Health Reflections 4: Exercise

We need to be clear up front here: I'm no fitness expert. I'm very much in line with the old joke about being into fitness: "Fit'n diss pizza in my mouth." You want professional advice, go to a local gym. Or at the very least, sign up for The Pump Club with Arnold Schwarzenegger. You're getting my opinions here. They're worth every penny you pay for them---eventually I'll move to Substack and I'll have to make it worth paying for.

As I'm working on my own health, there are certain realities in adding exercise.

First, I have more excuses than exercise enthusiasm. I'd rather just not. I can come up with a variety of reasons why I can't exercise. After all, there's some truth to the challenges of having a bum knee and asthma. However, these realities do not undo the necessity of some form of exercise.

Second, an important truth: imperfect is better than perfect; done is better than undone. There are some levels of "wrong" to avoid: you can lift, do a sit-up, even stretch wrong and hurt yourself. But, you can also start toward exercise by doing intentional repetition of movement you already do. That way, you are not putting your body under strange strains for exercise.

For example, walking is a great exercise. If you are walking, even a bit slowly, even with a bit of support, then you've already got the motion down for one of the best, most durable exercises you can get. You may not move fast. You may not move much.

You may even do what the old joke was: put a concrete block in the middle of the floor and walk around it twice, claiming you "walked around the block." But that motion and that movement helps.

More than you might realize. The goal is to get into motion.

So start there: what are you doing that you can do at regular intervals through the day? Can you make the time to get up and walk, even 200 steps? Go to the bathroom that's farther from your office? It may add 5 minutes to each trip, but if you are being productive when you are at your desk, that might be feasible.

And it's better if you are doing a half-sit-up than doing no sit-up. Do it right, do it slow, do it halfway. Or do a push-up from your knees. Push off from the wall.

Lift 5-pound dumbbells if you've got them. instead of 10s. Do something.

Third, do it repeatedly. Make it part of your habit. If your lungs won't let you do long cardio, do short cardio. If your knees won't let you take the stairs, take the ramp twice.

We often make picture-perfect, instagram exercise the goal when our bodies just need us to get the blood circulating.

Take the small win and build on it.