Lately I have been slowly introducing jogging to my personal exercise. It is important for you to know that I began my walk today with no intention of jogging at all in my travels. But as I was jogging, I suddenly realised what I was doing, I was JOGGING! I had not been a keep jogger since High School and never intended to be. I would always see other people jog or run while I went for my walks and think "pfffft, that'll never be me, I wouldn't ever get that fit to do that". But here I was, still jogging as that memory crossed my mind. I hadn't stopped.
I'll continue jogging till the end of the street.
Awesome, I did it, I'll continue to that tree up ahead.
Hmmm, still got a bit more in me, Lets get to that street sign and walk it out a bit.
As I got to that street sign, I looked at my fitbit and realised I had travel a kilometre or so faster than my usual time. It felt AWESOME! As I was walking, I was thinking back to a few years ago to when I wanted to get fit and I asked my friends to help me. They were eager to help, as they were well into their fitness programs and would exercise almost every day. And I was a newby, I wasn't used to exercising at all, I didn't know much about it. All I remember it to be was hard work and you would feel sore afterwards.
Anyway, my friend met up with me and taught me a few boxing sparring techniques and drills. They were quite good. It was entertaining and fun while getting a good workout. Then he would tell me to run from one side of the building to another till he said stop. I found I was running for around 10 mins, but felt like a good 20. And finally he followed up with some upper body strength exercises. By the end of this I was completely exhausted. My body felt like jelly, my clothes were soaked in sweat and to top it off, on my way home, I had to stop on the side of the road to visit 'Mr. Chucky'.
Now, I know my friend had great intentions to help me get fit, but what that did was put fear in me to exercise. It made me think that I was not pushing myself hard enough during exercise usually and that this sore and stiff feeling I would get from exercise was normal. I now realise how wrong that was. My friend had told me that this was what he had to do during his training, which he did at martial arts class. Two things wrong there.
1. He had been training longer than I had and push a beginner like myself at an elite level that he was currently at.
2. He was training in Martial Arts, all I wanted was to build up my fitness.
Back to reality. As I thought about this during my walk, I realised several things that are maybe beneficial for you or anyone starting to get into fitness. I remember seeing this quote and thought it was brilliant for motivating people who are willing to give fitness a go, "You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." What this has said to me is, take your time! You can achieve greatness by just starting. Start small, start at a pace that YOU are comfortable with. Get the hang of it, find the fun in it, what ever it is. And if you feel confident in going that little bit extra, go for it. But make sure its a distance that YOU want to go, not anyone else. Start making it in fun, find motivating music, find a rhythm that you can comfortable go to.
This can be applied not only to walking, jogging, running, or any type of cardio workout, this goes with strength workouts. Push ups for example, start of at a comfortable amount and then add one or two extra when you feel like you can. Next thing you know, you find yourself doing 20 push up with ease, or perhaps 30, or possibly 50!!!! Look at you go!
Just remember to go at your own pace, don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself, don't put a time limit on it, otherwise you will end of injuring yourself, getting sick or quickly lose that motivation to keep going. And surround yourself with positivity. Positive and encouraging friends, and motivating quotes and videos. Make it a fun and exciting journey, not a mundane, boring chore. Enjoy life!
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