My final blog this week was always going to be on exercise but I wanted it to be topical rather than just restating what we all hear time and time again about exercise. Which explains why I’m here again so soon after my last blog because I’ve got my example and blogging it on Friday pretending it had just happened wouldn’t have felt right ……
I woke this morning in one of those moods – negative, achy, and struggling to motivate myself. I’d even managed to convince myself that I might have a cold coming. I wondered about cancelling my personal trainer and taking to my bed. I realised, however, as he is often a better judge of my health than me, and since he’s got me to the other side many times in the past to ignore, that he might help again today.
He arrived and very quickly decided to do something different and cut short the warm up and proceeded to give me my most strenuous session for a long while. Boxing – kick boxing – running!! He repeatedly asked me to push through my resistance and keep going when every muscle (and my head) just wanted to give up. At the end he just pointed out that all I had been thinking before the session was in fact not true and I had just done better than I had for many months "your brain just needed retuning."
There was a lot going on not least the need to push through but please don’t under estimate the power of exercise to shift how we’re feeling. I know when we’re in one of those moods it’s hard to find the motivation and that’s one reason I have a personal trainer – but there are other means of ensuring we keep on track e.g. I arrange to go to yoga with a friend to keep us both committed etc. For others it’s simply finding a more convenient time – before work, lunch, straight from work etc.
My plea is just ensure you do something physical because it really can make a difference.