Getting In Shape Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated

            If you consider yourself  “out of shape,” you know that feeling physically better comes down to a change in lifestyle that involves exercising and eating.  Let’s look at what the any-man or any-woman, that hasn’t worked out in a while, or ever, can do to start moving toward being in better shape with some immediately noticeable results.

            The best, simplest workout in the world (in the author’s opinion of course) is push-ups, sit-ups and running.  It works for the U.S. military.  This is mostly what they do for fitness and they are very strong, and very healthy, and ready to fight wars.        

I go to a gym now, but before I committed to a membership, for a combination of reasons, I started doing push-ups in my home, (or at work).  Once or twice or three times a week I would drop and do as many push-ups as I could (which was less than ten).  And seeing as how I was already on the floor, I would sometimes turn over and crunch or sit up until my stomach burned real good.  The whole affair only took me 2 minutes or less.  I felt sore and noticed muscle growth after each session.  If I didn’t, I would lay off for a week to give my muscles a break from working out and then start in again.  I remember thinking to myself, “Surely I can consistently put in 2 to 6 minutes a week to get in shape.” 

            At first, I didn’t have the muscle strength to work out very long or to do many repetitions.  However, as my muscle strength grew, I was able to do more push-ups and sit-ups, and this went on until I hit what I refer to as my “cardio wall”.  My “cardio wall” is the point I reached when I had the muscle strength to do more push-ups, but I was out of breath.  I didn’t have the lung and heart stamina I needed to do more reps, and I decided it was time to start running to continue getting in better shape.

I hate running.  Even with music, the best shoes, and scenic grandeur all around me, I hate running.  This is mostly because I’m 34 now, and my back and knees and ankles get sore when I run a lot.  HOWEVER.  Cardio is so very important to truly get in shape.  My experience tells me that flat tummies and toned butts are useless if you’re winded from climbing the stairs to the bedroom.  I prefer 20 to 30 minutes of hard cardio at the end of every workout.  By hard cardio I mean sweating, breathing hard, and wishing it would end.  I do interval training the most, where the resistance increases and decreases every couple of minutes.  I hit it hard on the increased resistance phase, and then slow down and catch my breath a little, during the lower resistance phase.  I started my cardio routines with 20 minute runs, and for my intervals I would just sprint for 60 seconds and then slow to a jog for 2 minutes and then sprint again.  But because running hurts my bones, the availability of elliptical Cardio machines was a big factor in my finally committing to a gym routine.  Now obviously when I added running to my routine, my workouts went from 2 minutes to 22 minutes.  And when I began going to the gym, my time expenditure for exercise increased a little more.  At about this time I remember thinking to myself, “Hey, it isn’t that hard to get 1 or 2 hours a week in at the gym.”

As working out became a more regular part of my lifestyle I began to pay attention to what I was eating.  I didn’t really have make myself pay attention, because interestingly enough, when I started putting the extra pressures of working out on my body, my body started craving the things it needed.  After 2 years of fairly consistent working out, I still crave pizza, ramen noodles, potato chips and coke occasionally.  But now I crave lots of water all day long.  I crave steak, baked potatoes, chicken, fish, fresh veggies like brussel sprouts, asparagus, green beans, broccoli, and so forth.  Sometimes for lunch instead of a sandwich or leftovers, I’ll put a bowl, a knife, and a spoon in a bag with an avocado, a tomato or two, an apple, a couple plums, and a banana.  It’s easy for me because, my wife has always kept a big basket full of fresh fruit on the table, but the cool part is that I am eating out of it nowadays instead of walking by it.  I also get urges for salads with chicken or steak on them, which I never use to have, but I have to admit that salads are still almost always trumped by a hearty burger with lettuce, tomato, guacamole and onion.

I listen to talk radio a lot.  I hear a lot of infomercials about losing weight and getting in shape, and they almost always start with a premise that people are struggling to get in shape, that people just can’t find the time, or they don’t have the room for equipment etcetera and so on.  I’m here to say that if you’re currently not exercising and eating right and you feel bad about it, then you can very easily change the way you look and feel, both on the inside and the outside, in as little as 5 minutes a week, with no equipment, and without paying somebody to tell you what to eat.

The funny thing is, when I finally got a gym membership, I would drag myself out the front door by telling my self that I don’t have to work out hard.  I don’t have to break a sweat.  I don’t have to exert myself.  I promised myself that I would just do what I can reasonably do without straining or overexerting.  You’ve probably read that high intensity workouts are important to achieve maximum results, and it’s true.  But you should also know that light workouts and gentle exercises produce positive results as well.  Give yourself a chance.  Give yourself some time and go easy on yourself and I think you’ll find that getting in shape doesn’t have to be that complicated.