You will have to take me on trust when I tell you that I have honestly heard these above two excuses for not doing exercise. Some people think that they are so out of shape that it would take too long to get fit, so therefore what is the point of starting. The point is that no matter what your current level of fitness there is always room for improvement, and I haven't met anyone yet who hasn't improved their fitness by doing some form of exercise. Of course, those people who make a strong commitment to a consistent exercise routine experience terrific results. It is never too late to start an exercise program and you can never be too far out of shape, that it is impossible to get back into shape. It just takes time, patience, some dedication and some effort. This is not exactly a world shattering revelation : if you exercise regularly you will get fit and if you don't you will become unfit. The longer and more consistently you exercise the fitter you get and the longer you go without exercise the more unfit you become. At the bottom end of the exercise (or lack of it) scale, the only way is up. Start now, because every day you put it off for just makes the task that much more difficult, frustrating and time consuming.
WHY COMPETE ?
One of the main reasons I conduct the
Gravity Fitness adventure races is to give people a goal which they can use to
motivate themselves to train for, and to keep fit and healthy as a result.
These events are not ends in themselves and require a certain level of
preparation if they are to be fully enjoyed.
Whilst I appreciate that there are other many side benefits to
participation in these events, such as getting some fresh air, talking to old
mates and a sense of belonging and achievement, there is nothing more
satisfying than working towards a goal and seeing it realised successfully. One
of my favourite quotes, which I use regularly to motivate myself, helps to sum
up my feelings in this regard.
“The duration of an athletic contest is relatively
short, while the training for it may take many weeks, months or even years of
arduous work and continuous exercise of self effort. The real value of sport is
not the actual game played in the limelight of applause but the hours of dogged
determination and self-discipline carried out alone, imposed and supervised by
an exacting conscience. The applause soon dies away, the prize is left behind,
but the character you build is yours forever.”
The hardest part of any fitness program or regime is keeping
it going. At some point in time, after the initial enthusiasm has waned and the
improvements, both physically and psychologically, have begun to level off, the
desire to continue exercising will decrease. This is the real battle zone, but
it is a battle that you can win and that you must win.
I mentioned last month that Herb Elliott
refers to the “little voice” inside our head that beckons us to stop, take it
easy, relax etc. Herb believes that any giving in to the little voice is a
shocking decision. I wouldn’t go that far, but I believe that you should try to
win the majority of battles with the little voice. It feels great to beat the
desire to stop, or even to not start at all, and is a tremendous boost to
self-image to win these little battles with the negative side of yourself.
It
is important that at this vulnerable time when you are thinking of giving up on
your fitness campaign, to ask yourself a few questions :
1. Am I going to give up brushing my
teeth ?
2. Is my reason to give up
this fitness campaign a valid one, and will it hold up to close scrutiny ?
3. Will this decision
prove to be a good one in the long term ?
4. Why am I giving up
after coming so far ?
The
first question refers to one of the best analogies to help you understand the
priority that exercise / fitness must have in your life. If you can you ever
imagine a time when you are going to give up brushing your teeth, despite
knowing the consequences of not brushing, just relate this to exercise, and
imagine giving up exercise despite knowing the consequences of not exercising.
This is the level of perspective and understanding you must grasp in order to
ensure that exercise becomes a daily, unquestioned part of your routine.
The second question asks you to
scrutinize and critically examine the reasons why you are giving up. Write them
down and examine them. Do they still seem acceptable ?
The third question refers to the long
term consequences of not exercising. Is this really where you want to be ?
Finally, remind yourself of all the hard foundation work you have done on your
fitness and how it would be such a waste to throw it all away after coming so
far.
Keeping the ball rolling is
never easy, and it will be a constant battle, but it is much easier to stay fit
than it is to get fit. Keep that in mind.
A lot of misinformation is around
regarding the best way to burn off the food that you eat. The body requires
food to operate and will burn off quite a bit maintaining life and its processes,
but any left over energy will be stored as fat, as anyone who has gained weight
because of poor diet and lack of exercise will attest. The simple fact is that
the faster or more intense the effort, the greater is the number of kilojoules
expended. The following simple table shows approximately how much energy is
expended in 20mins in relative terms between different types of activities,
with Walking (at 10mins per km pace) receiving a score of 100 as a reference
point.
WALKING
(10mins per km) 100
CYCLING
(20kph) 150 (30kph) 240
DANCING 150
TENNIS 180
SQUASH 200
ROWING Recreational 120 Racing 200
SWIMMING
(medium pace) 120 (fast pace) 200
JOGGING (6mins per km) 160 (5mins per
km) 200 (4mins per km) 240
SKIING 200
Also, the more muscle you have relative
to your body weight the more energy you will expend as the muscles are able to
create more heat (which is how the burnt energy manifests itself) than body
fat. The more intense the activity the more muscles are involved and the more
energy is burned. This is why running uses more energy compared to walking
because the amount of muscle used is larger and the rate of muscular
contraction is much faster, both of which require more energy. Of course, in
the early stages of a fitness program, most people are not capable of
exercising too intensely, so will not be burning as many kilojoules as they may
think. When fitness and strength are gained people may begin to exercise more
intensely. As far as weight loss and fat loss is concerned, most people will
find that they lose most of their body fat early on in their program, as their
body adjusts to exercise after what may have been a long period of inactivity.
As the program progresses, muscle growth will occur which may stabilise the
weight loss – this is fine as you are still losing body fat but it is being
replaced, as far as your overall weight is concerned, with muscle. Fat does not
turn into muscle, and vice versa, but rather muscle replaces fat and takes up
much less space/volume for the same weight. The bottom line I guess is that if
you want to burn off that McDonalds or KFC, an intense exercise session is your
best bet.