You read endless advice about what type of exercise you “should” be doing these days and it’s all based on a false premise that sets us all up to fail. That’s because so many of us approach exercise in a fundamentally incorrect way in my opinion.
Exercise shouldn’t be about work. Throwaway phrases like “no pain, no gain” are fundamentally flawed and do nothing to help our cause. The whole approach speaks of “work”; something you don’t want to do, but really feel that you “should” for the sake of what? Your health or vanity maybe?
Either way, it’s completely wrong. Instead, what we should all be focusing on is finding physical activities that we truly enjoy. If you can find something you’d rather do than not on a quiet day when you could choose anything – then you’ve truly found the key to successfully exercising for life. This will be different for every woman.
For me, the “exercise” I choose (and I don’t really like to even use the word exercise as this is much more about fun) is climbing. I also love walking and skiing – mountains being the common theme here!
Given half a chance, I will don my climbing shoes and crampons and off I go. And the beauty of serious walking is that you can do it almost anywhere. Even urban environments have their charm.
And each February, I pack up my skis, salopettes and ski jacket and book in two weeks’ skiing, trying somewhere different each year. Anyone who has been skiing will know how firm your legs feel after a couple of days of this. It’s the same with climbing and walking.
But the health and beauty benefits are merely a sideshow. I’m doing it because I love it; and that’s the whole point.
Leave a comment