This is a great question in from Pete:
"Hey Dave Long time no speak, here's a question for you
And it relates to myself in particular, but would cover a broad audience.
Background: Completely sedentary life, due to working long hours at a computer, 5 days a week, etc. "Living time" is very minimal, you could call it physical fatigue, brought about due to mental fatigue, i.e literally no motivation to move beyond turning off computers, and vegging. Medical complication: Recently knackered left knee due to moving house, crutches, stretch exercises done to get flexibility back up Question: With myself, and plenty of others living a mostly sedentary life, what would your broad advice be to get people up and moving. Is it a case of going for a simple walk, or mentally preparing oneself to literally "move".
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Hope all is well with you Pete (yes the long haired git that used to be at the lunchtime sessions at Wild Geese)"
First of all, of course I remember you mate, and I'm delighted you still receive these emails and took the time to reach out with your question.
Now, of course, I responded to Pete privately before writing this, but like Pete says, this is a topic that reaches across a broad spectrum of the population.
Let's divide the population up into broad categories to help illustrate a point.
1. People who were athletic as kids and maintained a training habit their whole lives
2. People who were athletic as kids and gave up due to college/career etc and came back later in life
3. People who were athletic as kids and gave up due to injury, not trying to get back
4. People who weren't athletic as kids but got into training later in life and are struggling to develop a foundation
5. People who were never athletic as kids and are now looking to stave off age related decline
These are very rough categories, but these are identifiable across the population I have personally worked with.
And I have nothing but respect for every person who's ever come to me for help and put in some effort.
Pete's question is for those in category 5.
Of the 5 categories, it's those in 5 that potentially have the hardest battle.
1's, it's easy. I am a 1, I've never not trained for more than a handful of months, it wasn't always training in one thing, it might have been and activity determined by the locality, but I've always trained, and I can't see myself stopping anytime soon
2's are probably the largest percentage of my old clientele in Dublin, people who stopped for good reasons and then restart later in life.
3's next, these guys have it hard, as they need to rebuild and that can be test of patience.
4's would be the next most common I've worked with.
and 5's. I love 5's.
But with no habit or training discipline, it's tough.
So what's my advice?
Everybody is busy.
Everybody.
We all have our priorities.
For the 1's, training is a priority
The 2's and 3's, it was formerly a priority and it's relatively easy to to get it back as it was likely never far from your mind. It's just a matter of how.
The 4's and 5's it was never a priority so to suddenly go from nothing to something is a tough ask.
Especially, as Pete points out, you are mentally exhausted by the end of the work day There is a disconnect here. Just because you are mentally burnt out, that doesn't necessarily mean you are physically burnt out.
The stresses of work and the sheer amount of calories the brain burns (approx 1/3rd of our BMR is the brain) can leave us feeling wiped. And starting an exercise or training routine while feeling like this is an uphill struggle.
James Clear's book Atomic Habits contains many strategies that can help start the process of exercising, which needs to become a habit.
I would highly recommend it (this is an amazon affiliate link to the book: https://amzn.to/3BAso7d)
But even still we need to break a lot of things down.
Step one, how can we lower the barrier of entry to exercise?
In recent conversation with a client who's working through just that problem, we started exercising at home, which wasn't working.
So she told me she has 2 gyms from the same chain local to her house. Both within a 15 minute cycle.
So we set a target, simply cycle to one of the gyms 2x/week immediately after work.
She doesn't have to go in, she can, and hopefully she does, but she has to get there.
That gives here around 30 minutes cycling, 15 minutes each way.
And that is a start.
It's a minimum standard.
Always achieve the minimum and you will have achieved something.
And something beats nothing. And who knows, once there, she may go in and smash a workout?
This lady works from home. If you're in the office, find a place on your commute and get in before you get home.
Setting this up for success starts at least one day before.
The day before you have organised your food, so you're energised and ready to exercise You've gotten your kit ready and left the bag by the door ready to be lifted in the morning.
And you have an idea of what you're going to do, where you're going at what time, at what cost to do what activities.
This maybe you've reached out to me and I've built you a training plan to start you at an appropriate pace with exercises that will rebuild that knackered knee.
Or it's an exercise class
Or a martial arts class
But you never just walk into a gym hoping for a flash of inspiration to hit you when you get there.
Have a plan.
For people in Pete's world, it's not easy.
This idea of setting a minimum standard is the most successful idea I've used with people
The act of turning up, even if you do nothing more, at least you have turned up.
Exercise for the length of one song from your favourite playlist as a minimum. If you carry on, that's a bonus, but at least you have hit the minimum.
There's a lot to said for being kind to yourself.
Just not too kind.
And for a final point, make it easier by reaching out and getting help.
It maybe a buddy, it maybe going to a structured class, or it maybe my online training service.
But it's some sort of help, some sort of support, some sort of accountability.
It's simple, not easy
But if you have successes in your life, you know you can achieve when you put your mind to something, why should this be any different?
Have a comment on this or a question of your own? Hit reply and send it in
Chat soon --
Regards
Dave Hedges
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