This is certainly the time of the year to be talking about exercise. I’ll bet many of you reading this have set your New Year’s Resolutions and one of them is exercise. Am I right? I’ll bet you’ve set this NY’s resolution for many years. I am going to talk about the psychology behind exercise and why it’s difficult to meet those NY’s expectations; time and time again.

Lets face it most of us are baby boomers and we grew up with no clue about exercise or healthy eating. Take no exercise and add an unhealthy diet and that equals a bunch of us scratching our heads wondering what to do! For most people exercise is not something you can just go out and DO on a regular basis. Unfortunately it’s not that easy. Even more unfortunate is that most people who try to just go out and do it and those ‘supporting’ them (personal trainers, group exercise leaders, fitness facilities) are all in a similar place of misinformation thinking it IS that easy. If it were then the 75%-85% of the population not doing it, would be doing it.

The 75%-85% of the population who are not exercising probably did no or very little exercise growing up. It may not have been an important family value and for many, the only recollection of ‘exercise’ is PE class and that doesn’t usually conjure up good thoughts or feelings. If we take the combination of bad PE experiences and low family value/priority on exercise what we are left with is a population of people who aren’t educated on and don’t understand the physical & psychological necessity for exercise. Without education and reinforcement it’s no wonder so many people aren’t exercising regularly.

Why are certain kids/adults good at certain things? Lets take math as an example. Throughout school there is math. In fact every year of K-12 there is math, right? 13 years of education and reinforcement in math would suggest that some students would like it & go into a profession including it. Why? Mainly because they are good at it and that’s what’s been reinforced for many years! Initially we don’t really know what we like but as we go in 1st grade and 2nd grade we start to feel successful at certain things when that success breeds more success WHALLAH!

In school we don’t learn much about exercise particularly the physical and psychological benefits of exercise (there are so many), it’s not reinforced and most kids hate PE (as adults we vividly remember and laugh about those experiences). This combination does not support exercise as a lifelong pursuit.

If education, understanding and successes are all what move people then there needs to be a lot more of those experiences around exercise (as kids) before the bad habits kick in. As children we didn’t know there were choices. We (pretty much) did what we were told to do (think and believe). As adults we do have a choice and its hard to break those pre-established mental & emotional patterns but it can be done.

Even though you may want to start exercising it’s important to evaluate  how you are feeling about exercising, your skills to exercise, your fears, what get in the way of exercising, etc. These are the things that get in the way of regular exercise and the more someone starts and stops exercise at some point the less motivation they to start again; not to mention how difficult it is to get start. What’s important to understand is that there are stages that we all have to go through when making change; it’s that way in most all situations.There will be peak, valleys and plateau’s.

This endeavor will be hard and take persistence.Even though you may be physically ‘ready’ to exercise you may not be mentally ready to exercise but with a little awareness & the right support you can change this. And I hate to say this but the right support is not a personal trainer or nutritionist. They are a great support but not till after you’ve developed some new mental skills for dealing with exercise.

This year resolute that you won’t drop out in February and you’ll try something new to help you continue: I can help you meet your 2016 resolution to exercise.