Friday, October 23, 2015

Why We Exercise: the Thought Processes of Those Who Make it a Lifestyle


 At some point every person who has ever attempted to make exercise a part of his or her lifestyle reaches the point of considering whether to continue the journey or quit. Over the past several years of being a personal trainer I have come to see many common qualities within the thought process of those who choose to continue the journey. My personal weight loss journey spans sixteen years and having lost over 100 lbs. Sixteen years is a long time and I have no intentions of quitting. Ever. It is my opinion that everyone who has a story similar to mine has, at some point in their personal journey, come to some personal realizations. The collective mindset of we who exercise may look different in outcome but the thought processes remain the same.

The most common complaint that I received from clients or people in general, is that eating healthy and exercising regularly is hard. And they are right; it is hard to choose vegetables and fruit instead fries and ice cream. It is hard to get out of bed for a 5 am workout. A person who wants to deadlift twice his body weight will have to work hard to get there. So will someone who wants to run a marathon. Exercise is not easy. If it feels that way it’s being done wrong. Other things are hard. It is hard having your knees hurt every time you take a step. Getting out of breath going up stairs is not fun. Suffering from a slipped disc in the lower back because of excess body fat is not an easy thing. The reality is that everyone will deal with hard; there is no escaping it. The question is what kind of hard do you want? People who successfully live a life of good health and fitness have accepted this reality: hard must be dealt with in some manner. The great thing about having a choice means that a person can choose differently. Which hard have you chosen?


Motivation powerfully influences of choice. But there is a difference in the motivation of people who consistently live making healthy choices for a lifetime versus those who are on and off, or off entirely, is choosing to live healthy. The people are on and off tend to view being healthy as being a certain size or seeing a certain number on the scale while this may be helpful to an extent of the primary motivation for exercise is to look a certain way, be a certain size or weight, are extrinsically motivated. There definition of health comes from what they perceive as what others think about their appearance. Health is dictated by society’s standard of beauty and health. Why allow the opinions of others to dictate your sense of health and self-worth? Intrinsically motivated people, however, tend to make exercise a life-long commitment. The difference in the mindset is that instead of being influenced by and competing with external factors, the intrinsically motivated person is only competing against his or her self. The secret of success in staying motivated is realizing that being better than yesterday is the goal. Do something today that makes yesterday obsolete and tomorrow easier; living in the moment to make today better than yesterday is the only way to make motivation permanent.

In contrast, a lifetime of fitness is about external rewards not internal ones. Yes, there is an incredible sense of confidence and accomplishment that comes from staying the course in fitness. That is an important part of building a healthy mindset. However, most people who have a successful fitness journey find their greatest reward in inspiring others to press on in the own journey and to accomplish things that low levels of fitness may have once prevented. This goes beyond a healthier weight or size. It moves towards new opportunities. That is the greatest external reward to have the opportunity to attempt anything without fear of being held back.

When a person begins to see new opportunity as a reward his view of work changes; freedom is found in the hard work, not in avoiding it. The work, in and of itself, becomes a part of the reward. I happened to be an avid hunter. In September I spent ten days in Alberta, Canada elk hunting. My hunt met with success on the first evening; nine hours into the ten day hunt. Not every hunt is successful so quickly. Beyond the feeling of accomplishment and pride in the providing of free range, organic meat for my family, one of the most joyful moments of the experience was when I strapped on a pack loaded with the two front quarters of the elk and hiked it out of the valley back to the vehicle. The physical work was equivalent to climbing Pinnacle Mountain while carrying 125lbs in a pack. As physically grueling as that work felt, I loved it. The work was not done that night by moonlight at 10:30 pm. The work was done over the previous four months preparing for that moment. That night was the reward for the work. Those kinds of experiences would have been far more difficult, if not impossible, 100lbs ago.



The final aspect in the mindset of those who exercise comes from finding freedom in the work; over time, more enthusiasm in the process than the results. There is nothing wrong with wanting results from an exercise program. Results that improve body composition and overall fitness should absolutely be some of the objectives of exercise. However, those results only come to those who develop more enthusiasm in the journey than the destination. The secret of this is realizing that once the destination is reached; it is time to pick a new one and move into a new journey with new challenges. Passion for the journey is the only way to make the arrival a reality.


The mindset of those who pursue a lifetime of exercise and fitness seek to become different; in body and mind. The body will only achieve what the mind can believe. Enthusiasm creates freedom in the work. The reward of freedom is enjoyment for the process and renewed motivation. It is a choice, a hard choice. Choose the hard with which you are willing to live.