This Is the Number 1 Reason So Many People Hate to Exercise

Every week, it seems, there’s a new study or article addressing how much exercise we need to stay healthy. Some studies bear good news: Just 30 minutes three times per week! Other studies are more damning: an hour a day if you want real results. Perhaps the most common publications are the ones trying to reinvent the mousetrap of physical exercise, hoping to offer a shortcut or a “new and improved” program that will make the workout more appealing or the commitment more manageable.

But they’re all missing the point.

If all the research agrees that physical exercise is important for our well-being, and human nature has taught us that we’ll probably find an excuse to avoid doing something we don’t really want to do, wouldn’t a more valuable question be, how can we find an exercise program that we actually enjoy?

Whether it’s 30 minute bursts or multihour Saturday sessions, in a dark studio or under an open sky, breathless and high-intensity or gentle and graceful, what I’ve learned from all my years of sweating is that the best way to do it is however you actually want to do it.

Whenever someone asks me what type of workout they should do, whether they’re hoping to lose weight, get toned, or prep for an upcoming event, my answer is always the same: Well, what do you want to do? I always, always start with desire.

I’ve started so many workout programs that I absolutely hated. I’m a sucker for research, though, so when I heard that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) was the latest and greatest way to do cardio, I vowed to make treadmill sprints a part of my weekly routine. Never mind the fact that I hate the treadmill. When hip-hop classes popped up everywhere, promising to sneak an hour-long workout into what felt like a party, I tried those, too. Never mind that I have absolutely no rhythm.

And guess how long I stuck with those programs? Not long. It’s not the fault of the research – they’re effective workouts in their own right for anyone who keeps showing up. It’s my own fault for thinking I could force myself to do something that I just wasn’t that interested in.

It took me a while, but once I realized the value of desire, my whole relationship with exercise changed. Instead of feeling like a chore, it became a choice. Instead of a means to an end, it became an event in itself.

I started by committing to be active in some way – any way – most days of the week….

Source link