I have a busy life. I am married and we have four children. This alone makes life busy, right? But of course to make things more busy, we also run our own rowing business. Being busy has taken a whole new meaning over the last 8 years of my existence, which brings me to wonder how others find time to stay healthy and what a struggle it is to make time for working out in a day that is busting at the seams.
We get up early and go to bed late. We work and care for others, because we are selfless. By writing this sentence moms come to my mind. Yes I am selfless, but I also know that if I don’t take care of myself, I can’t take care of others. In order to make time for a daily workout, and I mean daily workout, you have to look at your situation two ways. For one, you must make the decision to workout, which requires you to find the logic in it. Think of the saying: “Use it or loose it.” The list of benefits are endless when it comes to exercise, do you want those benefits? The answer is a resounding “yes”. The second way to look at it is by understanding that exercise will help you be a better person. You may give all the love that you can, but if your body is not maintained your “love-giving” is on a path of diminish returns, do we want that? “NO!” is the answer.
We just came back from a few days in the mountains. I did not have a rowing machine and had been exercising less because I had been coaching more on the water. My body started feeling lethargic, which gave me thoughts of horror, “me feeling like that, I used to train 4 hours per day, aah what is happening!” So I took off for an early morning walk at a California state park. It was 7 in the morning and no one around. I marched and quickly noticed that I could be doing one knee bend every fourth step... After five minutes of step-step-step-step-squat, I stopped and decided to do 50 knee bends all at once while alternating the position of my arms to strengthen my back while I was pushing the quads, gluts and hamstrings. After those 50 my legs felt like rubber and so I proceeded to walk back to where I came from. Shortly before dropping into my long chair and looking at the sky, I piled on another 50 knee bends. Overall I had been walking and moving my body for 55 minutes. I exercised between 7 and 8 in the morning, which is possible because I was on vacation and the kids were asleep. You may ask, what about enlisting your children into the exercise routine. You are absolutely right, my three oldest kids start-to-want-exercise, I learned that in the last couple of months.
Here is my advice about starting to workout: Don’t set goals that you can’t reach. Be flexible with your type of exercise and adjust the type of workout to the environment that you are in, I had no rowing machine, therefore I went for a walk etc. Look at breaking a sweat one way or the other. Approach the intensity of your workout carefully, because you don’t want to overdo it and you want to stay clear of injury at all cost. Remember that you only have one body and that exercising is a daily and gradual process. Daily moderation is the way to go with working out.
Make your exercise entertaining by using music or in company of a person who supports you.
Accept the fact that spending time on you helps you spend to time and energy/love on others.
That is it for now.
Live life, break a sweat, because not too long ago we were hunters and gatherers. Socially we evolved faster than physically, LET’S WORKOUT OUT and have fun doing so!
Xeno
Join one of the fastest growing communities of indoor rowers at www.row2go.com
Xeno Muller won an Olympic Gold in Atlanta and an Olympic Silver in Sydney, and is the current Olympic Record holder in the 2000m Single Scull. He is also the President and founder of Row2Go which is quickly becoming THE online community for both indoor and on-the-water rowers providing its members with weekly online workout routines and individualized coaching programs.
Xeno Muller, Olympic gold and silver medalist, indoor rowing, rowing technique.
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