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I am a person who believes that everything – and I mean everything – has a purpose. I believe that everything that we experience – see, taste, touch, smell and hear – has some reason for existing. Part of my reason for believing this is because of my faith in God, as well as just from my own observations.
Let me give you some random examples. So, we know that the purpose of fruits that come from plants are to provide humans and animals with nourishment. As far as the plants themselves are concerned, the purpose of their fruits is to protect their seeds while increasing their chances for propagating by making something attractive enough for something to eat and scatter the seeds.
Think about vultures, buzzards and crows. I think we can know that one of their purposes is to serve as nature’s waste cleaners. They eat the stuff that most other animals won’t touch. You see some old, rotten rancid meat? Chances are that you’re going to see some of those birds there. As nasty as that is, it’s amazing to see that even though these birds are just trying to eat, they serve a vital role in our ecosystem.
How about this one? The purpose of parents includes not only having children, but also for taking care of them and showing them how to be adults. If a kid lacks parents, they struggle because they require someone to show them what this life stuff is about before they get older. Lord knows that I understand this more than I ever have, now that I am a parent myself.
If you really think about it, everything in our world has a reason for being the way that it is. Everything works together because of this.
Now I believe that as people who live in a purposeful world, we should do things on purpose ourselves. In other words, if we can help it, we shouldn’t do stuff with no clear reason or just because we needed something to do. To go a bit further, I believe that we should also strive to have good purposes for doing what we do in life. In my experience, it makes life more enjoyable.
With that said, let me ask this question. Why do you exercise? What is your purpose for working out?
I will submit to you that I believe that the main reason that we lack consistency with our exercise routines is because either 1) we have no real purpose for doing them, or 2) our purpose for doing them may not be deep enough. Now, I want you to listen carefully to what I’m saying in these next few minutes, because when I talk about ‘purpose’ for working out, I might be talking about something different than you’re thinking about right now.
Do You Have a Purpose for Working Out?
So what is your purpose for working out? Most people have the following reasons that they exercise:
- Because they know they’re supposed to
- Because the doctor told them to
Other folks exercise because:
- They want to lose weight
- They want to build muscle
- They want to look good in general
- They want to be attractive
- They want to feel good
- They want better quality of life
- They want to live longer
- They want to be around for family
All of these are perhaps the most common reasons that we work out. Contrary to what it might seem, I’m not really out to bash any of those common reasons for working out.
I bring all of these up because we have a lot of great reasons for exercising, and yet, they still struggle to do it consistently, if at all. A lot of you right now are really wanting to do the right thing and get regular exercise in. You want to listen to the recommendations that your doctor gave you. You want to get to a normal weight instead of always just talking about it. You want to be around for your family as long as possible. But for some reason, you just can’t seem to stay on that exercise stuff. Why not?
I believe that the answer again lies in purpose. This isn’t necessarily purpose for your exercise, but rather, purpose in your exercise.
Finding Purpose in Exercise through Competitive Events
So even though it’s good to exercise because you’re supposed to, I want you to think about exercise that accomplishes a very specific objective.
For example, consider somebody like Steph Curry. He’s exercising a lot, but his exercise has a very specific purpose: To improve his basketball game. He’s doing weights, cardio, as well as a variety of shooting drills, jumping drills, dribbling drills, hand-eye coordination drills and so on, all for the purpose of maintaining and improving his already-high level performance with the Golden State Warriors.
What about Allyson Felix? She’s a track Olympian who specializes in the 100m, 200m and 400m sprints. Yes, she does a lot of sets and reps in the gym, and she also does plenty of sprint drills, drills on the blocks, and so on. Her exercise is not just to say she exercised. Rather, it’s to help her to continue to be a top notch sprinter for USA Track and Field.
What if you approached your exercise this way? What if you trained for something? What if you trained for a 5K, or an obstacle course race, or even master’s track and field (yes, this exists)? What if you trained for adult league basketball, or tennis, or bowling, or even golf (without the golf cart)? Your gym work would no longer be just because you’re supposed to exercise. You would then be exercising to improve at your chosen sport.
I don’t know about you, but training for something like a competitive event helps to keep me from feeling like I’m just doing stuff. I’m actively moving towards a very specific objective that I desire to get better at, and that drives me. You might want to consider doing such a thing yourself.
Taking the Exercise out of Exercise
Another way to find more purpose in your exercise might involve thinking altogether differently about exercise.
