Well, it’s January again, and time for the annual flooding of the gyms with the New Year’s crowd. If you’re a long-time gym rat, you know better than to go during reasonable hours right now, as everybody in the world is going to be in your gym at that point.
But there’s hope for us long-timers: in about two weeks, the January crowd disappears. It’s as if they were never there. Life goes back to normal for the next 50 weeks, and then the cycle starts all over again.
Maybe you’re a complete newbie. Maybe you used to train but fell out of it. Either way, you want to stick around for the long haul. You don’t want to disappear after that two week period. What can you do?
According to a very recent study, there are some behaviors that long-term exercisers are more likely to do than relative newbies. It’s not proof that these behaviors are what caused the more experienced crowd to stick around, but it’s definitely worth looking at. To get to it, here’s what the long-termers do that the newbies don’t:
Keep a log: If you’re just relying on your own memory, it’s easy to delude yourself that you’re getting better when you’re really not. But if you’ve got the numbers in front of you, you know what you’ve been doing.
Set goals: Aimlessly wandering isn’t going to get you anywhere. Know what you want, and figure out how to get it. There’s been a lot written on how to set goals, and you can read about it here.
Change it up: Boredom is a killer. Systematically vary what you’re doing on a regular basis, and you’ll find it easier to keep going.
Not sure what happened there… Could a mod add this post to the OP?
Get involved in the community: Don’t go it alone. In the study I referenced, every single person who was involved in an exercise community (discussion boards, a team, a group of friends, etc.) said that they were highly likely to keep exercising.
In addition to the behaviors I described above, the study tracked how satisfied people were with their weight. Here are some brief interesting points:
[ul][li]There was a significant difference in weight satisfaction between respondents who exercised fewer than five hours per week, and those who exercised five or more.[/li][li]The folks who were highly satisfied with their weight reported a much higher proportion of high-intensity exercise than those who were unsatisfied. And the more high-intensity exercise someone logged, the more likely they were to plan to continue exercising.[/li][li]And lastly, people who got at least an hour per week of aerobic exercise and weight training were much more likely to be satisfied with their weight than those who didn’t.[/ul][/li]
Now, obviously, you can’t go from being a couch potato to logging 2+ hours of high-intensity exercise each week. You need to ease into it over the course of a couple months. Want a first goal? That looks like a good one to me.
I’ll ramble some more later, but this should be good food for thought to start with.
So what’s a good way to get started? Get a personal trainer for the first couple of sessions? More? And the community thing- where would one find one? I imagine it would be easier if your group of friends wanted to do it, but I don’t know anyone that wants to.
I’ve got a plan to totally transform my body with an exercise program this year. I can’t get started yet, as I have a hernia that’s awaiting surgery, but I’d like to begin the research so that when I’m ready I know what to do.
Start off slowly. Do not go into the gym expecting to be Rambo and do 80 reps at 80 percent max, or run on the treadmill for an hour. If you haven’t worked out in a while, give yourself at least 5 weeks of lighter training in order to get your respiratory and pulmonary system back in shape. It’s not only your muscles that have become couch potatoes.
In order for you to see results, the lungs and blood vessels also need to be conditioned in order to carry much needed oxygen to the muscles. That doesn’t happen over night. Make sure you keep hydrated DURING exercise and make sure you add some sort of cardo into your workouts.
I have seen to many people go into the gym expecting to do what they did when they were 18 and end up injurying themselves and quit. Personal trainers are great if you can find a good one. Look for ACE, AFAA, ISSA certifications. Just because someone is a gym rat does not qualify them on giving advice or setting your workout plans. Certified personal trainers will put you through a series of tests to find out what shape you are in physically before planning your workouts and nutritional needs.
Former work out enthusiast, long time couch potato checking in:
The invention of the Mp3’s are a Godsend for those of us who cannot tolerate whatever music they are playing in the gym. It is always awful and always too loud.
That is a good question. Keep in mind what Tiggrkitty said–it’s a mistake to jump in full bore and expect anything but injuries.
Getting started is tough. You can hire a personal trainer, but it’s kind of a gamble, in the sense that odds are you’ll just be throwing your money away. The best thing to do is to do a lot of reading, learn as much as you can, and maybe hire a trainer with powerlifting/olympic lifting experience to teach you proper form on some of the more important lifts.
I’ll come back with a list of links a little later.
ultrafilter, those are some great things to keep in mind. And I just used the “don’t go from inert couch potato to exercising an hour a day 7 days a week” speech yesterday. Baby steps.
I can’t stress enough how much a realist goal is key. It keeps you from getting discouraged, bagging the whole thing, and retreating to the couch with a sackful of cheeseburgers.
I lost about 30 lbs since joining the gym last december. I was trying to figure out what was different this time, why I stuck it out even after my gymming partner quit after a few weeks. I have to say that the main reason is because I made my health a priority. Maybe not the number one priority but it was right up there. I walked through snowstorms and rain and went in the early hrs or late at night even though i was scared of the big muscle-y men. I didn’t let excuses stop me from getting healthy. I did it because I’m worth it.
Ok now that I’ve dispensed with the inspirational stuff here are some other tips I found to help:
Plan your gym time ahead. Know your schedule for the week and figure out when you can and cannot go. Don’t let friday sneak up on you and you’ve only gone once that week cause you were too busy.
Set a long term goal but buffer it with smaller steps. It’s fine and dandy to say “I’m going to transform my body and lose 30 lbs!” but 30 lbs can seem daunting at the start. I set 3 10lb goals and allowed myself to feel good whenever I achieved one.
Don’t diet. Well that is my feeling, I just can’t do diets. I focused on eating healthier with less processed crap and more fresh fruit and veggies. My weight loss was slow especially compared to an atkins dieter but that means it won’t come crashing back on so fast.
Buy a pair of pants in the size you want and try them on periodically. You’ll be amazed at how they get looser and looser even if you aren’t losing on the scale.
Good luck to everyone taking the steps to a healthier you this yr.
http://www.stumptuous.com/weights.html
Excellent beginner’s guide to weights training. Everything you need to know about getting started–diet, routines, exercises, motivation, you name it. If you’re a guy, ignore the girly crap–it’s really good advice. If you’re a girl, uh, don’t ignore the girly crap, I guess.
http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html
Good online dictionary of free-weight and cable exercises, complete with animated gifs showing the proper movements. It’s also searchable by body part, so if you really feel the need to work your subscapularis for some crazy reason, it’s easy to find the proper exercise.
And for the cardio dorks, I found http://www.coolrunning.com to be extremely helpful. Their “Couch to 5k” program was a big help in getting me started on running last year.
The best advice I can give, and it echoes what others have said: make friends or involve friends with your workout.
I’ve been going to the same gym about 5 days a week for the last year. I also take spinning classes there 2-3 times a week and as the first poster alluded to, there are now those of us that go regularly and have become friends, and those that come and go. That loose and minimal friendship is still a huge boost in keeping things fresh.
Not all gyms have the same dynamic either, it took a few for me to find the right environment for me.
