Are You Sabotaging Your Plan to Exercise More?
You know exercise is good for you, right? But regular exercise is like pushing water uphill. You do it for a couple of days – and then try and forget about it, because it’s just too hard. Sounds familiar?
People who exercise regularly swear by it. They enjoy it. They can’t stop talking about it. But how did they manage to build a habit that sticks? Wouldn’t you like to know a painless and easy way of getting into the exercise habit? Read on to find out.
The reason we often fail when trying to implement a regular exercise routine is because we work against our instincts, instead of with them. What we are trying to do when we establish an exercise routine is do reverse a trend.
Imagine that you are a train driver driving at high speed. How are you going to do that? Are you going to simply crash your gear into reverse? If you did, the train would derail, passengers would get hurt or killed, and you would end up with a catastrophe.
There is a better way.
You could gently apply the brakes until the train is at a standstill, and then slowly start reversing the direction. Easy!
The example is very clear, isn’t it? And yet we do the opposite when trying to start exercising. We try and run for a mile, or go to the gym for an hour, or play a game of tennis – and then wonder why we feel so stiff and sore next day. Then we try it again, but the body hates it – and then we stop. Again.
As In her book “This year I will…”, Andy Ryan, an expert in collaborative thinking, spells out why such a gung-ho approach doesn’t work:
Whenever we initiate change, even a positive one, we activate fear in our emotional brain….If the fear is big enough, the fight-or-flight response will go off and we’ll run from what we’re trying to do.
We need a different approach. We need an approach that eases the body into exercise so gradually, so that we don’t trigger the flight response.
How do we create change so gently that we don’t take fright?
There is a very interesting Japanese philosophy called Kaizen which can help us do that. Kaizen focuses on continuous but small change.
Andy Ryan explains:
The small steps in Kaizen don’t set off fight or flight, but rather keep us in the thinking brain, where we have access to our creativity and playfulness.
Let’s take a look at how that could be applied to physical exercise. I’ll take running as an example. Could you run for 15 seconds? Most people can. With the philosophy of Kaizen, you could say that if can run for 15 seconds, you can learn to run for a minute – and even for an hour. How?
Follow this simple running plan. Add 15 seconds each day.
Day 1# Run for 15 seconds
Day 2# Run for 30 seconds
Day 3# Run for 45 seconds
And so on…
It will seem ridiculously easy! Do this for a about forty days, and you’ll be running for 10 minutes. A month later, and you’ll be running for 20 minutes. By that time your running habit will be well established. But it will have happened naturally!
You can apply the same principle to establishing any exercise. Whether it’s yoga, or swimming, or walking.
The important thing is keep to your plan. You may feel that you could easily do more than the prescribed amount of exercise, but please rein in your enthusiasm. Just do the requisite amount, and not more. This is the trick to establishing an exercise habit without stress or strain.
Exercise really is a miracle pill. This is what it can do for you:
- Helps prevent or manage high blood pressure
- Lowers the build-up of plaque in the arteries
- Can help prevent type 2 diabetes
- Can help prevent osteoporosis
- Stimulates the immune response
- Can help prevent certain kinds of cancer
- Can help recover after illness.
- Builds muscle tissue
- Strengthens heart and lung function.
- Helps manage weight
- Promotes good sleep
- Helps revitalize sex life
- Improves mood
- Calms and centers the mind
- Keeps the brain in shape
You might want to stick this list on your fridge to remind you of the benefits of exercise.
There are a some important guidelines for exercising. As a general rule, the intensity of exercise should not exceed certain limits. If monitoring heart rate use the simple equation – 200 minus your age (in years) to estimate the working heart rate you should remain under.
If you don’t exercise, your fitness slips a little each day. The Keizan method of introducing exercise reverses that trend, little by little. Of course we want to feel the benefits of exercise all at once. However, we need to remember that the smaller the steps we take, the easier it is to establish an exercise habit. And that’s what this method is about: building a new exercise habit that sticks.
What’s your experience of exercising?
WRITER'S BIOGRAPHY
Mary Jaksch
Mary Jaksch is an author, Zen Master, and psychotherapist who likes dancing tango in skimpy dresses. Her blogGoodlife Zen focuses on personal growth for intelligent people. Get her FREE eBook Overcome Anything: Finding Light after Darknessclick here. Mary is also Chief Editor of Leo Babauta’s blog Write to Done
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Comments
BrettJB says on October 9th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Mary, thank you for posting this. Though my gratitude comes from a different perspective than one would expect.
