Did you achieve your health and fitness goals this year? \ stacker news ~Fitness

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Did you achieve your health and fitness goals this year?

373 sats \ 8 comments \ @ProofOfWorkFitness 20 Dec 2023 Fitness

If so- Give us your top three tips to help others

If not- Explain yourself

https://m.stacker.news/8915

240 sats \ 2 replies \ @gd 20 Dec 2023

This Sunday I'll run my 14th half marathon in 14 weeks. A half marathon every Sunday for more than a quarter of the year. It'll be my second last one of 2023.

I was recovering from some muscle injuries at the start of this year, left over from my London Marathon in 2022. At the end of January, I was topping out at 5km (3.2 miles). By the end of the year I'll have totalled 700+ miles and 110+ hours of running.

My top tips

Forget motivation. It's useless, you don't need it and searching for it is a distraction. You need discipline. Having discipline in your fitness means that you distinguish what you've set out to do from how you feel about doing it. Throw away how you feel about doing it, it's inconsequential to the task and you will never regret a single workout once you're finished.
Your body can do more than your mind will lead you to believe. Your mind (your inner self who you can't stop talking to, who gets excited, or sad about things) and your body (the vessel you operate in the physical world) are two different things. Your mind will always underestimate the capabilities of your body. Your body will do the things you want it to do, given enough time and...
...Consistency. Your body is efficient. It changes constantly. You don't have a single cell outside of your brain in your body that you had 10 years ago. When you exercise consistently, you body will adapt fast and it'll start to eat up workouts that used to be hard. On the flip-side, if you fail to be consistent, your body will give up it's capabilities in favour of efficiency. Every workout is another brick stacked. Keep stacking bricks.

Man, I could list the lessons I've learned all day :D

30 sats \ 0 replies \ @OC 21 Dec 2023

Great response.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ProofOfWorkFitness OP 21 Dec 2023

These are great!

Sage advice for us mere mortals. Lol

How much have your times improved from the first half marathon to your most recent one?

100 sats \ 2 replies \ @OC 21 Dec 2023

Just finished my yearly distance goal on the bike of 8000km. Not a huge amount but with a young family it was difficult but still achievable. I'll try to add some tips that haven't been mentioned

Set long term and short term goals. Short term keeps your accountable week to week and long term is your end goal (in my case I made sure I did 150-200km on the bike, which gave my week some structure and set me up to complete the yearly goal)
Be vocal about your goal(s). Tell others and ask them to keep your accountable.
Try to create as little friction between you and your health/fitness routine. That might mean putting your workout clothes out the night before, it might mean making sure you've got healthy options in the fridge, it might mean making sure your bike tires are pumped up and water bottles are full. Get organized so you're not faffing around and giving yourself time to make excuses.

20 sats \ 1 reply \ @ProofOfWorkFitness OP 21 Dec 2023

Producing friction is a huge thing because getting started is the hardest part.

Like someone mentioned above you won't regret the workouts that you did. It's actually getting started with the workouts That's the problem for most people.

A trick that I use especially when I absolutely do not want to work out is Tell myself to only work out for 5 minutes.

Now sometimes I literally work out for 5 minutes That way I trust my brain when it says okay I'll just do 5 minutes but then other times that'll lead to a full workout but I make that as a choice during the workout.

When I first started going to the gym regularly I was just make it a point to go to the gym after work do one or two sets of my favorite exercise and then I would just walk out

Doing this a few times allowed me to establish a routine and log a few more workouts during the week.

60 sats \ 0 replies \ @OC 22 Dec 2023

Yep great idea. I've used it myself when I'm tired/struggling for motivation. I tell myself I'm just going to the gym to stretch. Then after that I tell myself I'm just going to walk on the treadmill for 5min. Usually by then I've got the blood flowing and I get a whole workout done. Sometimes like you said it's only 5min but you've still made the effort, and reinforced the idea that just because you're tired doesn't mean you don't go. The mental strength you build in those times is worth it's weight in gold