Do you realize some people actually view exercise as work and therefore decide not to engage in it?

Many of you might have associated massive amounts of pain with exercising because you felt so much of it the day after your first training, making you question why you decided to get in shape and follow a fitness program in the first place.

I normally categorize someone's fitness level with "Days of Recovery" you require to get rid of all soreness.

It's worth mentioning on a side note that once you have more experience and "time in" training you look for that soreness the day after to judge how hard you pushed yourself.

If you feel nothing you're either in tremendous physical shape or you failed to give your maximum output.

More on that later.

From a beginner's standpoint I follow these basic rules:

If you need one day of recovery you're in decent shape.

If you take 2 to 3 days to recover and can hardly walk up stairs or sit on the toilet bowl or get out of bed, you really need to stick to your plan and exercise regularly.

If you take 4 days or more to recover you seriously need to look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself: "no matter how great the soreness you might feel now from exercising, it will pale in comparison to the kind of pain and health issues that await you in the future.

Heart Attacks, High Blood Pressure, Gallstone operations, Lack of Energy, Circulation problems, Diabetes and Obesity are far more painful than the muscle soreness you experience after your first few workouts.

Being a martial art teacher for the past 20 years you have no choice but to evolve and be constantly improving how you communicate with your students to get the best results.

And sometimes it also means helping students by disguising repetition, creating a variety of drills which uses the same technique but presented 10 different ways, this is also very effective when working with kids which as you know, have an even shorter attention span than adults.

In general we get bored easily and exercising for some might be tedious and boring but it doesn't have to be that way.

Today I thought I'd give you ways to "Disguise Exercise".

One way to disguise exercise is to blend it into your day.

Exercise along side the most common daily chores. Wake up in the morning and instead of walking to the bathroom get down on hands and feet and crawl there without allowing any other body part to touch the floor. Hold a wall sit while brushing your teeth. With the help of the kitchen counter, hold your leg up off to the side and hold for as long as possible while your eggs boil. If you sit in front of a desk all day, squeeze your butt and flex your calves while you work.

Take small steps this way and give your body a chance to adapt while you implement healthy habits such as daily exercise.

Think of yourself as a fighter. You always want to be ready, use every moment of the day to strenghten yourself.

When you think of it we're all fighters. We're all fighting to make a living, to leave our mark, to make a difference, to achieve some level of success and happiness, to defend against cravings which slowly weaken us, to make the right choices.

Speaking of choices, I gave just a few examples of what you can do throughout the day to squeeze in exercise. Our Basic Strength Training System offers 50 different bodyweight exercises which can be performed anytime of the day.

Remember, one of the things your body craves the most is Oxygen. As you implement little exercises here and there throughout the day and make demands on your body it will come to crave them, one exercise at first might become 3 or 5, maybe even 10. This in turn might lead you to train in the morning when you wake up because you feel so good after you've exercised.

Try it and let me know how it goes.

Master Yourself,

Sifu Martin

P.S. Exercising is the fastest way to optimize your body's chemistry and improve productivity throughout the day. Learn how to do that here.

Labels: Consistency, Exercise, Fitness, Health, Strength Training