Finding Your Niche To Make Exercise Fun & Healthy For You
For many people the problem with getting vital exercise into their day is that they simply don’t enjoy the process. The results – better overall physical and mental health – are known to these people, but the suffering and strain that they have to go through during exercise to get those benefits simply aren’t worth it to them. They would rather pass on exercise – be it at home, outside, or at the gym – because the stress and pain of exercise doesn’t justify the outcome.
These people are doing it all wrong.
People tend to get intimidated by what other people consider a good workout to be. There is a prevailing theory that exercise needs to be sweaty, hot, and involve plenty of soreness the next day for it to have been effective. While this might be true for high level athletes who are looking to push-to-fail with their exercises during a preseason to get their fitness to where it needs to be, for most of us a good workout can come without pressing forward to the maximum limits of what our body can handle on a daily basis.
Exercise is mostly productive when you are doing something you enjoy. You should never wake up dreading the workout that is coming later in the day because it will be either too difficult, an activity that you don’t enjoy or – even worse – both of those things. If you aren’t a gym person then don’t trudge to the gym three days a week and squat your way into sadness. Instead, look for a vital mentor to help you find a class or sport that you can have fun with while burning off those calories.
One aspect of this to really think about if you are stuck in an exercise rut is what kind of person you are. A social person is going to hate long runs on their own or hitting the gym at 5am before work when no one else is there. This is exactly the type of person that requires group events or team sports to find their exercise niche. This will automatically make exercise feel less stressful, less of a chore, and generally less awful, and the feeling of dread when working out will be replaced by one of anticipation for the next time to play your way to fitness. The opposite of this is true too, so if you find yourself hating team sports then try hitting the gym, running or something like swimming to keep your fitness up.
The next factor to consider is the intensity and frequency of exercise within your workout program. Stop blasting leg day at the gym three times a week and instead have those monster sessions sprinkled in rarely amongst easier days. Working out to fail every single day – even if it is with different body parts targeted – is just going to make you fall out of love with the whole process as the whole point of those workouts is for them to be hard.
It feels like the more exercise programs have evolved – pushed by advertising and social media showing athletes drenched in sweat – the more anything other than pushing to the limit in a workout feels like less than the optimal thing to do. This simply isn’t true. Crossfit classes are a great example of why this isn’t the best way as people burn out of the style of workout – unless they really, really love it – so fast. Don’t feel like every workout you do to get vital exercise has to be your new ceiling for pain and you will find you have a much better time when it comes to staying fit and healthy with a reduced load in your sessions.
Article by Vital Guidance
