Welcome to 2023; if you're struggling to make a start on those new years resolutions and wondering why perhaps this might help.
One of the things that we focus on internally is to start with frequency before adding intensity! Just work on becoming the person that shows up for YOURSELF. Novel concept, I know, but YOU matter, and so does your health. Fitness is the perfect space to vote with your feet and prioritise your health. Imagine just for a second what life would look like at the end of 2023 if you could exercise 5 times weekly!
Over the last couple of years, we've seen a shift in people engaging in exercise for emotional and mental health benefits. Physical fitness is the perfect place to improve our mental and emotional health! That proactive opportunity to use the body to train/ manage/ calm/ prime/ inspire the mind. But only if we set it up correctly! The courage required to reach out and be vulnerable with their goals and where they see themselves can never be understated. Let's not disrespect that with an overwhelming start of high-intensity training till you vomit type sessions. That builds a mountain of overwhelm and inertia to get back to the start line, not build your fitness! Forgive my writing style; I see your fitness routine as something we create together; my little grammar buddy keeps suggesting you in place of we. One of my careers focuses is WE do this together, not YOU by yourself!
The adage of no pain, no gain, or you've got to break yourself down to build yourself up is a false promise. Fitness is very individual and a great, safe place to gain confidence if we do it correctly. But, too often, fitness is the complete opposite. It occupies a mental space that people beat themselves up about, 'I'm not fit enough to start', 'I'm nowhere near as good as that', 'what? That took him three years to get there; why bother??'
The start is so overwhelming fitness becomes the source of pain rather than a place to re-energise. And if you've tried and failed many times before, I promise it takes way more energy to start than it did to build on yesterday! So we need to ensure you get some reward for that energy expenditure!
First, put that energy into getting more frequent occasions of exercise. Of course, that will not work if, in your head, the exercise has to be 1000 burpees, 1km hill sprints and 200 push-ups. So start slower, focus on strength and build up to an intensity that continues to inspire activity versus overwhelms and intimidates.
That's the number 1 trick.
Focus on frequency rather than intensity. Starting with five or six walks this week is better than one run. 3 or 4 Stretch sessions are way better than a fortnightly ice bath. If we can build in these sorts of daily habits and focus on the frequency of those habits, then we're going to be in a far better space and place physically, mentally and emotionally throughout 2023. What can you do today that you'd be happy to do tomorrow? That sounds like an excellent way for us to start!
Yours in Health
Sean Cornish
