If you’ve just started exercising, or have been for a while where you are in a routine, you may be thinking; “When will I start to achieve my results”?

 

 

We know that exercising can work, in terms of getting fitter and training hard to get the body we want. We also know there is no silver bullet that can replace exercise, and we’re probably not going to achieve our goal of a super athletic, or a super model body of our dreams no matter how hard we try because of genetics and body type.

I’ve been thinking about exercise as a way to promote your health and fitness, and there are a number of advantages and disadvantages to it. It’s up to each one of us, personally, to decide whether our goal is the right goal for us and our bodies. Here are my thoughts on the highs and lows of exercise…

The highs…

One of the main advantages of exercise, to my mind, is the fun factor. Getting up, choosing your new cool gym clothes and finding your fast shoes to put on is a great experience. It’s good to know you are doing something for you, and you have complete control of what you want to do and what goals you set for yourself.

Exercising is one of the few things in life that make us feel genuinely fantastic. It provides a physical way of monitoring your results, and different sports means we can choose a fun activity that we love and can become good at. The fact that I can just walk around an oval for 20 minutes and do a few push ups, sit ups and squats two to three times per week is heaven.  I know that not only do I feel better immediately, all that oxygen to my skin gives me instant glow and makes me look more attractive!!  Where else in life can you get massive results like that in less than 60 minutes per week?

Unlike other types of pills and potions, exercise is completely controllable. We decide what activities we want to undertake, what sport we choose to invest our time into, when we participate and when we don’t.  We can have bad days, knowing that with a new day we can make our exercise program right again.
If we exercise regularly, it provides a great way for venting emotion, expressing our bodies and keeping fit. Team sports lets us join in, support a bigger goal and maintain our commitment and motivation through the expectation from your team of attendence.

Possibly the best advantage to exercise is the way that we get to ‘meet’ people. I know for a fact that I would never have had the opportunity to meet some of the people I greet every day, had it not been for exercise. Exercising keep us in touch with people, and for those of us who work from home that interaction is really valuable.

And the lows…

OK. Here are some of the disadvantages.

• Exercising is not a quick fix, and it won’t make super athletic or super models over night.
• Exercise is like children – they need ongoing nurturing to prevent neglect, and to help them grow in to decent and thriving ‘beings’.
• Exercising is frustrating. Wondering why some exercises work and others don’t, or why you aren’t getting the results can be incredibly annoying for the new exerciser. Of all the disciplines in the world, exercising has to be one of the most emotional! If you succeed health and fitness milestone, you’re elated. If you don’t, you’re despondent. You can’t rely on your exercise program alone to put you in a good mood!
• Writing your exercise program can be a total bind. If you’ve just come home after a long day at work or meetings, and had a row with your other half, and there’s a great show or game on TV, the last thing you want to do is pick up your joggers and have a really hard workout. At times like this, you wonder why you bothered.

Having said all that, I know from personal experience that I will always be a big advocate of exercise. Looking back at this post, I realize that the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. Take a look at the list and decide for yourself ~as this will help you to answer the next question: what physical activity will make me happy and give me results?

 

It isn’t easy, but can be wonderfully simple if you do it for you. One foot in front of the other.