Choose Wisely

A lot of people would like to do some sort of physical activity to improve their health, and have trouble deciding what kind of thing to take up

There are million of opinions out there held by people who are already physically active who want to encourage participation in their own favourite activity. They list benefits  of all the good things, but they aren’t really doing the best thing to help you out.

Let me explain.

For a physical activity to provide maximum benefit it has to be done for a very long term. A day won’t do it, nor will a week or a month. A year is a start, but a decade is far better. Life-long participation is the best.

Take me, for example. I have tried going to Yoga classes. I went with friends, some of whom absolutely love it and told me all sorts of great things about it. I found that I hated Yoga. I even managed to hurt myself, which everybody said was impossible, but it turned out it wasn’t.

I didn’t like anything about it. Don’t get me wrong, I can understand what makes it appealing to many, but I’d rather go to the dentist.

I had a pretty good idea that it wasn’t my thing before I tried, but decided to give it a whirl under the subtle pressure of some friends. I even went a bunch of times just to make sure. It never got any better.

So how should somebody choose an activity that will work for them for a very long time?

It’s simple. Find something that you will enjoy. If you enjoy it, you will be much more likely to keep doing it.

I have tried lifting heavy objects, and found it to be absolutely awful. I can’t imagine enjoying going to a gym full of machines and weights, and lifting things for fun. Many swear by it, but it certainly isn’t for me.

Other things hold much more appeal. When we moved to a place in a rural setting, I wondered if I should try running. I had liked it somewhat way back when I was a teen. I wondered if I could make it a mile. I measured one off with the car’s odometer along a very scenic and interesting route. I gave it a shot.

Not only did I make it to the one mile point, but also ran all the way back home. I was hooked. Soon I was running daily, and my distances grew.

Eventually, I stopped improving, due to the stupid aging process. Now, I am extremely happy being able to keep running at all. A good day might hit 10 kilometres, and my average is about 7. I am still running 30 years later. How much good has that done to my bone structure, cardio, and muscle tone compared to the few minutes I’ve spent trying out Yoga, or playing with gym machines, or doing Tai Chi, or playing tennis, or golf?

Maybe for you, tennis sound fun, or maybe swimming is your thing. The plan should be to find something that you will do because you want to. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you will be able to use self-discipline to force yourself into something you that will be a drag.

I have been a student of Jiu-Jitsu for the last 13 years. I love it to bits, and am on the mat every chance that I get.

Let’s say you find bike riding to be your thing. You should do that.  It doesn’t matter what anybody says about some other activity being somewhat more beneficial. Let’s say that you read somewhere that bowling burns more calories per hour (it doesn’t) and you’d rather do that for the greater benefit. That’s great if you like bowling more than biking, or even if it’s exactly the same. Maybe, try them both and pick the one you like the most. That will be the one you’ll do for more hours per week, and for more years of your life. In the long run that will do you far more good than choosing the other. It will also be more enjoyable by far.

People often ask me how I manage to drag myself to Jiu-Jitsu four times a week. The answer is easy. I go because I enjoy it more than staying home watching TV, or fiddling on the internet, or reading, or pretty much anything else.

My strategy works pretty well for me. I trained in Karate from 1982 until 2013. I started running about 34 years ago, and Jiu-Jitsu 13 years back, and am still doing both of those at the age of 68.

Add those three together, and it totals well over 80 years of activity. I’ve been very lucky in finding things that I like to do that also carry strong health benefits.

Good luck with your search.