Intensity for Today (Maybe), Consistency for a Lifetime
It feels good to feel excited, fired up. There’s certainly a time and place for this. If you were to take a lot of what you see on social media literally, however, you might get to thinking that feeling excited, fired up—motivated—should happen all the time, every day, before every workout. There are a number of problems with this approach.
What’s your favorite food, or favorite meal? Take a moment to really remember it; visualize how it looks, call to mind the smells, the tastes, textures, etc. (I know, you’re annoyed with me now, because you’re hungry and your mouth is watering. I promise this is for a good cause.) Now, think of having that meal, one that gets you excited to think about, every day. Would you still find it so exciting? Would it even taste as good as it does when you have it only occasionally? Think the same way about your favorite movies, songs, etc. They’re all great, and they can change your emotional state, but would you want to listen to that favorite song on infinite repeat, or watch that movie every day?
Recovery
You may have heard that exercise is stress. This is true. In the right amounts, it’s a very healthy, beneficial stress, but it’s a stress, all the same. One thing stress requires—any stress—is recovery. The more intense the stress, the more recovery we need. The greater the volume of stress, the more recovery we need. This is true, before we factor in the stress we deal with at work, at home, etc. This is true before we factor in age, health, and the like. So, what’s the point here?
Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day, and Neither are You
Would you expect to get in shape from one workout? Of course not. Would you expect one day, or one week, or even one month of the Super Spartan Mega Insanity Warrior Challenge (yes, that’s a made up title) workouts to get you there? Again, of course not. You need to train consistently, over time (how much time, exactly, depends on a number of factors, so don’t fall into the trap of comparing yourself of others). All of those workouts require recovery, as does the rest of your life. It’s a lot better—crucial, even—to train in a way you can recover from, day after day, week after week, month after month, than it is to try to force yourself to do workouts you aren’t ready for, or progress more quickly than you can handle, or crush/smash/whatever yourself/your workout—only to find that you’re too tired, sore, irritable, etc., to handle the rest of life.
And the rest of life is what you’re doing this for, right? Unless you get paid to exercise, “winning” in the gym, on Instagram, etc., doesn’t matter. The point is to do the things that make you better at life, so you win at work, with your family, your friends, and anything else that matters to you.
So, the next time you see a social media post announcing a challenge, or a new workout program with words like extreme, intensity, insanity, or anything else along those lines, take a breath and ask yourself whether that’s really a good fit for you. There’s a good chance your life is already more than extreme/intense/crazy enough. Stick with what you can do consistently, and with what makes you better at life. Keep doing that, and you’re doing great, and you’ll get where you want to go—without dropping the ball in other parts of life.
Is there a time and place for intense workouts, challenges, and the like? There sure is. We’ll talk more in the future about when and how to do those things. For now, consistency is where it’s at.
Let’s get better together.