THE SECRET IS THERE IS NO SECRET
There are basically two types of people who use weight training for fitness.
Type A, the driven and type B, the not-so-driven. Though the degrees
of difference vary, I know that for those of you of the A type,
it would be an act of cruelty to keep you from your workout - an
absolute impossibility, like stopping the movement of a glacier
or the stampede of wild horses.
And
then there are amongst you of the B type, neither lazy nor irresponsible,
who can't seem to make it to the gym (or the garage) on a regular
basis. You have a long list of reasons why you can't and some of
them are even pretty good. It is to this larger half of the population
to whom I speak.
To
be effective, exercise must be consistent. This is the first and
foremost precept of physical conditioning. If there's a secret,
it's consistency. Don't quote me on this, but I believe bad exercise,
badly executed consistently is far better than no exercise at all.
Getting to the gym whether you want to or not, even for a short
appearance, a salute or a bow is vitally important to the health
of your fitness lifestyle. A break in consistency leads to the erosion
of your training foundations, and without sound foundations no structure
will stand.
How
do we train consistently, especially if we don't have a milligram
of discipline or patience? To be consistent, training must be desirable,
not drudgery, not dull, boring or fruitless. It must and can be
exciting. I bought my first set of weights when I was ten years
old, haven't put them down since, and still find them fun and fulfilling.
(Embarrassing - that I don't have any brains has nothing to do with
it!)
For
training to be productive, you must look forward to it with enthusiasm
and confidence. Merely doing it is not good enough. Train with steady
pace, moving from set to set, breathing fully to oxygenize and psychologically
prepare for the set to follow. Get involved with the flow of your
exercise, always focused on your immediate task and surroundings.
Concentrate on the muscle's action, the burn, the pump, the extension
and contractions. This is not advanced thinking reserved for champions
and pros. No time is too soon to think in these terms. If you're
brand new in the gym, practicing your exercises with these obscure
thoughts in mind will speed your progress. Always keep your eye
on your goal, knowing you'll eventually achieve it and savor the
time spent along the way.
Absence
is erosive. In fact, your presence in the gym can be restoring,
even bring you out of depression, solve a problem, squash stress
or inspire you to have the best workout of your life. Try it! Just
go to the gym when all roads lead elsewhere, maybe nowhere.
I've
discovered new exercise angles, approaches and combinations on these
very low energy, low spirited times out of simple instinct and survival.
I can't count how many times people have crawled in the front door
of our World Gyms, a slim smile pasted on their face and 30 heroic minutes
later march out exclaiming "I made it!"
Basically,
you'll want to settle into a sound exercise program for at least
6-8 weeks to provide your mind with order and discipline. It also
provides time to understand each exercise separately and collectively
and to afford the healthy overload to the muscles so they respond
by growing strong.
But
when the time comes that you're short of time, distracted by life's
ups and downs, achey, slightly fluish or overtrained, try one of
my SlumpBusters. They're
not original anymore, but they were 30 years ago when I first put
them to use. I've written up some short and sweet exercise combos
that I've used over and over again for great results when my training
hit the wall. These combos are available at the SlumpBusters link
above.
Remember,
while we're all alone (which helps make this one of the most fulfilling
sports), we're also all in this together. And in the gym there's
probably nothing you're going through that we haven't all gone through
at one time or another. It's the peaks and valleys... I'll get to
that another time.