How to initiate an exercise habit

A common theme I’ve seen lately, particularly in time poor, full time workers is an inability to prioritise exercise and therefore successfully integrate it into their schedule on a permanent basis. My aim with this article is to combat the most common reasons and excuses people put forward when I ask them why they are not exercising regularly. By the time you finish reading this article I hope you feel an urgency to get started right away and take that first step. Unless you are an experienced athlete or have a sporting/fitness background, I strongly encourage you to get some assistance at least to start with. Correct form and programming are skills that will set you up for life and keep you safe. Doing a couple of sit ups and running around the block occasionally is not what I am talking about. Regular, intense, challenging exercise that improves your fitness and overall wellbeing is the bare minimum.

It is imperative that you exercise. It is as simple as that. Everyone knows it, everyone knows why and yet hardly anybody does. The rates of overweight and obesity point to a lack of physical activity and bad dietary habits in both the adult and child population, and I will have a vent about the nutrition side of things in another article. In 2007, the World Health Organisation (WHO) found that 67.4% of Australian adults are overweight, ranking 21st in the world. And a 2005 WHO study found that just over 20% of Australian adults are obese, which is expected to rise to roughly 29% in 2010 if current trends continue.

I’m not going to rehash the plethora of in depth information that is already out there pertaining to the benefits of exercise and the health risks of being inactive. You can google to your hearts content and I doubt you will ever run out of websites to read on those points.   Just know this: exercise = energy, strength, bone density, weight control, good blood pressure and no exercise = the opposite. What I AM going to do, is give you a swift kick up the butt and hopefully make you feel ashamed enough to start respecting your body and your life more. I want you to understand your body as a biological machine that is made up of the very same molecules that surround it in nature. There are certain checks and balances that need to occur or systems will fail. I will not sugar coat this. I am done stroking people’s egos and avoiding hurting their “feelings”. If you get offended by what I write here, I dare say it is because I have hit the nail on the head. You don’t need another person in your life agreeing with you when you whinge that the clothing shops don’t stock anything above size 12. Your friends and family are not going to snap you out of this, they have probably been unconsciously enabling your behaviour.

As you continue to read, please give yourself a gentle, yet effective slap on the forehead every time you start brewing another excuse, when you start saying “but for me.. its because…” I know so many of you feel trapped because you are in a job with set hours, set wages and have families to support. I am here to tell you that while all of those things are valid temporary barriers to your success, they are able to be broken down systematically and it all starts with changing your mindset. Every time you start with an excuse, after the forehead slap, please initiate some action to remove that barrier. Examples:

I can’t afford it.

Really? or is it not a high enough priority? Could you afford $50 – $75 a week on a trainer or some decent group training or martial arts classes if you:

* stopped buying processed food

* stopped smoking

* stopped buying magazines

* stopped drinking

* cut out coffee

* reduced how often you went to the movies or hired dvd’s?

* limit eating out

* take lunch to work

* find someone to share a 2 on 1 PT session with

* forego your facials, nail infills, gambling, coke with morning tea.

If you can afford the internet to read this, it is a good sign you can afford some physical education on how to exercise safely and effectively. Heck get a slower connection if it means there is some more dosh there to put towards extending your life. Go through your cupboards and EBAY anything and everything you haven’t used in the last 6 months. Do the numbers, make it work. Find a way. If your life was at risk unless you found the money, I can guarantee you will find the money. Guess what, YOUR LIFE IS AT RISK! When it comes to spending on my health, I baulk at nothing. I would rather spend $80 on a set of gym rings to increase my strength and stability than blow it on a dinner and movie. Invest in your body. PT/Gym membership/home equipment/ is a hell of a lot cheaper than cancer treatments, liposuction, heart surgery, blood pressure medication, needles, insulin, wheelchairs and nursing home fees.

PRACTICAL TIP: Start cutting out anything from the list above that you are wasting money on. Instead of buying it, put what you would have spent in an envelope and do this every month. At the end of each month you should have enough money to cover your costs.

Make a decision now to invest in your health. Simply going walking and doing a few push ups won’t cut it. You might need to:

* purchase a gym membership

* Join a local outdoor personal training group

* take up a sport

* learn a martial art

* Educate yourself online (even if it means paying to access certain websites/information) with regards to programming for no equipment (try keywords like “gymnastics conditioning exercises” “bodyweight exercises” will help here)

* Buy a proper pair of running shoes and actually use them, a lot

* Buy some books

* Find a Personal Trainer

* Buy some equipment. Just one thing at time and grow your stash as you are able.  A lot can be done with a truck tyre, kettlebell, skipping rope and olympic bar set.

At the very least, invest in your education by whatever means for a few months and then if you do have to go it on your own for any length of time, you have enough knowledge to exercise effectively. I personally have a gym membership, as well as a full setup at home. I have both because often I enjoy training in solitude, so I can focus and get in the zone.  But sometimes, I need that extra push that training in a busy gym full of watchful eyes gives me. For me, the results I get from a 1 x week session at the gym, out of my comfort zone is worth the $13 it costs me per week.

I don’t have time.

