“I don’t like to sweat.” “Why would you want to inflict pain on yourself?” “There’s weird people at my Yoga class.” “I don’t want to be around all those young kids at the gym taking pictures of themselves.”
An alarmingly prevalent reason people veer from fitness is the physical discomfort exercise can impose on a person’s mental and physical state. Training specific areas of the body through skillfully designed strength and conditioning movements has been proven through the millennia that exercise aids the human race in functioning at optimal levels. However, reserving time to put yourself through a bout of physical exertion isn’t like curling up on the couch with your favorite snack and watching the new season of The Mandolorian. Accomplishing exercise is challenging. Sometimes people don’t like to exercise because exerting oneself is painful and uncomfortable.
The fear of physical discomfort exercise inflicts on the body isn’t uncommon. Unfortunately, we see many of our personal training clients start this way. Local gyms, exercise classes, and fitness studios are set up with what a fitness professional would see as valuable tools to assist exercise participants in completing a workout that will improve their lives. However, for some exercise participants who haven’t been introduced to the culture of a gym setting, one look at a hyperathletic Yoga instructor, the barbells resting on the back of a young twenty-something-year-old, or sweat dripping off of a gym rat hell-bent on getting the most of his workout isn’t what the novice exercise participant envisions as fun. The site of these typical exercise environments is enough to send a gym newbie running out the door like they just saw a wild bear enter their house. Why would you want to work out if the gym setting induces a stress response akin to having your hair on fire?
A solution that gives fearful exercise participants hope is to understand why exercise is a good fit for someone’s life in the first place. What does exercise give you? In some ways, adhering to an exercise program offers us similar benefits to the hard work we put into our careers. For example, attending four to twelve years of college probably wasn’t easy for some. Waking up early for a four-hour class once per week or taking a late-night class on economics isn’t’ the most desirable event.. Additionally, sitting down to answer emails for a few hours, commuting to a town two hours away for an important sales meeting, or taking a flight to another state or country for important work endeavors aren’t at the top of the list of entertainment. Once again, begging out on your favorite Netfilx series sounds way more fun. However, these less than palpable tasks offer us gifts in financial success, the ability to take care of family, and invest further in our lives.
Devoting time to exercise isn’t much different than the tasks we complete to advance our careers and support our lifestyles. However, exercise is equally, if not more, essential to the time we devote to our work lives because of the benefits it offers our health. Without the ability to be physically strong, fend of disease and illness, and mitigate pain in our body, we won’t be able to perform at our best in vital areas of our jobs, hobbies, and interactions with our family and friends. Therefore, understand that putting oneself in an uncomfortable situation in the exercise arena aren’t much different than inserting ourselves in the labor we regularly conduct to support our careers and livelihood.
To be successful in our careers and functions of everyday life, people usually gravitate toward job skills they are good at and enjoy. For example, an individual who excels in mathematics could perform optimally in accounting. On the other hand, a bachelor’s in finance probably wouldn’t necessarily support a career working as a deep-sea fisherman. Comparing successful academic background and job selections has similarities to finding enjoyable modes of exercise. If the goal of exercise is to decompress from a stressful day, improve flexibility, and move in a low-impact setting, then perhaps a Yoga or Pilates class would be a good fit. However, if lifting heavy things and exerting oneself until your face is red and sweat drip from your brow is enjoyable, maybe a bout of resistance training with barbells, dumbbells, and weight machines at a local gym is the right fit. If we want exercise not to seem like grueling work, we need to find an exercise setting that we enjoy, perform well at, and supports our goals.
Most importantly, understanding exercise is similar to the work we do in our everyday lives is a useful tactic. No one ever said completing forty hours of work per week would be easy. Devoting three hours a week of exertive activity via exercise isn’t a walk in the park either. Grasping the concept that exercise will pay a dividend in an enjoyable and pain free life can help us preserve through the seemingly painful and daunting portion of adhering to a fitness routine.
Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com, or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.
