Exercise and Life: They are about Momentum!

 

 

As personal trainers we’re inundated with questions about “The Start” and how to keep a healthy lifestyle going.  Brett had an amazing post a while ago about our struggles in keeping our fitness regimen going even when as health professionals!   I can definitely attest to struggling with arranging my hectic schedule and fitting in a solid workout or even properly planning meals.  Many of my days start at about 4:30 am and don’t finish until 8 pm, they are packed with training sessions, business meetings and paperwork, remind you of your own schedule?

Health and life are not about a 90 day challenge, the next gimmick or a motivational strategy, it’s a lifestyle that’s built on momentum.   I look at a healthy lifestyle as a giant spinning flywheel.  These wheels require a lot of energy to get started but when the wheel starts spinning it’s hard to stop it and every stroke that we impart to the flywheel either keeps it going or makes it move faster.

I’m going to thank my dad for teaching me about these flywheels!

If you follow me on twitter you’ll see something cool that we’ve been doing for the past few months at Blitz Conditioning: we’ve organized a 7:15 am workout session five days a week!  I’ll be the first to admit, there are times where these sessions may not be as high energy and challenging as they should be, but we show up, we put in effort and it keeps the  healthy lifestyle going.  I don’t get discouraged by a missed day or a less intense workout because I know that my momentum carries me over these little bumps.  I’ve taken this analogy to my life as well.  I see each day as building more and more momentum in this flywheel that I call life.  Momentum in pursuit of a vision can be slowed down by life’s circumstance, but the force carries us forward and allows us to impart more positive momentum the next moment.

So my charge to you:  generate your own fitness momentum if you haven’t already.  Start slow!  Five to ten minutes of low intensity exercise a day is good for the first while, find a workout buddy, exercise in a community or group class, get a personal trainer.  Once that fitness flywheel starts moving make small incremental changes to your lifestyle and not the 180 degree change.  The small changes add more momentum and eventually you’ll have a health driven lifestyle in full flight!