“Exercise should be a celebration of what your body can do. Not a punishment for what you ate.”
Dylan Thacker, Twitter
Most people try to “punish” themselves into being fit.
They “kill” themselves at the gym. Sign up for military-like bootcamps. Pay personal trainers to scream at them when they’re fatigued. There’s a whole lot of self-induced torture going on in the exercise world today.
And then those same people are surprised when they’re miserable and hate the idea of exercise. And it’s no wonder!
I’m here to tell you this doesn’t have to be your reality.
You don’t have to torture yourself into good health. In fact, this shouldn’t be your path towards good health—it’s an ugly path. As Dylan says above, it should be a celebration.
So, how do we celebrate exercise? By aligning ourselves with forms of movement that we enjoy doing (at least more so than others).
Because let’s not make exercise into something it’s not—it’s always going to involve work. It just doesn’t have to involve torturous work. Some ideas:
- Sports—Focus on the ones you enjoy more than others. Many of my friends play in recreational sports leagues—you could, too.
- Movement based activities—Martial Arts has acted as a rock in my exercise life since I was 11. Dance and yoga are good ideas, too.
- Play—got kids? Play with them and a good workout is virtually guaranteed. Don’t have kids? Play an exercise video and follow along from home with someone who makes movement enjoyable.
There’s a million ways to move. Experiment and find what works for you.
Don’t be like most people—celebrate your way to being fit instead.