BY Chiamaka Ikpeze B.MR PT
We all know exercising is great for you but it’s so difficult to actually bring ourselves to stay the course with our routine. Dreading exercise is normal and actually more common than you think. But the reasons behind it is not what you might expect.
1. You might be going overboard:
The hard and fast rule for most people when the start exercising is doing your very max and do the very most. And choosing the toughest hardest and most popular workout because that’s what your ‘social media crush’ says works. This goes against every principle of exercise prescription and is totally counterproductive.
The body sees you trying to harm it by doing this and goes into survival mode. It first induces pain to tell you to stop, the body slows down metabolism and goes into survival mode. And at the end you tend to stop because your body won’t cooperate, you are too tired and your mind just goes screw this, it’s not worth the discomfort.
Capacity has to be built, start small and build on it. It might take you as long as 1 week or even longer to build capacity at a point where you feel good enough to increase your intensity. But take it as slow as your body wants to go, just make sure you don’t remain static.
2. Your workout is wrong:
When most people think abs, they think sit-ups and planks. They Think cardio, they think running skipping and jumping jacks. They Think strength, they think weights, lifting and carrying tires.
Rethink your approach, exercise should be fun and enjoyable. You don’t have to do something because someone swears by it. Next time you think cardio, think dancing, walking, swimming, riding a bike. Think abs, think leg raise, yoga, bridging modified crunch etc. I have had a client ask for a refund because I wrote her a plan that had no sit-ups and skipping. She hated skipping, but apparently her IG heroine swears by it.
There is always more than one way to get to your destination. Don’t pick the route you hate the most. Pick the one where at least you enjoy the scenery enough to keep at it.
3. You are not confident about your body:
Truth be told a lot of people have bad memories connected with exercising. They associate it with body image issues or one careless comment or another. While you can’t erase those memories, there are things you could do to make it easier.
· Join a support group online.
· Workout in private till you are confident enough.
4. You want it to work yesterday:
Here is the punchline with fitness (and I mean all the components not just weight loss) it takes time. And this is something very few people are willing to give it. Sorry darling, but exercise is hard work and it takes time. You can’t do 100 sit-ups and expert 20 packs. A lot of people set fitness goals that are unrealistic and still give it the shortest available time. You want to lose 2 dress sizes and fit into a dress in the next 2 weeks. you want your abs to make an appearance in 2 weeks. it just does not work like that.
Giving unrealistic timelines usually results in pushing too hard, getting fatigued and quitting and getting discouraged. Give it time, all good things come to does who wait and workout regularly.
5. You are only focused on weight loss and building muscles:
An alarming amount of people only want to exercise to lose weight. But here is the kicker, weight loss is a famously poor motivator, because we… weight loss is usually slow. Yes, I said it, no safe plan will help you lose 10kg in one week dear, no safe plan. You want to look good and to look good NOW! So you join a gym buy fancy clothes and accessories and 2 weeks later you don’t have Adeles results and you don’t look like Bolanle Ninalowo well boohoo you, it takes time and work. You forget in 2 weeks you actually have better aerobic endurance (you can climb stairs without feeling like you might have a heart attack), you can hold a plank longer (muscular endurance) you can reach your toes (flexibility).
There is more than one component to fitness stop focusing on only body composition (weight loss) and muscular strength (building muscles).
6. You worry about what others think too much:
For most people when they start a fitness journey they focus on what people say think or do. You worry if people are taking not of your effort and your progress and if no one is applauding you get discouraged. Well, snap out of it, the earth does not revolve around you. You are not the sun dear. People are probably focused on their own journey and progress and the few that actually take note will not judge you, don’t really matter.
Your fitness journey has to start somewhere and I assure you no one will judge you if you can only skip 10 times at first or you can’t do a proper crunch, well no sensible person will anyway. Focus on your journey, own it and move.
Do you identify with any of the above reasons?
What are the reasons you hate exercising? Feel free to comment let’s talk about it. Are you ready to start a fitness journey and a little overwhelmed with where to start?
Have questions? Call or send us a message via WhatsApp today on +2348115795094 or send us titanphysiotherapy.ng@gmail.com to talk to our fitness experts. We also offer a broad range of affordable custom fitness plans and packages.
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