Yeah you do. You are sitting here online now reading this, therefore, you have time. Experience the pain, I mean high, of training with intensity. I’ve done workouts in 5 minutes that quite seriously were the hardest workouts I’ve ever done. You can do high intensity training from 5 – 20 minutes 5 or 6 days a week and get extremely measurable results. I personally train using the Crossfit methodology. I have a toddler, housework, multiple home businesses, a husband to cook for, clients to train and a horse to work. I don’t miss many sessions and I hardly ever train for longer than 20 or 30 minutes. I’m the fittest, strongest and leanest I have ever been.  If you have children, line them up on chairs/prams/highchairs/bikes and have them scream at you to run faster, get those burpees done, pick that weight up, punch that bag. Make them up a little session to join in with. What better lesson can you give than to show them how important exercise is? They will take great pride in being your “coach”. Give them a whistle and a stopwatch. I resorted to buying my 22 month old son a portable dvd player. I now work out to The Wiggles. He happily sits in his high chair for a few minutes while I bang a workout out in the garage under his watchful eye. He actually started deadlifting a 4kg kettlebell (with perfect form) of his own accord yesterday so it must be rubbing off on him.

If work hours are making it hard, be one of those lunatics who actually uses their entire lunch hour/half hour (instead of staying at your desk) and change into some training clothes and have at it. If you don’t have showers at work, it may be better to do the hard yards and get up early before work and train then, or immediately after work. I’ve had shift workers in Police and Military jobs who work ridiculous hours still drag their asses to training because it was a priority to them. Do whatever it takes. Talk to your boss, maybe you can arrange a trainer to take all of you in your workplace on a daily 30 minute session. The positive results in productivity from doing this will be evidence enough to your boss that it is a wise idea.

If you honestly can’t see a way to make time, email me a detailed schedule for your day/week and I will personally assist you in finding a way.

I find it hard to stay motivated.

Whats that, did you just slap yourself on the forehead? Good. When people say this, they are really saying “I haven’t made a commitment. I don’t care”. It is an excuse, plain and simple. It’s pathetic, and it isn’t a valid barrier to success. Do you turn up to work every day? Do you eat every day? Do you brush your teeth, do the shopping, go to the toilet? Read the newspaper, vacuum the floor, mow the lawn? Do you feel “motivated” to do any of those things? Do you have to sit there and have a mental battle about whether you should or not? Of course not, they are just part of your daily routine that you know you have to do. Exercise is a necessity to maintain health and life. Don’t feel that you have to be bubbling with excitement about it, just plan your time for the week or month ahead, tell everyone in your household and stick to it.  If you can continue to go to work every day without fail but can’t convince yourself to exercise, you are just making excuses. It is such a small window out of every day and the results you get from being consistent will help drive you to improve further. Once you start actually training you will be able to muster the intensity for what is ahead, it’s just that first step of getting into your gear and driving to the location, or going into the garage and making a start. Feel guilty if you miss a session, but don’t quit because you did. Just pick up where you left off and keep going.

My personal motivation tool is to post my session results (weight lifted, time taken, comments etc) to various online sites such as livejournal.com, Crossfit, Twitter and Facebook. Every day, every session. For all to see and comment upon. Keeps me responsible and when I am training, I do keep in the back of my mind I will have literally hundreds of people casting their eyes over what I have done. If I don’t post, people ask why not. It helps you stay on track. Try it! You don’t have to love training, just love what it does for you.

An active life = a life lived.

Please, if nothing else, keep this in mind:

* Living in nursing homes sucks

* losing the ability to walk, drive, wipe your ass and shower yourself sucks

* being a burden to your children/family because you can’t take care of yourself sucks

* spending 20 years of retirement wishing you stayed in shape so you could at least go walking sucks

* dying earlier than you have to sucks

The reality is, a lot of age related degeneration in mental and physical capacity has been proven to be reduced/prevented with regular physical activity throughout life. One day, you too will be in your 60′s, 70′s and hopefully 80′s and 90′s. You don’t have to spend the golden years of your life in front of a T.V screen and playing bingo. It will probably be the one time in your life you have the money and time to go on adventures and experience all those things you were too busy working or raising children to do in your younger years. Plan ahead, make exercise a habit now. Be one of those 85 year olds who goes skydiving or climbs a mountain! It’s been said before, but I will say it again. Use it or lose it.

Your body is a biological machine. For it to function optimally, it needs quality fuel and to have the engine turned over every day. If you neglect to do regular physical activity, things will start breaking down in the system, and affect other related systems. You were born with limbs and a heartbeat for a reason. Be thankful you have this body and start damn well respecting it by taking care of it. This vehicle for your consciousness is the only way you can experience life. You only get one chance.

A call to action

If you are still with me, by now you have an understanding on how to combat the most common barriers to getting started and consistent with scheduling exercise into your daily routine. The only thing you have to do now is make a commitment.  As soon as you leave this website, the next thing you need to do is start searching for your local facilities, sports clubs or trainers. Compile a list of anything that you are interested in. Start sending some emails or making some calls. Arrange a trial session or a tour of the gym. Do something tangible immediately. Don’t put it off till tomorrow. Do it right now.

This article ended up being significantly longer than I anticipated. As I was writing I realised how passionate I am about helping initiate that change in behaviour and attitude in as many people as possible. While I enjoy coaching people in a face to face environment, I’m excited that I can affect the lives of many more people through my writing.