2015 is a brand new year, and so far all is good. There is something about the changing of the calendar that motivates us to re-invent ourselves. Instead of fighting this instinct, let’s embrace it and turn up the fitness to make this the year we got our body back on track.
In my last article, It is Never Too Late for Fitness, I talked about it never being too late to start a fitness routine and how the most important thing to do was to create forward motion. Now, it is time to tweak the routine.
If you were able to successfully get yourself moving, you should have a good idea of where you are at in your fitness abilities. We tend to focus on those areas where we are stronger, because they give us more of a sense of accomplishment. This is why you see the big muscle guys with the chicken legs, because no one enjoys leg day.
We need to work on our strengths, but also need to focus on the weaker areas too. The best way to do this is to get back to the basics. For me this was distance running. Doing martial arts, I never had the need or desire to run further than a quarter mile. We did wind sprints for many hours each week and I had no need to add more distance. However, Uncle Sam disagreed after joining the military. He wanted me to run 1.5 miles for my fitness test. This was oddly difficult for me, and demoralizing.
At the time, I was able to muscle through it and use my youth to get good scores. Then something happened…I got older. Almost 17 years later, I no longer have the “youth†on my side and the run times were climbing. I decided to get back to the basics and learn to run as if I never knew before.
I read some beginner’s books and articles written by marathon runners and it gave me lots of things to do. I took one aspect of the run and worked on it each workout. If it gave me trouble, I focused on that for many workouts until I had it down. Eventually, I re-invented my run style and it was fun. Looking back, I now enjoy something that I used to abhor.
This can be done for any exercise. The fitness world is so vast that you could read 100 articles about lunges and learn something new in most of them. Do not give up because something is difficult or boring. Take the time to get back to the basics and give it another try. If you still do not like it after that, look for an alternative you can handle.
