5 Ways to Start Getting Active
Transitioning from a couch potato to a go-getter
You are sitting in front of the TV watching your favorite series with a bag of chips and a tub of ice cream and enjoying your time. It’s also raining outside so you are confined to your home. As you are watching TV, you suddenly fall asleep.
You wake up the next day covered with chips and not feeling so good. You rush to the bathroom and as soon as you glance at the mirror, you will feel aghast by how you look. From there you put your foot down and decide to get active and healthy.
Pretty generic scenario I know, but we all had this moment where at some point we felt disgusted for the lack of a better word by how we looked and felt.
In this article, I will give you simple ways to break away from the inertia and kickstart the lifestyle overhaul.
#1: Start Walking
With so many activities available, you feel overwhelmed and confused trying to pick the sport that fits. But as a start, WALK!
Walking doesn’t require a lot of mental effort or a particular setup. You just put on some comfy clothes and your raggedy shoes and just go (granted the weather permits).
By walking, you will expose your body to a new stimulus without leading you to burnout, and it’s an enjoyable activity you can do solo or with a partner.
Aside from the benefits you get like active recovery, stress reduction, and increased cardio system to name a few, walking is a great momentum builder and is a gateway to an improved healthy lifestyle.
#2: Lift Weights Bro!
This is a big one! Resistance Training (to me at least) is a non-negotiable. Imagine you go through life sitting all day working and only moving to get to your car, the kitchen, or bed and repeat the same cycle.
Well, you might not feel anything at the moment, but as you age, all forms of aches and pains start to surface (not to forget less-than-ideal health markers). So before this happens, start doing resistance training.
The benefits of resistance training are innumerable, but as a start try to get 2 to 3 days of weight training when you can. If you do not have access to a gym, you can always do bodyweight exercises that can be challenging.
You can also use an app to craft a tailored workout for you, or you can cherry-pick some exercises that you will adhere to and start cranking out some reps for 2–3 sets minimum. So go ahead and lift Sh*t up!
#3: Chores, chores everywhere!
It’s funny how some people can get work or training on time, yet they face much resistance to doing chores. I get it, it’s dull. But on the flip side, these chores have their benefits.
What are some of the benefits? Firstly, you get active since your body is engaging in an “unconventional” exercise like making your bed, vacuuming the carpet, doing the dishes, dusting the furniture… Intense or not, it is a stimulus and your blood is flowing and that’s what matters.
Second, you will become more disciplined which spills over other areas in your life, which means it helps you to stick to your training routine much easier because of the accumulated effect of doing chores consistently.
Thirdly, you will feel good about yourself. By finishing your chores, you’ll experience a sense of accomplishment of different degrees, which can in time also build momentum to take on more demanding chores or activities.
Maybe your parents didn’t communicate the benefits of doing chores well, but now you can see them in a different light. So, when a chore arises, be up for it and just do it!
#4: The Path of Most Resistance
You got to where you are in your life right now by moving along the path of least resistance. In the case of wellness, you use a medium to do stuff for you. Sometimes this medium is justified and other times it can be ditched.
What I am hinting at is that you can skip the common mediums and opt for the traditional way of doing things. For instance, use the stairs instead of the elevator, walk instead of using the car, park as far as possible, use a basket instead of a shopping cart, skip take-outs and take yourself out, etc.
We got used to going the easy way since it saves time and especially effort. However, if you want to become more active, the path of most resistance is the way. So ditch the shortcuts and take the arduous “scenic route”.
#5: Exercise Snacks
No this does not correlate with food. You already ate your way fat and now it’s time to exercise your way skinny.
Exercise Snacks are a handy tool that you can use throughout the day to get in some form of activity besides your scheduled routine, and to take a rest from work or break your time sitting record.
In practice, every couple of hours, do any exercise you enjoy for about 10 mins and resume what you were doing. I enjoy pullups, pushups, and even hanging ab exercises.
Also, exercise snacks include some mobility exercises and stretching to lubricate your joints and avoid stiffness. Therefore use this tool to supplement your scheduled workout routine and get active!
Conclusion
Those are some ways I encourage you to utilize to commence your healthy lifestyle journey. Do not do everything in one go, instead choose one or two methods that you can be consistent with and progress from there.
A lot of time, we use the extreme way of doing things like over-exercising, eating super clean, and drastically cutting our calories. However, this is not practical since it leads to severe backlash and you go back to square one.
So just as you steadily and patiently formed the habit of becoming unhealthy and lazy, you can also steadily and patiently reverse the process by doing the opposite. Rushing won’t do you any good.
As you slowly install good habits in your life, being active will be the new normal, and these habits will run on autopilot. Don’t you want that?
So stand up, clean the chips off your chest, and get moving!
Wish you Strength and Wisdom ✌️
