Reason and Variety

Once you get past the lack of time that so many of us have in our daily lives, there are two main reasons why fitness routines fail and neither has anything to do with laziness. They are a lack of purpose and boredom. These two elements are what stop people in their tracks even once they have carved out time to get themselves fit. I had a lot of time to get fit, but that in itself was not a guarantee of success, any more than only having 10 minutes a day to devote to your fitness is a guarantee of failure.

When I decided to get my fitness sorted at the beginning of the year I had to start from the most basic of positions, namely the reason why I wanted to sort out my fitness. You see, it’s not enough to say that you want to be fitter, that’s just an end goal, you have to say why, specifically, you want to get fitter. For me it was all about future proofing my body for the next stage of my life.

I have always been fit in terms of being able to walk miles, but I have often neglected my upper body so I have been getting weaker in the past few years in terms of my ability to lift and carry. When I was at St George’s I used the gym for three years and built up a very good muscle tone but for most of the next decade I did nothing other than maintaining my walking speed and distance. Having decided to step away from work I knew I had to do something to arrest the gradual slide in all round fitness. Janet gave me the impetus I needed by getting me a dumbbell set for Christmas and after a January with a constant series of colds and coughs I was ready to get going. That first week of February was quite easy because of the novelty but I know that I would have started to drift if I didn’t have that clear reason in my mind for continuing but I needed more.

The fact that I interspersed dumbbells with yoga was absolutely central to keeping me on track. That brings me to the second plank (pun intended) of my fitness regime. It’s incredibly boring and, indeed, counter productive to just do one type of exercise. There would be no point in being strong if my core balance remained as bad as it was, so I included yoga in my timetable. This has proved very important in the last week or so as I have managed to develop tennis elbow, much to my daughter’s amusement! She asked me when I had last picked up a racket 🤣🤣! Not being able to do the weights for a week or so doesn’t matter because I have been able to focus on my yoga.

The improvement in my tone, strength and balance has taken me by surprise. My body has changed shape slowly but surely and my muscles and joints no longer work against each other as they seemed to do in the past. When I first started the yoga I could barely stand on one leg for more than a few seconds and I couldn’t touch my toes whilst keeping my legs straight. Now I can easily stand on one leg for half a minute and I find it so easy to touch my toes that I am now trying the next stage of being able to make my palms go flat on the floor. You see so much progress so quickly that when you get past the first couple of weeks that this keeps you going once the regime has become a natural part of your life. I am now three and a half months into my fitness regime and I can’t imagine dropping it now, but without the reason and the variety it would never have stuck. How long you need before you get any new habits embedded very much depends on you, but in my case it’s two months. It’s now onwards and upwards for me and as my osteopath said yesterday I am still young enough to see very quick and lasting results. To be referred to as being young enough for anything at 61 is a huge confidence boost 🤣🤣. Good luck with your fitness and remember purpose and variety.