Why People Start Exercising
We all know the health benefits of exercise and, hopefully, you all understand that weight loss – reducing the number on the scale – is not a very good or reliable index for telling you whether you actually look good or not. By now you also know that “looking fine” is a matter of exercising properly (there’s a bit to this) as well as eating properly – you can’t only exercise and expect to melt off fat and you definitely can’t diet only (that route leads to the dreaded yo-yo effect).
Did you know that most people start exercising in order to lose weight and improve appearance? Many people then abandon exercise when the expected pounds fail to fall off – maybe their exercise was sporadic, maybe they weren’t doing exercises properly, maybe they weren’t working hard enough to make a difference, maybe (and this is a big one) they ate up a storm so any good effects from exercise were negated by the overindulgence in food.
Why People Keep Exercising
People who stick with exercise do so in large part because exercising actually makes them feel better, more confident, stronger, more energetic, more powerful. We have many clients who come into their training session feeling washed out from a hard day at work; no energy and, if not for the appointment, no desire to work out at all. After an hour of working out the lights are back on, smiles are easy and life is good and fresh again.
Check out the smile!
Try this: Right now, stand up and sit down again 5 times. Notice how you feel immediately after.
The Instant Reward From Exercise
It’s this instant reward that brings you back again and again and again. You can’t get it from eating chocolate or drinking alcohol (both of which can make people feel quite awful after the initial gratification wears off). Once you’re in this zone, we’ll call it the “workout zone” and you’re exercising regularly the extra weight does come off – when you feel this good you don’t want to fill up on crappy food; your body is now a finely-tuned sports machine and you tend to treat it that way.
Once you’re in the workout zone you’re less likely to get sick, you are ready for any event because you look and feel great and your daily exercise just happens because there’s no way you’d forfeit feeling so awesome for anything. Working out becomes a priority and you’re never unprepared – your workout bag is ready to go whenever you are.
Try this: Think of a time when you felt really healthy – what was your lifestyle at the time?
The hard part is getting started. Then sticking with it.
The Best Way To Start Exercising
Investing in a good trainer at least in the beginning is an excellent way to get started and to learn what to do and how to do it properly. How does anyone get expert in an area? They get coaching – even champions invest in good coaching, that’s how they get even better. This applies in all areas of life and very much so with exercise.
We love helping people become regular exercisers and seeing their health improve along with their shape so you can confidently contact us for advice – we’ve helped hundreds, if not thousands of people to make exercise part of their daily lives. If you live in or near the La Crescent area you can even take advantage of meeting with one of us for a complimentary initial fitness consultation.
