If You Hate The Gym, Why Do You Go?
You Can Be Fit & Healthy For Life If You Stop Forcing It
First things first. Fitness isn’t health, and health is not just about the body. We are complex beings. Mind, body, and soul are meant to operate as one cohesive unit, a trinity that thrives on balance. Neglect one, and you are on your way to a severe slip and fall.
I’ve loved exercise all my life, and it has contributed to the health of the trinity that is me. But to stay motivated, I’ve had to learn to pivot when my exercise of choice no longer contributed to my well-being. In other words, when what I was doing to stay healthy started making me sick, it was time to find an alternative.
For years, running was my exercise of choice. But years of marathoning and hundreds of road races took a toll on my knees. Unwilling to give up the benefits running offered my mind and soul, I pushed through the physical pain. That is, until the idea of stopping an activity I enjoyed brought me to my knees … literally. A dislocated knee ended my running career.
However, the thought of never being able to feel the highs of being fit and healthy motivated me to search for alternatives. So, I tried strength training and felt better than I had in years. I loved that it carved my body into something far removed from the stick figure runner’s body I’d worn most of my adult life. During the pandemic, when going to the gym was not an option, I switched to cycling.
When cycling began to cause muscle imbalances and tightness in my hip flexors, I started incorporating stretching into my routine. Now that gyms are open again, I’ve combined cycling, weights, and stretching into a fitness routine that keeps me in shape and balanced. The combination also guarantees that I’m never bored.
Listening to my body and pivoting my exercise of choice when necessary is my secret to lifelong health and fitness. It has served me well for 65 years. And I have no intention of stopping.
Train for the Sport Life
Unless you’re a professional athlete, your training should focus on getting fit to handle life’s daily physical and mental challenges.
The older you get, the more important this becomes. Overtraining will age you faster than the years on the calendar. And it’s OK to take a day off!
You can bench press your weight. So what? You spend two hours in the gym every day. So what? You run 10 miles a day. So what? You can sit in a lotus position for half the morning. So what?
What are you giving up in return for doing these things?
While you’re busy pumping iron, running nowhere on a treadmill, or trying to be the envy of a pretzel on a weekend morning, your friends are playing in the park with their children.
Isn’t that exercise, too?
Saturdays used to be my most challenging workout day of the week. But that left me too tired to enjoy the rest of the weekend. My current Saturday morning “fitness routine” doesn’t include any formal exercise. I do yard work (strength training, stretching), clean the house (cardio, strength straining), run errands (cardio, strength training), and go grocery shopping. I always park far away from the entrance (cardio), and I carry my grocery bags (strength training) to the car. I then enjoy the rest of my weekend without feeling guilty that I didn’t “hit the gym.”
Does your exercise routine enhance your life? Or does it prepare you for the Netflix binge-watching Olympics?
“I hate going to the gym,” a friend recently told me.
“Why do you go?” I asked.
She gave me many reasons, the main one being that she needed to strengthen her legs. Apparently, the gym is the only place she thinks she can do that. It’s just a matter of time before she quits going.
Why do people stop exercising? Because they hate it. And you won’t do something you hate forever.
Don’t Neglect the Kitchen
Your body needs fuel to stay fit and healthy. Give it what it needs. Here again, variety is the key to sticking to your routine. Eating clean isn’t rocket science. Search for healthy eating plans and find one that appeals to you.
Just like you shouldn’t force yourself to go to the gym or do an exercise you don’t enjoy, you shouldn’t fall for fad diets or eat in ways your body was not meant to eat just because the “experts” tell you to do it.
A healthy diet includes a variety of foods. And, yes, that includes cake and ice cream. Just skip the side order of guilt, and you’ll be fine.
When it comes to exercise and eating, “listen to your body” isn’t a sentimental afterthought. It’s excellent advice that few people pay attention to.
Life is a gym. Find an activity you love, and you’ll never have to exercise a day in your life.
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Barb Besteni is a writer, spiritual seeker, former rock star, and animal lover who, at 65, finally achieved the below 20% body fat composition that eluded her in her younger days. After 35 years of writing, copyediting, and producing content for local, national, and international television news, she left the newsroom for the comfort of her home office. Get an email whenever Barb publishes a new story on Medium: https://medium.com/@barbbesteni/subscribe.
