Only 18% Of Us Exercise, Why?

If I had a dollar for every spouse who asked me to get their husband to exercise, I’d be rich. This article is about finding that magic bullet or bullets to get you moving.  I watch the ads they all promise looking better and feeling better and they are right, exercise does that. The positive claims about exercise are true, unlike most other products that claim to make you lose weight or grow hair, exercise really will make you feel better and look better. They are saying if you don’t workout you will look bad and feel bad, this is usually not most people’s reality. The image portrayed in the ad could be meaningless like the photo

How can it be that only 18% of the U.S. population exercises regularly? Yes it is hard, hot and sweaty but look at all the pro’s vs. the con’s, anyone making a list like that surely would be at the gym each morning, right? The media tells us if you don’t workout you will look bad and feel bad, maybe the problem is that these bad things are not as immediate as say hunger. If you never have to lift something heavy, how would you know you have gotten weaker? On the other hand, if you couldn’t lift your coffee cup you would be doing bicep curls daily because you would be motivated.

Our bodies need food, water, sleep, and the body has mechanisms like hunger, thirst, and sleepiness to make sure the body gets what it needs. I think everyone agrees the human body requires exercise, but the only mechanism the body has to show you this is weakness or lack of energy and only at times when you are trying to use those “powers”.  Ironically, if you tried to lift weights weekly you would see how weak you are, but then the act would make you strong.

We are such a modern society. We as a society are getting weaker and weaker because the opportunities to use our strength are becoming less and less. Electricity, running water, cars, have all made the need for muscular strength on a daily basis much less, but in terms of health muscular strength is more important than ever!

Our group Team We Fit U was conceived as a tool to reach people who may be on the couch and to try and motivate them to get up off of it and move, we offer a monthly raffle of $50. To participate all you need do is post to our group some sort of proof you worked out, but I would like to do more. To do this I need to get into the heads of people who went from couch potato to fitness fanatic, what made them change?

I hear stories all the time “I have zero strength”, “I hate exercise”, “I wish I could be more like…” when I look at most people’s schedules, goals etc (I do a lot of consults) there is time but people will have to sacrifice or will they. Mostly, these people want to exercise but they haven’t really bottomed out so they start and then lose their momentum.

I ask this question if you had one wish for your child wealth, health or happiness which would you pick for them? Most people pick health because the other two are useless without it, but as parents the number one thing you can do to promote health to your child is to live a healthy lifestyle. (The  18% above IS NOT all parents)…

5 Tricks to get you moving.

I will offer some ideas to help combat the number one excuse “NOT ENOUGH TIME”.

• Watch that show, read that book, play that game only when exercising.
• It doesn’t have to be all at once you could do push ups in the morning squats at lunch pull ups after dinner or even using your Fitbit type of thing a quick walk jog to from the train.
• Include your kids let them ride their bike while you walk or jog or let them run with you.
• Pay for exercise, by doing this you are assigning a $ value to the act, which moves you closer.
• Work with a fanatic who doesn’t miss.

My own story is that I have a terrible fear of being helpless or trapped in my own body, perhaps I was Lou Gehrig in another life or who knows, all I do know is I want to be able to move until the end.  If you were a couch potato but now you are not what was the force behind or in you to get you to just do it?