Exercise thoughts

Found this section in a book called "Racing Weight" by  Matt Fitzgerald, and it really resonated on how I found a sustainable activity to aid my maintenance.

-Tom

In our society exercise is promoted as a means to achieve desired results rather than as an end in itself. Exercise product manufacturers and service providers compete by promising better results through more efficient means. Advertisers assume that you cannot possibly enjoy exercise; therefore fitness solutions are marketed on claims of minimizing the amount of time the consumer is required to suffer through them to achieve the results he or she wants. This phenomenon is epitomized in the best-selling fitness book 8 Minutes in the Morning, which promises a body like that of author Jorge Cruise, with a commitment to exercise not exceeding the eight minutes of the title, and in the infomercials for the Bowflex exercise machine, which promise bodies like those of the fitness models they show using the machine “in just minutes a day.”

Such marketing encourages consumers to choose modes of exercise utterly without regard for any possible affinity for the activities themselves. It teaches us to view working out strictly as a chore to get through as quickly as possible and hence to choose the particular form of exercise that will yield the desired results in the least amount of time. But there is no form of exercise that yields the results we really want in just minutes a day. It takes hours a week, every week, to sculpt and maintain a fitness model’s body, and it is nearly impossible to sustain that level of commitment unless exercise is enjoyable.

Despite such efforts to make us believe that some forms of exercise are more effective than others, the truth is that all forms of exercise are more or less equally effective— if you keep doing them. But you’re unlikely to keep doing any form of exercise that you view as a chore to be gotten over with as quickly as possible. Only if you truly enjoy the actual experience of performing a given form of exercise can it become a permanent part of your lifestyle.

So if there’s a particular endurance sports activity that you’ve tried in the past and kind of liked, make it your primary form of exercise going forward. If you haven’t yet found a favorite, try them all and choose the one that feels most “right” as you do it.

SET A BIG GOAL

I encourage every beginning endurance athlete to set his or her sights on finishing a race. Establishing such a “big” initial goal seems counterintuitive to many, but it’s actually a much surer way to cultivate enjoyment of exercise than setting a small goal, such as losing 10 pounds . The reason is that big goals are more consonant with human psychology. First, any goal tends to be most motivating when it is quite challenging . Small, easy-to-achieve goals don’t always excite or, frankly, frighten us enough to inspire consistent hard work toward their fulfillment. Setting a goal to finish a first race—whether it’s a sprint triathlon, a century ride, a half-marathon, or something else—will make exercise a “bigger deal” in your daily life and encourage you to invest more in it, thereby accelerating the process of coming to enjoy it.

Second, research in psychology has shown that human beings are natural game players. Almost any sort of hard work becomes more enjoyable when it is structured as a game , with a clear objective and clear means of “counting points” or measuring progress toward that goal. When I was a child, my mother cleverly made a game of the chore of putting away my toys before bedtime— a chore that my two brothers and I loathed. She would put a fun song on the record player and challenge us to put all of our toys away before it ended. We raced around giggling and screaming instead of moping and pouting as we had always done when tidying up in the past. More to the point, studies in exercise psychology have demonstrated that men, women, and children have more fun playing sports than they do exerting themselves at the same intensity in mere fitness activities (Bakshi, Bhambhani, and Madill 1991). By establishing a goal to finish a race, you transform an activity, such as bicycling , that could be a mere fitness activity into a sport.

Third, research has also shown that self-efficacy, or a feeling of activity-specific competence, is the single best predictor of enjoyment in a given activity, and pursuing and achieving the goal of completing a race are a great way to develop a sense of self-efficacy in your chosen endurance sport (Lewis et al. 2002). The first distance-running race I ever completed was a roughly 1-mile run against my fellow fifth-graders on our school’s annual field day. It hurt like hell, but I won, and the winning made me want to race again, despite the suffering that racing entailed. Studies in sports and exercise psychology indicate that my experience was quite typical. The naturally fittest kids (and adults, for that matter) tend to most enjoy fitness activities, while the naturally most coordinated kids and adults most enjoy motor skill sports, such as basketball. In short, we most enjoy doing what we do well.

Does this mean you have to be capable of winning races to enjoy an endurance sport? Fortunately, it does not. Research suggests that exercise enjoyment increases as fitness does. Thus , as long as you enjoy your chosen sport well enough to continue doing it until you get that first race under your belt, you will gain so much fitness and self-efficacy along the way that you will enjoy it much more by the time you have achieved that initial goal. Also, crossing your first finish line has a magical effect on self-efficacy. It’s transformative in many cases, such as that of furniture salesman– turned– triathlete Bryan Lee. Something about stopping the clock at the end of an official event puts a hook in you, such that no sooner have you showered off your race sweat than you are already plotting your next race goal.

GO OVERBOARD

A change of lifestyle is a big deal because it is also a change of identity. Your self-definition is transformed in the process of making significant modifications to your daily routines and rituals. Because major lifestyle changes are often disruptive, they are not completed without a certain rallying of your entire personality around the change. This is why a honeymoon period of intense absorption in a new lifestyle often occurs. We see the phenomenon played out in every sphere of life...

Fitzgerald, Matt (2012-11-27). Racing Weight (The Racing Weight Series) (p. 176). Velo Press. Kindle Edition.

Great article! I am in search of something other than the gym (which I do like very much). Have committed to trying yoga this summer and am thinking about trying a spin class. We'll see, but I do believe I need an exercise hobby!

Designing and building my own bicycles keeps me interested in pedaling for a sustainable cardio/fun activity to protect my skinny.

frisco

Thank you Tom.

Great reading. This makes so much sense to me. Thanks for sharing. 

I have always thought of exercise as something to be done to lose weight.  I went hard and burnt out.  It's not sustainable.  Going into surgery,  I decided to change my reason for exercise. 

Like you, I love cycling.  My fitness program revolves around preparing for riding challenges leading up to the big kahuna.  The Tour de Blast.  54 miles round trip up Mt. St. Helens.  If that is not scary enough to motivate me to train, nothing will!

Along the way, I am meeting new people and riding fun routes that I would not do on my own. I look for rides that are new and exciting places with scenic views.  Each time I finish, I am tired and thrilled to have survived.  Then look for the next ride!  This is not exercise to lose weight, this is fun that happens to makes me fitter and just might help me lose a few pounds along the way!  Gotta go now.  Packing up for another fun ride tomorrow morning. :)

I just skimmed through because my brain is on overload right now (I am writing 6 different final exams for my students), but what I did catch was quite interesting. I also believe that one has to actually like the physical activity that they are engaged in in order for it to be sustainable.

OT a bit, when is the race across America team going to be in Southern CA for the race kick off? Mike & I would like to try to be there to chear the team on as they start this incredible race.