Sunday, December 12, 2021

Fitness and Our Mental Health: Why You Can’t Stick with Fitness (Part 1 of 3)

How to create that profound reason that will help you commit to daily exercise

By Tracy Steen

Have you heard the saying make fitness a lifestyle? It’s very accurate that those who can incorporate a fitness regime into their lives and, who develop the capacity to stick with it forever, have indeed made it their lifestyle.

Why is it easy for some but incredibly hard for the majority?

Did you know that nearly 73 percent of people who start a new fitness plan will give up within a month of setting that goal? If you’re the work-at-home type, a new study has shown that one-third of people who buy online fitness and health products never use them!

Why do some people have the capacity and others do not? If I currently have little to no capacity, how do I develop the capacity to stick with it for the rest of my life?

Good questions. I think I have found some answers.

“Saturday, 31 December. New Year’s Resolutions. I WILL go to the gym three times a week and not merely to buy a sandwich” (Bridget Jones’ Diary: A Novel).

One of the questions I will ask a new client is whether they were an athlete when they were young. I don’t just mean playing hopscotch at the park or gym class at school.

Were they a part of an organized sport? Were they on a team? Did they have regulated practices? Was there a commitment for a length of time? Were they challenged? Was it difficult? Were they pushed? Did their parents make them go when they didn’t feel like it?

I understand that not all of us were given the opportunity to participate in sports. It may not have been necessary for our parents back then, the time commitment was too much, or the cost too great.

Whatever the case, you will fall into one of two camps: you played sports growing up or you didn’t.

For those who did, here are some of the skills that were developed in those young years that aid them today in having the capacity to stick with exercise.

• Commitment

• Endurance

• Vigor

• Pain tolerance

• Knowledge

• Vitality

• Capability

• Confidence

• Belief

• Perseverance

• Tolerance

• Grit

• Stamina

I see these skills all the time in clients who have decided to make fitness a lifestyle. It’s not that people who were not athletes when they were younger don’t possess these skills. Most people possess a number of them. They just never had to access them in the realm of physical fitness.

Maybe you didn’t play varsity basketball, but maybe you were the lead in a high school play. You certainly would have developed many of these skills from your time spent acting. Capability, confidence, stamina, belief, commitment, endurance. But no physical pain tolerance.

If you achieved straight A’s and went on to work in pharmaceuticals creating new medicines, you have knowledge, vitality, perseverance, and grit. But no physical pain tolerance.

Isn’t that interesting?

There are those who have made fitness a part of their lifestyle who do not like the physical pain part of the exercise. They don’t want sore muscles, burning lungs, and overstretched ligaments.

I know this because that is half of my clientele. They merely do it because they know that it’s good for them.

Then there’s a whole other camp of people—the former athletes—who love the pain. If they can walk the day after leg day, they didn’t push themselves hard enough. If they didn’t taste blood biking up 3,000 vertical feet, they weren’t fast enough.

If you are not part of the circle of people who actually crave this physical torture, then you had better find another profound reason to put fitness on the list of your daily to-dos, or believe me, it just won’t stick.

Creating That Profound Reason

I am confident that you are already aware of the enormous benefits of daily physical activity, that it not only increases your longevity, but your performance, your energy—even your sex life—to name a few!

But what is your reason for doing it? More specifically, what is your profound, deep-seated reason for doing it, especially when you don’t feel like it?

This has got to be specific to you. It can’t be someone else’s reason or it won’t persuade you. Try to attach a meaningful image or story to your reason so that when you have days or weeks of ambiguity, you can conjure up that image to inspire you.

Maybe your mother never exercised a day in her life. By the age of 60, she began to develop severe arthritis. At the age of 70, she fell trying to pick something up and could not physically pull herself to standing. In her early 70s, she passed on.

Maybe your profound reason is that you want a life where you can watch your grandkids grow up, you can golf and go for a bike ride, or you can sit on the ground and stand back up by yourself. That is a true story of one of my client’s imperative reasons to make fitness a lifestyle.

There may be multiple reasons why you have not stuck with exercise. I have heard many excuses but far more legitimate reasons why it doesn’t work.

If it’s legitimate, then honour that and be kind to yourself. You will get there when you’re ready.

If it’s an excuse, you’ll know it. For now, you will need to learn to love the pain or discover a profound reason to do it.

Either way, it is critical for your longevity and your ability to enjoy life fully that you move daily. So please do!

Tracy Steen is a former therapist with a masters degree in counselling. In 2008 she turned to personal training, and she now spends her days combining both, helping thousands of people. Check out her YouTube channel for free weekly workouts, nutrition, and wellness guidance.

Get your BRAIN right and your MIND will follow!

4 Mental Health Resources to Help You During the Pandemic

If you or someone you know is struggling with a mental health issue, CLAC has a number of resources and interactive tools available to help you at My Health and Wellness.

Stronger Minds features videos and quick reads from mental health experts, activities to help you gain resilience, and ask-an-expert videos in response to questions.

WellCan offers free well-being resources to help Canadians develop coping strategies and build resilience to help deal with uncertainty, mental health, and substance abuse concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wellness Together Canada: Mental Health and Substance Use Support provides free online resources, tools, apps, and connections to trained volunteers and qualified mental health professionals.

Fitness and Our Mental Health: Why You Can’t Stick with Fitness (Part 1 of 3)

4 Mental Health Resources to Help You During the Pandemic

You might be interested in