Your Excuse is Invalid

From the archives...One of the most read posts from the last two years

YOUR EXCUSE IS INVALID!

I’m not going to tell you all the benefits of exercise/fitness. You’ve heard them all before.

The purpose of this post is not to motivate you to start a fitness program. The purpose is to get you to examine your reason(s) for not starting a fitness program.  A lot of people will use any excuse they can (real or imagined) to avoid exercise.

“I’m not able to do anything like that”, “I’m too old”, “I don’t have time”, “and I don’t want to get hurt”

Sound familiar?

“I’m not able to do anything like that”

Let’s start here. In one of the gyms where I train there are:

·         Two double amputees (legs)

·         One single amputee (right arm)

·         Several members in wheel chairs

·         A number of members on either scooters or walkers

·         One member, in his forty’s ,who has been on crutches since birth

·         One member missing his left hand and half his left forearm since birth

All these people are there several times each week. And this list includes only the ones who train at the same times I do. The gym is open 24 hours a day.

Sometimes you can work through a valid impairment sometimes not. But there are almost always ways to work around it!

“I’m too old for that”

In another gym where I train (I train in 3 different gyms), I am the youngest member. I’m 65 years old.

They do cardio, free weights, machines, swimming, tennis, pickle ball, and water polo. Some are better at their chosen form of exercise that I will ever be.

“I don’t have time”

This is the most used excuse of all. A one hour workout is 4% of your day! The average American spends more than 5 hours per day watching TV and more than 11 hours on digital media!

“I don’t have time is the adult version of “The dog ate my homework”.

There are many examples of fitness competitors with 3 kids and 2 jobs. So let’s cut the crap about you “not having time” to train, shall we? Dani shugart

“I don’t want to get hurt”

You are going to have muscle soreness, you are going to have occasional tendonitis, you may have some occasional joint soreness….until you body gets used to doing something besides lying on the sofa watching the “Kardasians”.

No pain, No gain is bunk. If you learn good form, good habits, and manage your workout properly and with some common sense you can avoid any kind of serious injury.

And then there are those sometimes called “Haters”.

Anytime you try to better yourself you’ll suddenly be surrounded by people trying to stop you. Action, it seems, offends the inactive. They’ll be subtle about it by trying to get you to cheat on your nutrition or skip workouts. They’ll express false worry, plant negativity. They’ll even get mad at you. You have unintentionally pointed out their weakness.   

There will always be people who will try to talk you out of doing that they think will make you better than them. There will always also be people who, because of their lack of understanding, will try to talk you down out of actual concern.

  

So far I’ve describing other people. Let’s get a little more personal:

·         I am 65 years old.

·         I have Plantar’s Faciatis in my right foot.

·         I’ve had a broken right ankle which locks up on occasion.

·         I’ve had knee surgery 3 times. One was so bad that I’m told it’s in a medical text book somewhere. My left knee still has the lateral stability somewhat less than Jell-o!

·         I’ve had 2 serious rotator cuff tears.

·         I have Polysistic Kidey Disease. Because of this I’ve had high blood pressure since my mid-thirties.

·         I’m a cancer survivor ( 6+ years now)

·         and I have emvazeyma.

·         I have scoliosis of the lower thoracic spine. Mostly caused from favoring my left knee all these years.

You should note:

• That NONE of the injuries were the direct result of resistance training!
• As a matter of fact, training has caused a marked improvement in each and every one of them! 
• AND if I had been stronger at the time of the injury I might not have been injured in the first place!

And in each case the doctors had me in resistance training within days or weeks of the injury!

My current dead lift is over 1.5x my body weight and improving every week.

My current raw barbell squat is almost 1.5 x my body weight.

I was still a member of the 1000 Pound Club at age 53 at 1275 pounds. (The total weight in 3 lifts-bench press, dead lift and squat). At age 65 I’m a little below 1000 pounds for the time being but I’m working on it.

 Only you can answer these questions:

·         Are my reasons for not getting more fit real or imaginary? Be totally honest with yourself.

·          Or are they totally invalid?

·         Will my condition (if any) require a special program or work-around?

·         Is my medical professional  Ok with the program I have planned?

I’m not telling you it will be easy. I’m telling you it will be worth it!

SEND ME YOUR REASONS FOR NOT GETTING MORE FIT.

IF I CAN SHOW YOU A WAY TO WORK AROUND OR FIX YOUR REASON I WILL DO THAT FOR FREE…..

alphaedgefitness@gmail.com