When I first meet people who have questions about getting
started with an exercise program everyone uses different words and terms, but
ultimately they’re all saying the same thing.
They want to be happy.
They want a higher quality of life.
Get toned. Lose
weight. Have more energy. Run faster. Climb stairs pain free.
It all means the same thing.
They just want to be happy and enjoy a higher quality of life.
Even with long standing current members, I’m constantly
reminding them to keep it simple (TR tenet #2!). Because whatever your fitness goal is,
exercising smart and consistently is the answer. With that behavioral pattern, things have a
tendency to work themselves out for the better.
Along those lines, I recently read “The Power of Habit” by
Charles Duhigg. Essentially, it’s about
how everything in our lives, good and bad, is a direct result of a habit. The key is to identify the bad habits and
insert new routines and new habits in their place.
One of the take home messages in the book is that good
habits have a tendency to generate other good habits in other areas of your life. Success breeds success.
More specifically, exercising consistently is a good habit
that research has shown to improve other areas of
one’s life outside of the
exercise world.
Take, for instance, studies* examining the impacts of
exercise on daily routines. Typically, people who exercise regularly:
- Become more productive at work
- Smoke less
- Show more patience in interpersonal relationships
- Use credit cards less frequently
- Feel less stresed
It’s not completely clear why. But for many people, exercise is a keystone
habit that triggers widespread change.
“Exercise spills over,” said James Prochaska, a University of Rhode
Island researcher. “There’s something
about it that makes other good habits easier.”
So it’s really not a stretch to say that simply getting an
effective workout on a consistent basis can improve your quality of life. Which is why I always preach to TR members
about consistency of training and to future TR members about how simply getting started on the right
track can be a game changer for everything in your life.
TR tenet #1 – Time to improve.
*Numerous studies have
supported these statements. If you need
to be directed to the specific studies, let me know. – JR
