As someone who’s been teaching fitness since I was 21, I want to share three basic truths about lifelong fitness. Recognize them and you can be sure that fitness will remain a part of your life. These truths are particularly important if you get discouraged by setbacks from injury, life events, or plain old lack of motivation.
Your Definition of Fitness
Your definition of fitness may be vastly different than mine or anyone else’s. The important thing is that your definition works for you. When you live by your definition, you will be active at some level and feel good about it. Maybe you walk a few times a week. Maybe you lift and work out nearly every day. Or you rock climb. Or play tennis twice a week.
And maybe you have a definition of fitness and you aren’t achieving it.
No matter where you are with fitness, these three basic truths deserve your consideration. The first truth is common knowledge and I’ve included some helpful tips for success with it. Move on to the second and third truths and you’ll establish a solid framework for success with lifelong fitness.
Truth #1: Goals Will Help You Get More Fit
Goals are awesome. They help you commit to walk once a week with a friend, lose five pounds, get ready for a 5K, address pain due to weakness or inactivity, and much more.
When you set your goals, go through this checklist:
- Make your goals reasonable. You know this. Yet, it’s worth a reminder. You have good intentions. Great ones, even. But asking yourself to work out every single day when you’re currently sedentary is a big ask. Start small. Go with a challenge that you can see yourself sustaining for more than a few days.
- Make your goals do-able. For example, if you can hardly walk or lift up your water bottle after your first workout… well, maybe you should scale things back a tad.
- Make your goals meaningful and enjoyable. Work towards goals that are important to you. And do it in a way that you like. Maybe you can’t stand doing planks and crunches but you want flatter abs. Walking or Zumba could be a better approach. (FYI, cardio is a great way to work off belly fat.)
Truth #2: Your Fitness Level Will Improve and Decline
I believe that everyone’s fitness level will fluctuate. How can it not? Your fitness level will change, right along with the rest of your life. You’ll have a miserable cold for two weeks, a newborn you adore despite the fact that she won’t let you sleep, work that keeps you late at the office, travel that destroys your daily routine, and a whole mess of experiences that combine to make your life disruptive, exciting, disheartening, and totally amazing. Maintaining your fitness often falls to the wayside.
So, get over it. You ran a 5K last summer and now you’re dying after a jog around the block. You used to be able to swim a 50-free in 23 seconds in high school. And now you’re like a sloth in the water. It happens to everyone on some level, even elite athletes.
Consider this classic bit of dialogue:
Complaint: “I’m too old to go back to school. It’ll take me 5 years to get my degree.”
Response: “How old will you be in 5 years if you don’t go back to school?”
Obviously, time will pass whether you pursue a new goal or not.
It may really take you six months or a year to return to your former level of fitness. And, granted, you might not be able to achieve the exact same level of fitness you had 20 years ago. But you’re still (hopefully) going to be around in six months or a year. Will you be fitter or not?
This is a big part of maintaining lifelong fitness. Accept that you will not always be getting stronger, fitter, and faster. You’ll have setbacks. You might get bored and slack off for a while. Change it up. Set new goals and get back at it.
Truth #3: Perseverance is the Key
Most of all, lifelong fitness takes dedication. Accept this – that for whatever reason, there will be times your fitness level will decline. And still, you need to keep coming back. Practice resiliency. Persevere.
Recently, our air quality in Colorado has been awful. Smoke from the wildfires in California and other states means I’m not running much. I’m still teaching my classes and doing other workouts. But I know that when our air clears and I start running more, it’s going to be hard. This will be my chance to be resilient. To renew my pledge to persevere.
Last year, I wrote a post that included Twyla Tharpe’s take on the difference between a fitness goal and a fitness pledge (link at bottom of this post).
If you can mark it as “done”, it’s a goal. Not so with a pledge. Whatever you decide to pledge, it is essential that you are striving to reach it, always trying to refine, hone, and improve your choices to better fulfill it.
Twyla Tharp, Keep It Moving
Need another inspirational quote?
It’s very hard in the beginning to understand that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants you to quit.
George Sheehan
I hope you’ll carry these three basic truths about lifelong fitness with you – that you’ll set goals, accept periodic setbacks, and persevere.
Stay fit!
Related posts:
Fitness Goals v. Fitness Pledge
What We Can Learn From Elite Older Athletes
The information presented on this website is not intended to replace the advice of a physician or an assessment by other wellness professionals. To reduce and avoid injury, you will want to check with your doctor before beginning any exercise program.