|
What does 'Big Fitness' have to hide?
|
|
Nothing Really, But It's What They Don't Know That They Can't Tell You.
|
Consider this. Most of the people who come up with exercise programs have a background of
pushing themselves physically because they want to be in shape, or healthy,
or competitive in some sport. Or they may be doctors who think intellectual knowledge is enough to motivate.
Both groups try to motivate by pointing out the long term benefits. That's what motivated them, so surely if
people can just be made to understand the benefits, that should be motivation enough.
I can't speak to how the "fitness-motivated" feel when they exercise, so I don't know if they enjoy it as much as
I do. I know that I wouldn't enjoy most of what they do, because most of what they do is not intended
for enjoyment.
The bottom line is, they don't know about motivation through Energy Focused Exercise principles because it
just doesn't occur to them there's a need. If it isn't depressing for them to face a strict regimen of exercise
day after day from here on out, then they don't see any need for a motivation technique that gets
around it.
On the other hand, I have a qualification not usually deemed desirable in fitness advisors, if I may presume to use that term.
I am and always have been lazy.
If not for my parents, I wouldn't have finished the first grade, let alone high school. Plus I had to get good grades
or sit home on weekends, and my homework was inspected. And my father didn't take lazy for an answer, so thanks dad,
for literally everything.
I remained, however, lazy, which was a benefit in two ways. First of all, I was lazy enough and dumb enough to drop out of college and get drafted.
As you might imagine, that didn't seem like luck at the time,
but it was in basic training that I first felt the effects of endorphins. I know it had to be endorphins
because at the time I was taken completely off guard and had no idea what was going on. I assumed I was adjusting, which
kept me happy the rest of the day. I went to sleep happy but woke up as the same old me in the same old
nightmare (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!).
That was the most dramatic thing I remember and it's why I named the site 'Quest For Endorphins'.
But the thing that really affected me was how I would feel after they would run us in the morning compared to when they woke us up. Which
was waking up to find you're in a nightmare (with all due respect to Jarheads, especially any who got drafted - I'm so, so sorry!!!)
If any Marines out there were drafted or knew any who were - how did they make out? Drop me an email if you know. I was so horrified
when I found out they could draft people into the USMC, and I was in the pool. It happened real fast though, so I didn't have much time
to be scared.
Anyway in basic training, I would get up and move around because I didn't have any choice. We'd fall in and start running and it was so awful. And for the
first few times it was awful all the way through, especially for the guys who couldn't keep up. But even when you were dying at the end
of the run you felt great after you recovered. Breakfast tasted great even though it was army food. I felt great even though I was dreading the day.
Now jump forward about 5 years to approximately 1974. I weigh somewhere between 220 and 180, so let's say 200. But it's not my weight that's so
important, it's my energy level and mood. Also nutrition, but nothing good will happen with that for many, many years. I specificaly remember
sitting around being lethargic and wishing I felt more energetic. The apartment building had a small gym and I told myself I should go work out.
But, and I remember this specifically as well, I thought I could probably make myself workout today, but then what about tomorrow. What would
make me do it then? So essentially I wouldn't work out today because I didn't want to feel guilty when I didn't workout tomorrow. Human nature is
so perverse. Probably that was just a rationalization, lame as it was, because I found out a few years later the barrier is not always what it
seems.
But the really interesting thing I remember thinking that day is "I wish a drill sergeant would come around every day, make me exercise, and then
go away." I was so close with that idea, but it took another four years before I built on it, without consciously remembering at the time, assuming
I'm remembering correctly now - I don't know if you're still following me - I'm kind of lost myself.
Sometime between then and about 1976 I joined Vince Gironda's tiny, funky, real-body-builder style gym on Ventura Blvd. It was an old-fashioned body-builders gym. Jack Lalanne was
pretty new and pretty expensive. The details aren't important, but I worked hard at first, plateaued, got discouraged and quit in about three
months.
It was in about 1976 that the company I worked for added a gym and it made sense for me to drive in really early to beat traffic and then kill
the time in the gym. The effect was even more dramatic than in the army. When I worked out I would feel great, even elated when I got to my
desk. That's one of my clearest memories of that period. But, I made the mistake one day of sleeping in, and it was so wonderful that even
though I loved the feeling after my workouts, I still dreaded the workouts themselves and, once experienced, the wonderfullness of that extra sleep was enough to tip the balance. I broke
the chain and that broke the habit. After that first day of sleeping in I just couldn't make myself get up early and drive in. Young people are so
lazy (then, not now of course).
Now jump forward to September of 1978. I'm working at a different company and starting computer school. The problem is I'm so
burned-out when I get home from work that it's hard to get much good out of studying even though I enjoy it when I'm feeling energetic.
So, given everything I told you above, I decided to buy an exercise bike. My reasoning was that since I had a tangible, visceral goal
I wouldn't have any trouble riding it every night when I got home. Wrong - I would procrastinate almost every night until I had wasted a lot
of time or had to skip it entirely - which made me feel guilty.
That's when I came up with the idea of commiting to a ride every day, but only commiting to a short time period, maybe three minutes. My idea
was to mechanically habituate myself to starting a workout every day. Once that habit was established I would worry about getting a decent
workout. That idea didn't work - what did work was that it got me over the inertia that stopped me cold so often before. There were still
days that I wanted to skip, but I reminded myself of how little I actually had to do and how much was at stake, so I actually hung in there
and rode everyday, even on days when I thought I would ride the minimum and quit. Your goal can be as ambitious as you want. But
your commitment is to do the mimimum, period, the end. That's what saves you on the days when you're not feeling so ambitious and might
have just skipped it, and noticed how much you enjoyed skipping a day, and so forth...
That's the key. Keep the commitment even if you think you'll only do the minimum. If you're doing weights and feeling particularly un-ambitious
to even make a start, take off 5 or 10 pounds. It will be like a vacation and you'll probably bump up to the normal weight and be completely into it by the third machine or so.
Tired blood is impossible to fight. You have to circumvent it with a task that's almost effortless and bootstrap into a meaningful workout when and if it
wakes up enough so you can at least make an honest effort. And, in my experience, it almost always does. Actually, it's also great for when you're trying to
wake up or recover from a late night in the morning. Start, persist, and you'll go back to feeling human. I've even gone back to bed and slept for an hour or so when I've
slept lousy and woken up feeling crappy but not able to sleep. After the bike you don't feel crappy and you can really relax and doze off.
In the long run, it's the chain that's important, not how much you
work out on any given day. If you don't break the chain, you'll reach the point where you're doing enough to feel more energy and in a better
mood when you finish. Once that feedback begins it just gets better and better.
So that's what big fitness doesn't tell you because they don't know about it, or if they do in a round-about way, they don't know how to
use it as motivation. Oh yeah, that's the other benefit of my laziness. I had to come up with a motivation because I had a specific need, so
I had to take my laziness into account - the result is "Energy Focused Exercise".
Of course, it's even easier if you see how much fun JumpRock is and get started with that. Once you get past the learning phase you won't need any other
motivation except music and dancing and getting better at JumpRock.
|
|