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Do you sometimes feel like you are exercising in futility?
Like no matter what you do with your exercises, you stay the same?
The real question to ask is not “What exercises should you do?,” but rather to ask, “What are my goals for exercise?”
By asking that question, perhaps you can skip the frustrating feeling of futility.
The first thing you need to do before you start a workout is to know what your goals for doing exercise are.
Maybe it’s to lose weight, to improve your balance, to be strong enough to lift your grand child, to be able to play tennis, to get back to running without pain.
Each of those goals would require a very different exercise/routine.
To lose weight, you would have to put in time aerobically and possibly with some high intensity intervals.
To improve your balance, you might practice walking a line (think of a sobriety test), or working on single leg stance.
To build strength for lifting a grand child, you would want to work your legs and your arms to be able to hold your little bundle-of-joy safely for both you and the grandchild.
And to get back to tennis or running, you would have to do some specific exercise-training that will carry over to your game play (like tennis skills work, or running pace-work).
You can read more about resolutions in our previous blog.
That might seem like a redundant questions, but your reason for doing something is actually very different than your goal for doing that activity.
For instance, the reason you might take blood pressure medication is to control high blood pressure, or maybe simply, because my doctor told me to. However, the goal is to live longer and avoid having complications like strokes or heart attacks.
What are your reasons for exercising, then? Do you exercise…
because you made a resolution?
for weight loss/control?
because you’re supposed to?
because you love it?
to be able to do more activities that you love to do?
Some of those reasons will give you the ability to stick with your exercise plan, but some of them won’t
“Because you are supposed to” and “because you made a resolution” are not going to sustain your efforts when something else comes along…okay, when anything else comes along. It just is too easy to put something else in front of exercise. I know this from personal experience…since I’m writing this during the time I had planned to get my workout done…DOH!
But what if you want to lose weight/be thinner? That should give you the motivation to stick with it, right? Well, maybe. But let’s face it, weight loss is a difficult task that requires discipline on several fronts. Yes, you will need to exercise, but NOT so that you can “eat more of what you like.”
It has been said that “You can’t out-exercise a bad diet.” While that’s not exactly true, it is true in practicality. What I mean is that you can eat a lot of calories, and then exercise enough to burn all those extra calories, it’s just not very conducive to a normal life.
Take for instance that Michael Phelps (when he was younger and training like a fiend) would eat nearly 10,000 calories in a breakfast meal alone. But he would literally invest 6-7 hours a day with workouts in the pool and on dryland. Yes, he could out-exercise his diet.
But what about you? Is your job to compete at the Olympic level, like Michael’s was? I didn’t think so…For us mere mortals, we have to consider the fact that dietary control is probably much better for reaching our weight loss goals than exercise.
Now, don’t think I’m saying exercise cannot be used for weight loss. But rather, I’m saying that there are many other variables to weight gain/loss, including diet, metabolic problems (diabetes, hyper/hypothyroidism, etc) as well as even some genetic predispositions.
The last 2-things listed above answer both the REASON and the GOAL issues of exercising.
The folks who love to exercise are few and far between. These are the folks that run every day, rain, sleet, or shine. Like the mail, they always get through. If you throw a hurdle into their day, they hop it and keep on running. Cross-fit folks are similar. They never want to miss a day in “the box.”
…and don’t even get me started on swimmers.
But all of these folks exercise because they love it. In other words, the reason they exercise is because they love it, and the goal of their exercise is to do something they love!
See how that checks both boxes?
But, do YOU love to exercise?
Use diet for weight loss…
Use exercise to improve your function!
My perspective on this has changed as I have matured (AKA gotten older).
The reason I used to exercise was to look a certain way, to build bigger muscles.
And my goal was always to “get bigger” and “lift more.”
But as I’ve gotten older, and learned from all of my patients through the years (that includes you), I realize that my goals don’t get met without a compelling reason to sustain them.
Who cares if I can lift more weight? For that matter, who cares how I look?
But I care if I cannot do the activities I love to do.
Alex, my brilliant colleague, brought 1-Rep Max Living to my attention last month, and it really stuck with me.
What is 1-rep-max living? Well, in short, it ain’t good.
It means that whatever activity you are doing, you can only do it once. After that, you are too fatigued to repeat it.
For instance, if you were at the gym, and doing a bench press, a 1-rep-max would be the amount that you could only lift one time. After that one repetition, your muscles would be too exhausted to do another repetition. This has been bragged about for ages in the gym. “How much can you bench?” The amount given in your answer is your 1-rep-max.
But what if you only have the strength to climb the stairs one time? Or walk around your home one time, or rise from sitting one time? Think about that…standing up once is your limit, after which your muscles are too fatigued to do it again.
That is 1-rep-max living…and that is NOT good.
It would mean that you are far too weak to do much, let alone to do the things you enjoy.
So with all these years of working with patients, my perspective has greatly changed. I now exercise with a REASON and a GOAL, which sustains me when I don’t feel exercising.
And that reason/goal is to exercise so that I can do the things I love to do.
As you are trying to stick with your New Year’s resolution, or exercising “because you have to,” or working toward your weight loss goals, try to focus on how your exercises are helping you do those things you really enjoy doing.
Maybe that will help you stay consistent in those doldrums that we all experience with our exercise routines.
Hopefully, this focus on improving your function with your exercise will prevent you feeling like you are sometimes exercising in futility!
2 Responses
I enjoyed the read! I exercise for two reasons
I do enjoy swimming/water, jogging, biking, and walking. I am one of those who has to do it every day compulsive
My motive is to have better balance, be stronger, and avoid being in a wheelchair.
You are right about exercise doesn’t just permit weight loss you have to watch what you’re eating as well
Stay strong and safe! Happy new year
Jodi
I enjoyed the read! I exercise for two reasons
I do enjoy swimming/water, jogging, biking, and walking. I am one of those who has to do it every day compulsive
My motive is to have better balance, be stronger, and avoid being in a wheelchair.
You are right about exercise doesn’t just permit weight loss you have to watch what you’re eating as well
Stay strong and safe! Happy new year
Jodi