How to Make Fitness a Part of Your Life
Benefits of Regular Exercise
Regular exercise is one of two of the single biggest positive contributors to overall wellness and longevity; diet, as you probably guessed, is the second. The research today on the benefits of exercise are endless (1) and all studies tend to conclude that the benefits to your health it offers cannot be replicated with a pill.
Exercise …
- Positively impacts your mood
- Improves your energy
- Assists with weight loss, leading to a better physique and boost in confidence
- Improves your strength, endurance, and resilience
Resistance training is necessary to preserve bone density, thereby decreasing the chance that a fall results in broken bones when you’re 65 (2). A respectable VO2 max helps fight off heart disease and will allow you to keep engaged in the sports or physical activities you love well beyond your AARP membership date (3).
Where Do I Start?
Forming an exercise habit is challenging. There are numerous barriers to entry and the reality that exercise requires time and energy in a world where those two things are in short supply doesn’t help whatsoever. Be honest about what barriers you’re encountering when it comes to getting into an exercise routine and you’ll find it easier to leverage the plethora of tools available to overcome those barriers. Doing it with a significant other or close friend helps; keep each other accountable and get to it - your biggest enemy is inaction.
Let’s break down the barriers to entry even further. A common hurdle is not knowing what to do… like at all. Fortunately, the Rewild Team has been there (because we all start at zero) and after years trying, failing, and succeeding across various exercise programs, here’s where we recommend starting…
Training Apps
TrainHeroic - TrainHeroic | The World's Best Training App & Marketplace
KeyLifts - KeyLifts - Workout Logger
Peloton - The Peloton App
Training Programs
There are hundreds if not thousands of apps in addition to the ones highlighted here, but our recommendation is to stick with one of these to start. Once you’re in your routine and making progress, you’ll naturally want to venture out to explore what else is out there. When it comes to programs, we recommend the following that are available on their own or paired with the TrainHeroic app.
Peloton
Delta Bravo - Delta Bravo: Home Workouts, the DEUCE Way | DEUCE Gym
Power Athlete - Power Athlete | Empower Your Performance
5-3-1 templates - List of 531 Workout Templates
What Not to Do…
Get discouraged
Remember, everybody starts at zero. We all differ in form and how we respond to stressors, so ease yourself into a routine. Results will come with time, but they will never come if you quit.
Get Injured
This leads to shame, getting discouraged, and back to zero. Start slow, work on flexibility/ mobility, listen to the queues from your body to rest, and stay consistent.
Over do it
Same with avoiding injury, don’t keep the intensity at 10/10 every day. A common principle we on the Rewind Team learned early on was that it’s better to work at 80% consistently, than to hit a 100% one day and then need to follow it up with two rest days because you cant move.
Conclusion
Results will vary when it comes to exercise because you get out of it what you put into it. If you’re checking the boxes but keep a low to moderate level of intensity or are never increasing your weight week after week, don’t expect a bump in performance. If you’re working against yourself by eating pizza and drinking beer often, don’t be surprised if you see yourself regularly backsliding or at a standstill.
If your goal is weight loss, we on the team would argue your priority should be diet. A poor diet with vigorous exercise gets you absolutely nowhere when it comes to weight loss.
Your biggest takeaways should be to ease yourself in, and treat your workout like it’s something you have to do. It should be like brushing your teeth or taking a shower - tell yourself you have to do it, and you will.
References & Resources