Learning about fitness can help provide direction when exercising

After listening to, reading about, and watching the news I started to wonder when the news of today becomes “old news.” Lately it seems that if a lapse of a few days occurs, present day news becomes old news. You also have the problem of too much news to the point a person does not pay attention to the news. What brought this to my attention was reading about the benefits of fitness and exercise and healthful eating and then not seeing a large majority of people following the advice given by fitness experts. It seems in almost any magazine, newspaper, radio broadcast or presentation there will be a short push for some form of exercise. If all this information is out there and backed by numerous accounts of success, why are there not more people doing fitness programs?

Even the comic section often has a run on some fitness topic. My most remembered comic on fitness was “Cathy” and her efforts to start exercising. The caption showed Cathy getting out of bed in the morning to work out. All of a sudden her mind started to reason with her. “No! It’s too dark outside. It is too hot (cold) to go outside. You need your sleep. Work out later. Work out after lunch. Anytime but not now to workout. Now is a bad time. Just not now.” The next caption showed Cathy back in bed snuggling under the covers. Having not been a morning person I could relate to her desire to put off a run until later. My best reason to get out the door and go for a run early in the morning when it was still dark was that I had a partner who also didn’t like early morning runs, but we both thought we better show up and not let my friend down. There has to be a very strong reason to counteract all those mind games that start when you throw the covers off and you start to wake up.

Another example I notice when I go to a seminar or convention where some of the topics are about fitness benefits. There will be a large number of people attending the lecture. The point that was so evident about the composition of the audience was that the very large majority of people were fit themselves. The people who could really benefit from the advice given by the speaker were absent. People who were heavy smokers, obese, or sedentary life style were not in the audience. When you try to reason the discrepancy in the audience you arrive at two conclusions. Those that are fit like to listen to a person tell them that they are doing very good with their efforts. It is like a pat on the back for doing something that is good for you. The unfit person doesn’t like to show up and be told that they are doing things wrong and that they need to change their lifestyle. Not many people like to be told negative things about their behavior and if given the choice of listening to the talk or not listening to the talk, choose not to go the lecture. 

I have to admit that some programs designed for fitness are not easy to do when you are not fit. The key is to give the fitness program a fair chance to prove being fit is worth it. It takes time to have your body adjust to these new demands of movement. The best part of this adjustment is that the body likes to be moving and feels much better when it is fit. It does not take that long before the body changes that “Cathy moment” of getting back into bed into one that looks forward to a workout. 

I use an example comparing a fit and unfit person that even when a fit person “feels bad” he or she still feels better than the unfit person. Many unfit people have never experienced what being in good condition, and the energetic feeling, the fit person feels all the time. The fit person will comment to another person, “That it just feels good to feel good.” I have a tee shirt that I bought some years ago at a convention that states, “If you do not take care of your body, where will you live?” It is not an easy journey to go from unfit to fit as most people soon find out, but it is well worth it. So, read those articles, glance at the fitness section in a newspaper, and sit through a lecture to give you direction. The benefits are “priceless.”