While you might not buy it, it is true – exercise is fun. If you are not convinced, I ask you to think back to when you were younger.
Remember when you were a kid and played tag with your friends? Perhaps you remember enjoying the air rush against you as you rode your bike around town. Maybe you remember the water flow across your body with each stroke? Or perhaps you remember a time when you played music at home and could not resist breaking out in a dance.
In all of these enjoyable and memorable instances, you were experiencing firsthand the reality that exercise is fun!
Misconceptions of What Constitutes Exercise
Surprisingly, many people grow up to view exercising as a chore rather than the fun activity that it truly is. They grow up and pay gym memberships that you don’t use. They think that the only way to exercise is if they make it to the gym and use their impressive equipment. But who said you need a gym or fancy equipment to exercise? There are plenty of exercises that can be done anywhere, and where the only thing you need is your body.
Likewise, many individuals seem to think that exercise is exclusive to those who play sports or are known to have been athletic in school. This is not true. Whether or not you were in or excelled at sports, you can be great at exercise. You don’t have to compare yourself against any athlete. You are your own athlete. In fact, exercising outside of a sport can be more fun because you are not stressed by a need to win.
If the primary you exercise is for the reason that exercise is fun, you can exercise as much as you want to or as little as you want to. And whenever you want to. You set your own rules.
How Exercise Benefits Your Body
In addition, it has all sorts of positive impact on your body, such as making your body stronger and better able to fight disease. It is important that you exercise throughout life so that you can ward of the ailments, and sometimes hospital visits, that can come with aging. Not only does it help you to be physically more dynamic for longer, but it also helps your cognition and your mood.
You might be interested in:Ways to Relieve Lower Back Pain
Of course, exercise can have the secondary benefits of helping you maintain a healthy weight. This is important because excess fat, especially when concentrated around the waist makes puts you at a higher risk for numerous diseases. However, losing weight should not be the primary reason for exercise. The primary reason for exercising is that exercise is fun. If you don’t view it as fun, you will not be consistent with it, and you will not be able to get as much benefit from it.
Exercise is Not Only Fun–It is Also a Coping Mechanism
Since exercise can affect mood and has generally positive consequences it can be used as a positive coping mechanism. It is something you can do whether you are happy, sad, mad, or just stressed out. It is a sort of distraction that produces chemicals in your brain that help improve your mood. Even though you might necessarily feel like you want to exercise, once you start, you often gain get energy you often get into exercising mode. Also, you will fill feel great afterwards knowing that you did something good for yourself. If you treat yourself well and feel good about yourself, you are better able to help others out as well.
You might be interested in: Positive Ways to Cope with Anxiety
Just as with all coping mechanisms, you need to make sure you that you do not overdo it. Also, if you are exercising to avoid thinking about work, for example, exercising won’t make work disappear. You need to be realistic and know that getting your mind off of work for a while by exercising might help you more productive, but you will still need to tackle whatever it is that is stressing you.
As with everything, exercising should be done in moderation. Too much of it may actually harm your body. The good news is that it is has more chances of helpful rather than detrimental to your health. Nonetheless, do keep in mind that too much of anything, even a good thing, can be bad.
Making Sure that Exercise is Fun
It is important that you incorporate exercise into your daily routine. You can do this by taking regular walks, dancing at home, riding your bike, or simply kicking a balloon around at home. The simpler, the better, because you are more likely to do the activity without excuses.
Even though what is most feasible for your do might not be your favorite activity, it is important that you select something that you can do on a regular basis. To make the activity more fun, perhaps you can use your imagination to make the experience into a game. For example, perhaps you can imagine that upon completion of a task, you will get a raise or earn a super power. (Regardless of how silly your reward may sound, the important thing is that it will motivate you). Do the activity whether by yourself or with company — whichever works for you or is your preference. You can save your favorite, although less feasible to do on a daily basis, activity for days in which conditions are optimal.
While is important that you be deliberate in incorporating exercise into your routine, don’t be too strict with yourself. Be flexible in terms of the exercises you do as well and where you do them to ensure that you don’t get tired of doing the same thing. And don’t feel as though you have to follow all bunch of rules. Exercise is not mean to be complicated or burdensome. It is meant to be fun, so get yourself excited about it.
You might be interested in: Safety Risks in Hospitals
Conclusion
Despite the fact that many adults grow up to view exercise as a chore, or as something that requires talent or special equipment, exercise is a wonderful activity that you can partake in you realize that exercise is fun! Once you start to get rid of the notion that exercise is work and begin to think of it as a fun activity, you will be more motivated to exercise.
You should also be motivated to exercise by the fact that it has so many physical and mental benefits that will suite you not only for the moments that you are exercising but long after.
There is an activity for everyone. Try different things out and see what you enjoy and could incorporate daily into your life. Pretty soon you will realize that exercise is fun.
Sharing is Caring
If you enjoyed this post, please share it with your friends on social media.