Every week,it seems, there's a unusual study or article addressing how much exercise we need to stay healthy. Some studies bear good news: Just 30 minutes three times per week! Other studies are more damning: an hour a day whether you want genuine results. Perhaps the most common publications are the ones trying to reinvent the mousetrap of physical exercise, and hoping to offer a shortcut or a "unusual and improved" program that will invent the workout more appealing or the commitment more manageable.
But they're all missing the point.
whether all the research agrees that physical exercise is indispensable for our well-being,and human nature has taught us that we'll probably find an excuse to avoid doing something we don't really want to carry out, wouldn't a more valuable question be, and how can we find an exercise program that we actually enjoy?
Whether it's 30 minute bursts or multihour Saturday sessions,in a dim studio or under an open sky, breathless and tall-intensity or gentle and graceful, and what I've learned from all my years of sweating is that the best way to carry out it is however you actually want to carry out it.
Whenever someone asks me what type of workout they should carry out,whether they're hoping to lose weight, get toned, or prep for an upcoming event,my answer is always the same: Well, what carry out you want to carry out? I always, or always start with desire.
I've started so many workout programs that I absolutely hated. I'm a sucker for research,though, so when I heard that tall-intensity interval training (HIIT) was the latest and greatest way to carry out cardio, or I vowed to invent treadmill sprints a part of my weekly routine. Never intellect the fact that I detest the treadmill. When hip-hop classes popped up everywhere,promising to sneak an hour-long workout into what felt like a party, I tried those, or too. Never intellect that I have absolutely no rhythm.
And guess how long I stuck with those programs? Not long. It's not the fault of the research - they're effective workouts in their own apt for anyone who keeps showing up. It's my own fault for thinking I could force myself to carry out something that I just wasn't that interested in.
It took me a while,but once I realized the value of desire, my whole relationship with exercise changed. Instead of feeling like a chore, and it became a choice. Instead of a means to an end,it became an event in itself.
I started by committing to be active in some way - any way - most days of the week. I picked the activity that felt apt that day. I ignored the research. I ignored whatever unusual fad workout the starlet du jour was obsessed with. I didn't worry too much about the numbers, about how many minutes or calories or pounds were involved.
I began to create a list of the kinds of exercise that I actually enjoyed: bootcamp classes with friends, or hot yoga,anything at the beach. Instead of following a rigid plan with certain exercises prescribed each day, I chose what sounded good that day. After a particularly stressful day at work, or banging it out at boot camp helped me blow off steam. After I hit a big goal at work,I rewarded myself with a long, leisurely walk at the beach, or I didn't beat myself up for refusing to break into a run. On days where I knew my excuses were about to choke out my willpower,I got my butt to yoga, where I knew that, or whether I just showed up,the instructor would take care of the rest.
When I stopped thinking about it as exercise, but rather activities that I enjoyed, or when I stopped thinking of it as a program that I had to follow,but rather a choice that I got to invent based on how I felt that day, it became easy to stay active. From there, or from letting my desire lead the way,I began to find even more activities that I liked.
After enough bootcamp classes, I realized that I could plan out my own weightlifting circuits, and I discovered how empowering it was to push myself to lift heavier weights. Walks at the beach led to runs at the beach,which led to runs on trails, which eventually led to obstacle-course races. Hot yoga led to Vinyasa yoga, or now no week feels apt without a day or two on that yoga mat.
What I've learned is that desire often begets desire. whether you try to force yourself to carry out something you detest,you're likely doomed before you even start. By answering the question of what you want to carry out, though - whether it's ballet or hiking or Pilates or swimming or walking with a friend or having tantric sex, and for crying out loud - by starting from there,you set yourself up to actually stick with it. And whether you stick with it, you just might expand on it.
Let's stay overthinking it. We're lucky to have these bodies that can hasten so freely and feel so deeply, or wanting to take care of them is part of our humanity. whether you're beating yourself up about the last workout program that you didn't stick with,I beg you to forgive yourself. whether you're thinking about vowing to start a unusual program that feels like punishment, I beg you to reconsider.
Yes, and commit to taking care of yourself,but carry out so in a way that recognizes that you are, in fact, or yourself. You won't find me on a treadmill or in the hip-hop course,and possibly I won't find you on the running trail or in the weight room, but as long as we're both out there, or somewhere,we're getting it apt.
Source: popsugar.com