Fitness Strategies

Lesson 2: Warm Ups and Why Nots.

Motivation and enjoyment.

Extending the exercise time.

Aches and pains and pedometers.

Featured fitness activity - jogging and breathing.

Motivation and Enjoyment.

Whichever exercise or combination of exercises you choose, you will need some motivation.

Use whichever kind of internal pep talk works for you.

Tell yourself you will give it a calendar month. In that time, you will do your self-allotted exercise at least four days a week unless prevented by circumstances beyond your control.

After a faithful month of first-level exercising, you will have covered around fifty km and done around 400 reps with weights. You will have spent about ten hours in exercise. That's 10 hours out of 720. You should be finding the walks easier, and you will almost certainly have doubled or tripled your weight reps.

Just as an example; when I began my push for fitness, I was incapable of doing even one pushup. I had never been able to lift my upper body on my arms since childhood. After a couple of weeks using weights, I could do three pushups. After a month I could do ten. It's a modest gain... of over 1000%!

After your trial month, make an honest appraisal of how you feel. You should be able to detect increased muscle tone by touch. Now you can commit yourself to a second month, and extend your range.

Friends and Relatives.

You know your friends and relatives. You know which ones will encourage you (or even join you). You know which ones will scoff or denigrate your efforts. You know which ones will be kindly "reassuring", and tell you you don't need to exercise, and that you're fine as you are.

The way people react says something about them.

The encouraging ones probably exercise themselves, or wish they did. The scoffers probably don't, and wouldn't if they could. They might see your increased well-being as a threat to their own self satisfaction. The reassuring ones probably see your desire for fitness as a dissatisfaction with yourself as a person. Of course, it's nothing of the kind. You just want to be You, Fitter.

If possible, don't let the scoffers know what you're doing until you've done it. It's none of their business. If you have a spouse, parent, sister, neighbour, brother, child or workmate who is the encouraging kind, tell that person your plans, and see if s/he would like to be included. Try not to include people whose fitness level is too unlike yours. You shouldn't strain to keep up or force yourself to dawdle.

This family group is surprisingly well-matched in speed and stamina. Even the dog!

Enjoy Yourself.

Improve your chances of enjoyment by making your exercise the time (perhaps the only time) when you listen to audio books, or music.

Take the dog with you! Dogs often love to walk.

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