Increased stamina levels will enable you to do more with less effort. Exercise can help to reduce stress and reduce problems such as insomnia.  Additional strength, stamina and suppleness will help you to handle life’s demands that little bit more easily.

So what’s stopping you from getting going?  Maybe you haven’t enjoyed the type of exercise that you have tried so far or maybe you have difficulty finding time to fit it into your week.

The key is to do something.  The Nike advertising slogan “Just do it” is so effective because it sums up the secret to exercise and fitness so well - stop making excuses and just do it - and then things will start to happen.  We are told that just 3 one hour exercise sessions each week will make a significant difference to our health and fitness - so how difficult can it be to find those 3 hours?  How many hours do you spend each week thinking up excuses to justify not exercising?  Would it not be better to just do it and feel good afterwards?

There are hundreds of different ways of exercising.  You could save money by cycling rather than taking the car everywhere, you could go for a walk with your friend rather than meeting for coffee, you could get a tan and some new friends at the local tennis club; even the somewhat cliché use the lift instead of the stairs shouldn’t be knocked until you have tried it frequently enough to see the amazing difference it can make to the tone of your legs and backside!

In order to really get the bug and see the difference, you need to commit to doing something regularly.  Look at the following list and choose which forms of exercise you are going to do initially.  It may take a while to find something that you love, so keep experimenting until you find something that you really enjoy!

Exercise is underrated
Those people who have caught the fitness bug understand the importance of regular exercise and, generally speaking, those who haven’t don’t.

Your body was designed to be used regularly - think about cavemen having to hunt for food - and it misses it.  Now that we have a variety of labour saving devices such as washing machines and vacuum cleaners we don’t need to be as energetic in our daily lives as our predecessors and so we aren’t as active as we could be.  As well as the huge benefits mentioned earlier, if you have never caught the exercise bug this is what you are missing:

With regular exercise your body will strengthen and tone and you will start to mould into your ideal shape like a sculptor chipping away at a block of marble creating a beautiful figurine as the excess material is removed.  You will literally be creating the best figure that you can possibly have.   After each exercise session you will feel a natural high from the endorphins and from your own self worth increasing.  You will feel great about yourself for “doing” instead of just planning or making excuses for letting yourself down.  Your confidence will increase and you will feel the power of knowing that your increased strength and stamina will enable your body to cope with any physical demands that are made on you – running after your children or climbing a steep hill for example.  As your fitness increases you are likely to tend towards a healthier lifestyle, for example drinking alcohol will impair your performance so you might choose to cut right down or stop drinking alcohol altogether, discovering instead some of the fabulous alcohol free alternatives!  When you shower after a hard workout you literally feel your skin tingling!  It’s a fantastic sensation.

Can I tactfully suggest that if you don’t enjoy exercise or if you make a similar excuse to yourself for not exercising regularly then the problem is that you have given up before finding an exercise that you love?  Personally, I enjoy going to the gym because I can achieve a good overall workout in a relatively short space of time.  I know many people who find the gym tedious and dull, instead preferring team games, an exercise class or an outdoor sport   Don’t want to “go public” yet?  What about the range of exercise videos and DVDs that are on sale, which cover everything from step and aerobic exercise through to yoga and pilates?  Need some help knowing what to do?  Hire a personal trainer!  Did you know that different types of exercise can help you achieve different goals?  Don’t like the idea of going alone?  Take a friend or join an exercise class!  Some are better for fat burning, others for toning or strengthening and others like yoga and pilates will also help you with your mind/body connection.  Whatever you do, make sure that it is fun for you.  Dance classes are on the increase again, so why not try a salsa; or maybe horse riding is more your scene, or rollerblading, or jogging by the sea?

Whatever you choose DO SOMETHING!!

A word of warning, there may be times when you don’t feel like doing any exercise but you do need to keep at it in order to get the fitness “high” that I have already described.  You should aim for at least 3 times a week.  Plan exercise into your diary so you know what you are doing and when you are doing it, then make sure that you keep it as a priority.  If you have a day when you don’t feel like exercising, do it anyway because you will feel pleased with yourself afterwards and any exercise is better than no exercise!  Keep at it!

Accept challenges so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory

George S Patton