I had this idea of a drawing where a guy is walking past those facehole boards that make you look like a pirate or a bear riding a tricycle. Each ‘board’ would pose a separate reason people might be hesitant to start a workout program. The idea was the character would be faced with say four or five different ones and the underlying question would be something like, “If you’re hesitant to begin an exercise program, would you find yourself choosing one of these to identify with and stand behind?” As you can see, that’s super wordy so I shelved the idea for a while and re-thought about it.
I continued drawing out each board though, and since fitting all of them into one piece was going to be way to big for a display like a phone or even a laptop I thought each one should get its own post.
I’ll be posting each one over the next few weeks and discussing my opinion on each as we go. Enjoy, I hope you like it and I hope it sparks some thoughts for you to either begin a program of your own, to reach out to one of us, or to just share with someone who you might think would like it.
What if I hurt myself? – Pain is a definite DE-motivator for exercise. I know while I was recovering from knee surgery I was very worried I would re-injure myself. Not only would it be painful and difficult to deal with all over again, but just the upheaval for my family and finances was a major bummer. So, I can definitely relate to not wanting to do something detrimental to your health.
Unfortunately, this manifests in two basic outcomes. We either stop moving our bodies effectively or we don’t push them in ways that will actually help us. In the first instance, not moving or exercising regularly is a major contributor to disease and dysfunction and I’m not going to bore you with yet another diatribe on why a sedentary lifestyle is bad for us. What I will say is that the Google machine can list innumerable studies and articles detailing how regular physical activity helps us to resist injury and also allows for faster recovery time if something does befall you.
The general idea is that a fitness program will keep you stronger, more flexible, and provide greater levels of endurance. Then, when you are gardening, cleaning out the garage, or painting the bathroom you will be less affected by fatigue and deteriorating movement quality, otherwise known as, bending, twisting, lifting, pushing, and pulling.
The second issue with a general fear of injury is that we will choose activities which ‘feel’ like work but aren’t really challenging our bodies. This can be something like taking the same walk everyday, participating in the same yoga class every week, or following the same exercise tape several times a week. While this may once have been a stressor to your body, it’s pretty smart and has probably adapted to it by now. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good that you enjoy these activities and that lends to maintaining consistency which is a great thing. However, have you considered ways to challenge yourself and to push your fitness to greater levels? Are those activities actually providing you with the results you were looking for in the first place?
Not knowing where to start or how to effectively, and safely, progress your workouts is a pretty normal thing to worry about. The good news is that I am kindof good at that and would love to help you out. The even better news is that I’m running a fall special! SO check that out by visiting our Home page!
Jason
Make sure to check out part two of Afraid to Move.