Rethinking Exercise

-Brooks Wingo, PhD

For many people, the thought of exercise brings up of pictures of pounding away hours on some form of immobile gym equipment while staring blankly into a TV screen that you can’t really hear.  How can anyone love exercise so much that they spend an hour a day on the treadmill; especially with having to work, raise a family, and maintain some form of social life?  This sounds like a bit of an exaggeration, but my point is that many times the thought of exercise is more difficult to overcome than the physical exertion we dread so much.   In this post, I want to address 3 common mental errors that people often have when trying to initiate a new exercise plan.

The first mental error is failing to plan.  The old adage “failing to plan is planning to fail” definitely holds true for establishing a good exercise routine. One of the most common reasons people fail to get in enough exercise is time.  Most of us have so many responsibilities that it feels like there is no way to fit in one more thing.  Sit down on a Sunday afternoon and look at your calendar for the week.  Find any available blocks of time and plan your exercise during those times.  Write it on your calendar, just like a dentist appointment.  Then each evening, pack your bag for the next day’s work out.  10-15 minutes of planning ahead can lead to hours more exercise, and much less guilt about missing workouts. 

The second mental error is all or none thinking.  If I can’t spend an hour exercising, it’s not worth going at all, right? Wrong.  When it comes to weight loss, a calorie is a calorie.  You can burn calories by taking the stairs instead of the elevator, walking around the block during a 10 minute break or walking across campus rather than driving around looking for a good parking spot.  There are all different levels of activity and exercise, and each has a role in weight loss and health.  To lose weight and establish a healthy lifestyle you don’t have to spend hours in the gym, just find a healthy balance between daily activity and a few longer exercise sessions during the week.

The final mental error brings us back to the treadmill (or mouse wheel, as many of us think of it).  When it comes to exercise, think outside the gym.  Go for a walk, or a hike, sign up for a flag football or kick ball team.  The point is to find something you enjoy.  I have never met someone who enjoys the treadmill so much that they spend hours a day on it.  I have met many people who love running, cycling or hiking so much that they spend hours doing these things.  Look for something that you can do with family or friends to make exercise more social.  Or if you need to relieve stress, take up yoga or Tai-Chi to help calm you mind. 

The take home message here is that if you can begin to think of exercise as something you plan to do for yourself-rather than one more thing you have to get done, it takes much of the drudgery out of the process.