Blogger builds up exercise beginners
Maria Brilaki thinks a lot of people stop exercising because they’re down on themselves for not exercising more.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” she says.
From the San Francisco Bay area and Greece, this writer and personal trainer aims her website, fitnessreloaded.com, at non-exercisers who struggle to get moving.
“Just stick to what you can do. Forget about what you should do,” Brilaki says. “If you beat yourself up, you increase the chance you’ll quit.”
“If you can’t do your full workout, just do five minutes. Just do two exercises. This helps keep the momentum up and keeping the momentum up is really important,” she says.
Brilaki supports her advice with results of a survey she collected on her website using a questionnaire that 541 people answered. Two-thirds of these Internet users told her they were committed exercisers (working out for more than five years) and yet they reported that they had quit an exercise program in the past. This shows that even those who have made exercise a habit had a halting start and weren’t “natural exercisers,” she says.
It’s OK not to be a natural, she insists. Beginners should expect sticking to their plan to be difficult. They can expect to skip workouts, too. That’s OK. It doesn’t mean exercise is not for them and they should quit trying.
Keep trying, she says. The committed exercisers who answered her survey said they also miss workouts.
According to her profile on the IDEA Health & Fitness Association’s online roster of certified fitness teachers, she has a master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering from Stanford University and is certified as a personal trainer by the American Council on Exercise. She offers these pointers: Start with stretches. You don’t need a gym or special equipment. A backpack with books inside substitutes for dumbbells. A table, sofa and broomstick are all you need to follow her videos.
Use daily activities (brushing your teeth, putting on shoes) as triggers that remind you to exercise immediately afterward, even if just for a few minutes of squats, stretches or lunges.
Create habits of exercise, no matter how brief, and “sooner or later you’ll forget to stop.”