How To Get In Shape #3

How To Get In Shape: Are people who have high physical fitness and workout naturally inclined to do so, or is it a habit that can be learned?

For me, figuring out how to get in shape was 100% learned. As a teenager, I rarely exercised, and I relied on skipping meals to balance out my pizza and hamburger indulgences.

In college, I began to see the connection between physical fitness and feeling good. On the rare occasions when I did "hit the gym", I noticed that I felt happier, more confident, and more fit, not just while I was working out, but for the rest of the day, too. So, I decided to figure out how to get in shape by becoming a regular exerciser. I very logically sat down and then set aside time in my schedule to get more physical activity three times over the next upcoming week.

A week went by and I had only worked out once. Again, I scheduled time for physical fitness for the next week...and again, I just never seemed to get around to it. Whenever I looked at my schedule and saw that it was time to workout, I would think, "I don't want to change my clothes, get all sweaty, have to take a second shower today, and then try to get all my other chores and errands done." It seemed that the hassel of working out was greater than the benefits I would receive from it. It seemed easier to skip the workout and just get everything else on my "to do" list checked off.

One day, I saw a Kathy Smith physical fitness exercise tape for how to get in shape geared to busy people. The workout was broken down into four 10 minute bursts of activity, meant to be viewed either alone or all together for a full forty minute workout. I realized that I had been applying the wrong strategy for how to get in shape.

With the right strategy, I was able to exercise on a consistent basis. It was hard to incorporate more physical activity with the wrong strategy, but with the right strategy, I have been in the habit of exercising frequently for the last 7 years.

The wrong strategy I had been using was trying to exercise when it fit my schedule. The bad assumption was that if I made the time workout, then I would actually workout. This seemed very logical and reasonable, but it failed.

The strategy for how to get in shape that did work for me was to listen to my body's needs. When I felt like getting some exercise, I would exercise and when I didn't feel like it, then I didn't. I made the assumption that working with and listening to my body would be more effective than trying to work around my schedule. I also assumed that if I felt motivated to workout, rather than forced to workout due to a crammed schedule, then my workouts would be enjoyable and more effective. In other words, I would bring more to them and get more out of them.

As I listened to my body's needs, my workouts became more productive. When I tried working out on specific days and for a set amount of time, I was forcing myself to workout when my body didn't feel like moving. As a result, the workout was unpleasant and boring. If I had to spend more than 5 minutes trying to get myself going, then I wasn't ready to workout.

I was also assuming that I needed physical activity for the same amount of time each time I worked out, which was a false assumption. Your body's needs are different from day to day. Some days, it may be best to take a brisk walk for 45 minutes and on other days, a 20 minute jog feels more invigorating. So, listen to your body, because it will tell you how to get in shape each and every day.

With some trial and error, I found that I naturally prefer to workout sometime between 4:00pm-7:00pm. I was able to re-arrange my schedule in order to accomodate my body's desires. Now, every day between 4:00pm - 7:00pm, my body will tell me that it needs to get some exercise. This has become a fixed time frame that occurs 7 days a week. There are days when my muscles feel the need to move at 4pm, but I know my schedule can't accomodate them until 6:00pm. For those two hours, pretty much all I can think about is how great it will feel to workout (what a change!). But, I have found that on those days, if I wait until 8:00pm, that my body has already started to wind down for the day, and it is a struggle to workout. So, I have learned that the longer I wait to workout, the more likely I am to sit on the couch and watch TV.

There are days when my body doesn't tell me much of anything - I could either workout or not. On those days, I make a commitment to at least trying to get some physical activity. My "exercise readiness" test is that if, after 5 minutes, I am not getting into the natural rythm of movement, then it is best to quit and do something else.

I also like to vary my workouts between high intensity (jogging) and low intensity (walking). If I am feeling a little under the weather, then a long walk during sunset is good for both my body and my soul. If I over-exert myself one day, then the next day I might want to do something less intense. On the other hand, if I have lots of energy, I have learned that a long walk doesn't satisfy or challenge me, and so it is best to do aerobics or go for a jog. When I set the goal of figuring out how to get in shape, I ended up learning to read my body's signals because I knew that it would help me to have more productive and enjoyable workouts.

A nice side effect was that when I had a lot of energy, I actually wanted to push myself to the next level of fitness. Instead of forcing myself to run and then thinking, "I really don't want to go for a run", it became, "Today, I want to run as fast as I can so that I can feel the cool wind on my face." I found myself wanting to go faster and to be more physically fit. By listening to my body, I found that exercise was very enjoyable, and that I naturally wanted to move more often. My workout times increased from 20 minutes to 45 minutes because I was enjoying what I was doing.

If you simply start exercising when you feel like getting some movement, you'll develop the habit of regularly working out. You will settle into a pattern of listening to your body's cues and then acting on them in order to achieve new levels of physical fitness. So, if you want to get daily exercise, then workout when you feel the urge to workout and do the type of workout (low/high impact) that your body is telling you that you need.