Getting Started With Fitness page

[Coach Palfrey]

I recently put together a short post on getting started with exercise (specifically sandbag training but applicable to anything). Take a look here:

Sandbag Fitness: How Do I Get Started With Sandbag Training?

I'd love to hear your strategies for breaking through procrastination.

[Diogenes]

Hey Coach

If I don't feel like getting started with a workout and find myself putting it off, I find that if I do something easy like taking a walk around the block or doing some wall pushups gets the juices flowing and makes me want to continue. If not, I take it as a message from my body that it wants rest.

[Owly]

I try to differentiate between feeling genuinely fatigued or ill and just not feeling like it. The days that I don't feel like it are often the ones where I go do my workout and feel a million times better after, whereas when it's real exhaustion or illness, the workout feels terrible. Usually this means really asking myself what's going on and being very honest about whether I am simply putting it off or really do need the break.

Having a partner helps with this for sure. I will sometimes not feel like going, but he'll cajole me into heading for the gym, and I do the same thing. I can tell whether he's really not in a condition to go (sore, overtired, sick) and when it's procrastination, and he can tell the same thing with me. The accountability makes a difference too because I know that if I don't go, he won't go, and then I'm not only interfering with my own progress but also messing up his.

A schedule and a program makes a difference for me too. If I know that I go every other day and what I'm going to do that day, it helps me to keep on track because I have a clear plan. If something happens where I have to miss a planned workout, then I know I need to go the next day to keep up with my goals. I had a meeting that took up my whole day last Saturday and meant that I couldn't make it to the gym, so Sunday morning after brunch, there I was at the gym doing my squats, and I carried on with my cycle from there. If I didn't have a plan and clear goals in mind, then it would be easier to skip out or do something half-assed instead of picking up and carrying right on.

[Coach Palfrey]

Good advice you guys! I think this kind of stuff is really useful, especially for those on these boards that are new to exercise.