The Merriam-Webster definition of exercise is “bodily exertion for the sake of developing and maintaining physical fitness.” So who says that exercise has to involve you going to the gym? A lot of people don’t exercise because they don’t like going to the gym, but what we often fail to remember is that exercise is not supposed to be so narrowly defined.
You think grandma ‘nem lifted weights? Nah, man. Back in the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s, you already know that folks weren’t trying to go to the gym! And yet, I am almost certain that they got more exercise than we do on average. The reason why is because they did a lot more for themselves.
They walked a lot more places. They didn’t order clothes, food and supplies off of Amazon. They went to the store. They cooked, they cleaned their houses and so much more. And guess what? That all counts for exercise.
Remember, exercise is any bodily exertion for the sake of developing and maintaining physical fitness. So what if the bodily exertion that you engaged in helped you clean your house? Or clean your yard? Or maintain your garden? Or wash your car? If you don’t outsource every bit of physical exercise that you naturally do, that all would count for exercise.
The cool thing about that is that if you’re doing this kind of stuff, you don’t have to feel guilty for not going to the gym or the exercise class. It counts! You and I should really examine our lives and make sure that we’re not filling them with conveniences that keep us from being naturally active. If you really think about it, it’s kinda weird how we as humans make so many efforts to keep from doing physical work, and yet we spend tons of money on gyms, fitness classes and fitness equipment to stay in shape. And yes, this is a trainer you hear saying this.
So to end this, your homework is two-fold. As you consider how to find purpose in your exercise, 1) consider training for something, and 2) embrace chores and everyday life stuff as exercise. I want you to start enjoying and feeling more fulfilled by your exercise routines now, because when you do, you’re much more likely to live a naturally active lifestyle.
Your Questions
Here are the questions that you asked:
What’s the best way to exercise with arthritis? Sore knees and ankles. (Tamera M.)
So before I give an answer to this question, I do want to tell you to make sure that you always consult a doctor first before beginning any new program or health routine of any kind. Also, my advice should not be taken as medical advice. That said, I will give you my trainer advice.
The first thing I think about when arthritis and sore joints come to mind is weight. Every extra pound of weight is like four extra pounds of pressure on your joints, so if you’re 15 pounds overweight, for example, that’s 60 extra pounds of pressure on your joints. That said, losing weight can go a long way towards relieving some of that pain and difficulty with exercise.
Now, the question was regarding the best way to exercise with arthritis. I would encourage you to first start with making changes to your diet to help you lose weight. Diet changes go a long way towards helping you lose weight. As a matter of fact, diet alone is a much more significant part of the weight loss equation than exercise. The key is to make gradual changes that become a permanent part of your lifestyle, such as making water your only beverage, eating only whole grains and upping your intake of non-starchy vegetables.
You can do exercises such as ellipticals, stationary bikes, rowing machines, and other machines that will put little or no stress on your knees and ankles. Some may find that they can walk with less pain as long as they’re going uphill rather than downhill. So try some of those things, but put the emphasis on permanent weight loss through diet changes because that will help you more than anything.
What’s really the best way to eat, because it’s hard for me to ignore anything because I’m greedy. (Darrell M.)
Hey, we might as well just make it plain, right? You know what? I am a person who likes good food, and because of that, I find myself having to keep from being greedy too. There are ways, though, to keep that stuff in check.
The first thing I think of is fasting. We fast in church for spiritual reasons, and one of the things that also happens as a result is that our flesh gets quieter. The flesh is that part of us that’s always craving more of everything than we need, but when we fast, that flesh has a tendency to get quieter. Those cravings for junk food start to diminish. It’s amazing.
The key, though, is to make regular fasting a part of your lifestyle. It could be a fast where you only drink water, or where you consume only vegetables or fresh vegetable and fruit juices. It could also vary in duration from a day to a few days. Make sure you check with a doctor first. But yes, the key is to do regular fasts to put that flesh back in its place.
The other thing is to put boundaries in place. I personally try to limit my free meals to certain times each week. The weekend is when we cook our big meal with the stuff that we like to eat. I also have a day where I might go pick me up a biscuit on the way to work rather than doing my usual fresh fruits and nuts and stuff. I’m enjoying some of those other things I want, but I’m limiting them to only certain times.
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The post YHATC045: Everything Else Has a Purpose…What About Your Workout? appeared first on Your Health At The Crossroads.