For the Love of Exercise

How often do you do the things you should do?  For instance, we should floss each day.  We should get a good amount of sleep each night.  I don’t know about you, but many times I find it difficult to maintain habits I know I should do, but I don’t actually enjoy.

The benefits of exercise for our health have been heralded for a while now.  Not only does exercise help us feel good physically, it helps us feel our best mentally and emotionally as well.  So really, we all should be exercising regularly.  If you’re struggling to maintain a consistent exercise schedule, could it be because you really don’t enjoy exercise?

It’s a perfectly fine thing to admit.

There can be various reasons why we might not enjoy exercise.  Some of us have had bad experiences being forced to exercise when we were young (“that’ll be 3 laps around the gym for showing up late to PE” – sound familiar to anyone?).  Some of us loved being a part of a sports team, but once we left school, we found it hard to enjoy exercising on our own.

Whatever your reason for disliking exercise, let me reassure you that admitting your distaste is the first step toward enjoyment.  You can then ask yourself the following questions:

What specifically do I dislike about exercising?

Perhaps certain types of exercise you’ve tried cause pain in your body (more than light muscle soreness), or perhaps you haven’t found the type of exercise that seems fun to you.  Maybe running hurts your knees, but a Pilates class is more your style.  Or maybe a spin class isn’t fun to you, but you find satisfaction lifting weights.  Once you find out the reason(s) you dislike exercise, you can start to explore different options to find a type of physical activity that suits you.

Do I have a standard of exercise I think I must maintain?

Dr. Michelle Segar mentions in her book, “No Sweat”, that many of us believe we must exercise at a certain intensity and for a certain amount of time for it to “count”.  So, if you think you must exercise hard for a full hour for it to matter, and you’re not able to fit an hour of exercise in each day, you may find yourself discouraged.  If exercise is seen as a source of discouragement to you, it can be pretty difficult to enjoy it!

The reality, though, is that all exercise counts.  As Dr. Segar explains, exercise guidelines can come across as confusing in this manner.  When we as health professionals talk about getting “30 minutes per day of moderate intensity exercise at least five days per week for health benefits”, it can be misunderstood that if someone doesn’t reach that exact amount, then the exercise they did was useless.  This can lead to all or nothing thinking: “If I can’t get 30 minutes in each day, then I won’t exercise at all.”  It seems extreme, but if we’re honest, many of us fall into this line of thinking.  Changing our thinking to remember all exercise counts can help us defeat our discouragement.

Have I stopped to consider the benefits?

If you’re trying to exercise regularly but finding it hard to build this as a habit, you might try considering the immediate benefits you receive from exercise.  How does your mood change from before exercising to after exercising?  Are you less stressed?  Happier?  How does your body feel?  Do you have more consistent energy as you go through the rest of your day?  Do you feel stronger?  Taking a moment to reflect on the immediate benefits you receive from exercising can help your brain to see it as a reward you give to yourself.  When your brain recognizes exercise as a reward, it is easier for you to solidify exercising as a habit.

If you currently dislike exercise, there is no reason to be ashamed.  However, don’t let that stop you from exploring the reasons why.  Once you do, you might find you actually enjoy, and quite possibly, even love exercise.

Written By Brittni Paris, SFC Blogger and Wellness Coach

Sources:

Segar, M.L. (2015). No sweat: How the simple science of motivation can bring you a lifetime of fitness. New York, NY: AMACOM.

Photo Credits:

Photo by Kinga Cichewicz on Unsplash

Photo by Danielle Cerullo on Unsplash

Photo by Elizeu Dias on Unsplash