Everyone says the same thing...

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