Whilst I can and need to take some action towards my general health, your article has prompted me to deal with other personal issues using this technique. I am very much an individual who can be described as both an over-achiever and a perfectionist. At 32, I am currently studying my 3rd and 4th postgraduate degrees, all in the business field.
My problem? I am lazy. I have always managed to achieve but whilst expending little effort to do so. The end result is that I feel I am running at 10% capacity. It does not matter that I am doing well in my studies and other ventures. I could be doing so much better and this is the crux of my dilemma. With my disposition, I am consistenly beating myself up over my failure to reach my potential.
This technique can so very easily be applied to daily living. Whether for those like myself, or those with depression-related motivational problems, this will allow one to change routine naturally in a way which is likely to work.
It underlines the importance of correct approach when trying to undertake any type of psychological transformation.
I read this site often, and am grateful for something so relevant to my current situation.
Thank you.
Scott says on October 9th, 2008 at 10:32 am
It’s important to note too much exercise to negatively impact immune system…
see this:
http://www.rice.edu/~jenky/sports/fatigue.html
fideli says on October 9th, 2008 at 10:37 am
“Imagine that you are a train driver driving at high speed. How are you going to do that? Are you going to simply crash your gear into reverse? If you did, the train would derail, passengers would get hurt or killed, and you would end up with a catastrophe.”
I think a sentence that introduces the desire to stop the train is missing here. Great post, though
Sal says on October 9th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
This is super interesting. I have wanted to get back into shape, but now I know why I keep starting and stoping. It all makes sense. Thanks!
Success Factors says on October 9th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Great article! What a great way to approach exercise and every other aspect of life! It applies just as well to getting organized, balancing your checkbook, getting daily meditation going in life, etc.
Jonathan Limbird says on October 9th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Surprisingly, what helped me to start exercising regularly was to not have a schedule for it. In the past when I would make a schedule saying run on Monday, Strength on Wednesday, etc., but when I would fail to follow it on one day, to my mind I failed for the week. This made it mush easier to convince myself to start again next week. Now, my goal is to exercise every day. If I miss a day, I just start up the next day without creating large gap before a schedule would repeat itself.
Nathan says on October 10th, 2008 at 3:01 am
Getting in shape is simply a battle of mind of body. The simple solution is to just do it, the more advanced solution is to find a program that works for you and stick to it. Making excuses for not working out simply teaches your mind how to accept excuses and you get engrained in that habit. If it doesn’t feel good or is uncomfortable, it is usually the correct course of action.
Martin Wildam says on October 10th, 2008 at 4:48 am
Although the idea of small but continuous improvement is very good I doubt that is applicable for exercising in general.
The running example is good, because running for a minute can be done everywhere, worse it is when you want to go swimming.
The reason is the long “startup” and “shutdown” work/time in relation to actual exercise. In most cases the location (e.g. for gym) is maybe some miles of distance.
In most cases to start e.g. with gym you need to cut down something else to have free time for exercise. The “sabotage” is mostly that you find everything more important than exercise so the key is priorities here.
FrugalNYC says on October 10th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
I think this is a great way to start excercising. Like others have said, applying this to other areas in your life can effectively change your life. If everyone in the country did this with their own finances and saved a little bit to purchase instead of using credit for everything – perhaps we can get out of this “recession” in better shape (pun intended).
PUSHUP_KING says on October 11th, 2008 at 11:57 am
I’ve gotten into exercise by choosing one simple program to follow:
http://www.hundredpushups.com
It generally takes less than 10 minutes a day to do the pushups. It’s so simple… Much like the running example, all you have to do is a couple of push-ups to begin. Easy!
You will see improvement every day. I’ve nearly tripled my first day results in just about a month. It’s very encouraging. Now that I’ve seen the results in my chest, I’m motivated to start a full exercise routine. I feel great, and actually MISS the pushups if I can’t do them one day.
Maria says on March 3rd, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Running is my hobby too. I’m running 3 circles per 800 m per day.
xceedbd says on March 25th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Excellent Article !! Excellent way to start exercising. Hope all the best and looking forward to develop the article
Dereck says on March 30th, 2009 at 8:48 am
I was gaining weight for couple of years, and this spring I have to do something about it. I have to visit city park more often.