How To Make Your Exercise Routine Easy To Stick To
Throughout this quarantine, I've been talking about the importance of exercise and staying active and getting outside.
For me, this was a big shift as a strongman competitor my training has been way off but I dove right into looking forward to a different style of training with bodyweight movements and higher repetition work which is quite out of the ordinary for me and a good challenge.
In addition to going on walks, my fitness routine hasn't dropped off and, in a lot of ways, it's increased because I can work out as well as get out for a walk each day and I'm doing this at least six days a week.
But when my friend Tony invited me on a bike ride just the other day something clicked in me that I haven’t experienced in quite a while and it reminded me of the most important lesson there is when it comes to exercise and consistency.
That's when I clued in and remembered that not everybody loves to do the gym rats scenario.
Maybe for you, the thought of Burpee's and squats and push-ups at home in your living room is as bad as pulling teeth. I remembered that moment the joy that I used to experience when I first discovered basketball because as an overweight teenager I was not physically active at all.
I had played soccer and baseball growing up as a child but I never really liked those sports. But everything shifted at that moment when I found a type of activity and a sport that I enjoyed.
You see, I set out a goal to start running when the quarantine hit just as a way to burn off some energy and get exercise and guess what? I haven't run a single time in the past two months that we've been stuck at home. And so it's all coming full circle almost 20 years later as I'm finding the joy in biking. My sport of strong man beats me up enough and I don't want to feel the wear and tear of pounding the pavement while running which is why cycling has become so great for me since I never really feel like my evening walks do much to get my heart rate up or feel like exertion. And that’s ok too. Exercise doesn’t always have to be hard to be beneficial.
So today I want to take you through how you can find that activity that you love.
And this isn’t to say there's no value in pushing yourself and the discipline of doing hard things. Training that grit is essential for peak performance but as I've been talking about as well lately right now we're not in a state where a lot of us can get to peak performance but rather we need to think about what is optimal for us in this time and so one way to optimize your situation is to make some lighthearted decisions and get more joy out of your daily routine and the activities that you do.
So the more fun you can have with your exercise right now the more willpower that you can exert over staying focussed on doing the deep work you need and avoiding those distractions in your workplace at home and treating yourself with exercise that you like.
The only step to finding enjoyment and exercise is to try a bunch of things.
Now, at first, you may not get peak joy out of something just because the challenge maybe a little bit greater than what you can handle so I would say stick with things for at least 1 to 2 weeks and see how you feel don't make a big investment into it but just get started and if things don't feel right keep moving on to something else.
I think the most important thing is you've got to try a lot of different activities.
Maybe you're thinking to yourself that you don't like to do anything physical but at least in my mind, I have yet to meet somebody that doesn't find at least one type of physical activity to just get more exercise enjoyable.
Do your research and figure out what types of activities you may enjoy. The unfortunate thing is I feel like some of us will struggle in this realm right now just because there are sports that require multiple participants that are out of the question right now and so in those cases you'll just have to do your best to at least make some lighthearted choices with your exercise to stay active.