Movement maverick Rannoch Donald on how doing a little, often, becomes a lot.
It’s that time of year. We make grand gestures. Resolve to be the best we can be by taking on some big challenge that will somehow transform us. Truth is, by mid-February most of us will be content to sit back and bask in the Halo Effect that our gym membership and new running shoes have given us.
Well, I have some good news. Making the kind of physical and emotional changes we want does not require a massive shift in our lifestyle. It simply requires small consistent actions. One day, one step, one rep at a time.
The vast majority of people simply need to make incremental changes. Hey, if the gym is your thing, if you are out there clocking up the miles, then that’s fantastic. The rest of us need Every Day Activity. Whether it’s body weight exercise, yoga, skipping rope or the king of all exercise, walking, we need to move. Consistently. Excellence is a habit!
So before you go beating yourself up, feeling like a failure because this year’s resolution is just a leap too far, take a little time out move. Anything. Take the stairs, walk before dinner, bang out some push ups, strike a pose. It all adds up. You just have to make it part of the fabric of your day.
A little, often, becomes a lot.
Take a leaf out of Grand Master Jhoon Rhee’s book. Here he is at 80 years of age doing 100 Push ups. How’s that for Every Day Activity?
You can pick up simple daily workouts over at the 100 Rep Challenge, routines designed to simply get some more movement in your day. 100 Reps is about becoming a master of the simple things. No gym required.
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Photo: BodyPower – By Andrew Bellamy
Luke’ I was glad to read your post .I have just started swimming again after being a slacker for to long. And getting four hundred metre’s was a struggle. I was feeling a bit down on that effort so it us good to hear that it takes a bit of time.
In my opinion and experience it comes down to two things (excluding medical conditions), the first is you can’t have a helpless victim mentality and the second is you have to want to GET there instead of wanting to just BE there. In the former i am refering to the mentality of “healthy food isn’t convenient for my lifestyle”, “i don’t have the time” etc etc. People have a tendancy to blame the outside world for making them fall short of their goals, short of being hobbled, the challenges the world puts forward are things you either choose to overcome… Read more »
I have been an all round athelete for the first half of my life (Swimming, athletics, football, basketball) and a slug for the second half of my life. I have taken up swimming again just at the end of last year to get back into shape. For those who want to know how long it takes to get into shape it is a fairly easy guide to get a comfortable fitness level where exercise doesn’t hurt or leave you busting for breath. It doesn’t matter what exercise it is it always seems to take about the same amount of time… Read more »
Great points Luke. I know that for the average person it is simply a case of making movement and Every Day Activity. And the fact is, we can mix up how we choose to move. We don’t need permission to experiment. People will often choose and activity, find they don;t actually like it, and stick with it until they get bored and give up. The key is to make it enjoyable or at least recognise the benefits it provides. I encourage people to become masters of the basics. You can make massive improvements in your overall health and well-being focusing… Read more »
30-40 minutes a day is really asking a lot. Your body responds to the peak demands being placed on it, so I do my resistance training for about 40 minutes a week, tops. The same goes for cardio work. There’s not much point in spending many hours on the treadmill every month. A 10 minute run as fast as you can session pretty much makes sure that your body knows that it has to keep the VO Max up. The only other bit there is if a person is fat and needs to burn enough fat to get slim. In… Read more »