How to fall in love with fitness

Last updated on 21st January, 2019 at 08:48 am

Exercise needn’t be a chore. Here’s how to fall in love with keeping fit.

You’ve been doing well for the past two months… you think. Managing to wake up while most of the world is still asleep to get in your workout. Your exercise goals are on track. But today, despite your best intentions to greet the day by breaking a sweat, you remain wrapped in the comfort of sleep’s embrace. And so begins the steady decline into inactivity once again… Until you start noticing the back fat or that your jeans don’t zip up as easily anymore.

On again, off again

The vexing cycle of on-again, off-again fitness regimes is familiar to the many of us who grapple with how to stay motivated to move. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that adults (aged 18-64) get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise a week. Otherwise, 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity throughout the week or an equal combination of both.

This isn’t an inordinate amount of time, yet many of us struggle to fall in love with keeping fit. Michelle Segar, author of No Sweat: How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness, suggests a few reasons why we battle. Quite simply: we don’t prioritise self-care and wellbeing: our ‘why’ for exercising is health- or weight-related, and our perception of what exercise is, is outdated.

Find the right ‘why’

“We often don’t consider self-care and/or boosting wellbeing as something we should prioritise because everything else is considered more important,” Segar says. Essentially, we don’t value ourselves, and we don’t make time to exercise because we don’t value wellbeing and self-care. If we changed this mindset, we might just find it easier to love and embrace fitness.

Research, Segar explains, also shows that the most common reasons for exercising (better health or weight loss) are the least motivating. She suggests you do away with these and instead focus on how exercising can make you feel better right now. “It can immediately boost your mood and energy,” she explains.

Johannesburg-based Corporate Wellbeing Specialist, Mario Papadopoullos, echoes Segar’s sentiments. We need to start thinking about exercise not as a means to gain washboard abs or reduce our cholesterol, for example, but rather as “lifestyle-specific movements which counter the mental, physical and emotional stresses experienced on a daily basis”. Exercise, adds Segar, can also be seen as a way to spend some quality time with your family.

Unlearn the things you’ve been taught about exercise

The next issue, she says, is the way we’ve been taught to exercise. “These definitions of percentage heart rate or intensity are now outdated. We now know that any movement at all is better than no movement. So get up and choose to move in any way that works for you. It might be a process of figuring it out. So, give yourself permission to explore, play and move!”

For those of you concerned that getting yourself to move in any way other than at a gym is a cop-out, rest assured that it’s not. The WHO defines exercise as: “walking, dancing, gardening, hiking, swimming and cycling; any kind of play, games or sport as well as household chores.”

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