#clover talks

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As someone who hates sports, hates gyms, hates groups, hates going out, has executive dysfunction, doesn’t have the exercise-related “happy hormone”, but had to get back in shape because health reasons, here is what I learned.

routine is important. Set a time, and keep to it. It helps the brain a lot when it comes to switching tasks, because of the foreseeable expectation. (it takes a bit of time to feel the brain go OK, time to switch to this other task)(it took me 4-6 weeks)
set a time length that suits you. Mine is 20 mins workouts. Yours might be 15 mins. Start where you can. Persist.
set a schedule that suits you. Mine is 4 days a week. I do arms, legs/abs, rest, arms, legs/abs, weekend.
every day is different. You feel like shit? Persist. You feel good? Persist. Some workouts feel great, some feel like a setback. It varies a lot. Persist.
every workout does you good even the shit ones. You got your blood pumping, you moved, you did good, period. Persist.
do what you can. You find a video you like but there’s like 2 or 3 movements you know you can’t do? Even half the video? Replace them. Don’t do them. Just keep moving until the next movement. Don’t hurt yourself. All you need to do is move. Persist.
it’s not a competition. As long as you’re a bit out of breath, you’re doing great. Can’t keep up with the video? go slower. Workout is too much, you’d rather walk around the block? Super. Do that.
keep track. Get a calendar from the Internet and put a color each day you did a thing. For some people OCD (or just a love of symmetry) will kick in and you’ll want a neat calendar all cute with all the colours neatly in. Anything works to keep you persisting. Keep a journal. Write how you felt the first workout, and when you feel like crap, go back there and see how you’ve actually evolved.

If you do exercise to lose weight, I can’t help you with that. I never lost any weight through exercise alone. That is not how my body works.

But it’s surprising how a little goes a long way for other things.

I get less inflammation, my body is more solid (even doing very simple movements, no weights), my cardio is better, less pain in general trying to carry myself around.

The point is to make this a habit, because, as we all know, moving is good for the body.

Don’t do it the way others do it, do it the way it suits you.

Persist.