fitness

Do not refresh your browser, your eyes do not deceive you. I am indeed about to talk about fitness. All you need to do is take one look at me to know I'm no athlete. I'm 5'11" and weigh-in around the 80kg mark, with a BMI of 24.7 and a body fat percentage of 19.9%. For those that don't know (or give a shit), that basically means I'm less than a kick in the arse from being clinically overweight.

The healthy weight range (according to the NHS calculator) for a 23-year-old male of 5 foot 11 inches is between 59.9kg and 81kg. Now I was sitting a good few kilos clear of the red-line before the Coronavirus pandemic forced the country into lockdown. That's hardly an excuse as much as it is a confession. Since March, I've lived an even more sedentary life than ever! Sure I did start back the Karate classes last year after a 4-year long sabbatical, but I didn't have the chance to really get back into the swing of it before shit hit the fan in March.

I've fallen out of the habit of exercise. I didn't realise it at the time but when I was a kid, strenuous exercise came naturally to me. I wasn't a particularly strong kid and I was certainly a lot more doughy than most in my karate classes, but for the most part I kept pace with them. More than can be said for now, after 4-years worth of minimal exercise and Friday nights at the pub!

Reforming any habit, good or bad, takes anywhere between 18 and 254 days, despite popular belief that 21-days is a one-size fits all rule. According to HealthLine, the 21-day rule came around after Dr Maxwell Maltz made an observation of both himself and his clients. According to him, "these, and many other commonly observed phenomena, tend to show that it requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to gel." Minimum being the key word of course, as it depends on a load of different variables. That's especially so when it comes to exercise routines, as many people will not afford themselves the time of a moderate daily workout routine. For many that isn't feasible, while for those who simply lack the motivation see this destination as entirely unreachable.

So perhaps we are approaching habit formation all wrong? Joshua Fields Millburn certainly thinks so. He advocates for creating simple triggers to form positive habits. I think we're all guilty of over-complicating health and fitness. We need to go to the gym after work, and at a certain time. We need to spend a certain amount of time there, else it's simply not worth it. We need to be in the perfect workout clothes, and have our Apple Watch and AirPods handy. We need a Chilli's water bottle, filled to the brim with fresh, ice-cold water. Then we get all the way to the gym and realise we left our pad lock at the office. Shit! Oh well, that's a bummer. Better luck tomorrow, eh? Why do we do this to ourselves? I certainly used to. Hell, I was the world's worst!

Pre-lockdown, I found myself having to meet so many prerequisites before I'd even leave for the gym. Of course the reality is that your body doesn't care if you brought your Apple Watch or your AirPods, or if you use them. Most gyms have a water fountain, so you don't even need to bring your branded water bottle. Your gym clothes don't need to be from Gucci, or even fresh out the dryer. You don't even need a padlock. Not really. I've seen it done before, the folks that have forgotten their padlock but fit their 1-hour workout in regardless, carrying their bag with them to each stop on their journey around the room. You're maybe thinking, "but Aedan, I need to shower! I have that big meeting, or that important dinner. I need to feel comfortable and look presentable!" Course you do. I shower after the gym even if I'm not that sweaty, I'm not a savage! But having or not having a padlock with you doesn't mean you can't grab a shower. You throw your towel over the cubical door and hang your bag on the hook, or place it down in front. You'll be showering for all of 5-minutes, it will be perfectly safe!

But it's inconvenient, it requires real motivation and so we resist it. That little bit of resistance is often all it takes for us to completely back-pedal on our exercise plans. I've even found myself going to Starbucks instead! Tragic, eh?

But it doesn't have to be this way. We can opt for a simpler approach, a path of less resistance where you refuse to put such barriers in your way. Not every workout needs to happen at the gym, or at class. It's a good social setting. You can workout with and share tips between friends, but it's a luxury. A luxury to the point that I actually cancelled my gym membership last month. Until the country gets back to normality after the pandemic has blown over, going to the gym simply isn't on my agenda. Mainly because my particular gym cancelled all their classes - the only real reason I go! So instead, I opt for a basic at-home workout routine of simple plyometric exercises which (at the moment) lasts no more than 10 minutes. It's basically a mini-HIIT session where I'll alternate between push-ups, crunches, squats and planks until the 10-minutes is over, only stopping on order to switch to the next exercise. This takes practically no planning or premeditation. You don't need to travel anywhere. You don't even need to get dressed if you can't be arsed. More often than not, I do it in my boxers before I shower for work. It ain't glamorous, but it works!

Now you are probably thinking at this point, "seriously Aedan, 10-minutes? Is that it?" Well yeah, that's it for now, I'm not Rocky! Seriously though, the idea is to use this small amount of time to start re-forming the habit of exercise again. Often getting started is the hardest part of a workout routine. So since anyone can fit 10-minutes worth of push-ups into their day, the notion of a small workout is less daunting. So we are more likely to actually start. Plus, 10-minutes is better than none at all. Pre-COVID, I'd kick myself if I missed a HIIT class, then find myself justifying another missed class because I'd already broken my routine, so what was the point? Instead, with my short 10-minute sessions, if I miss, I move it. Sometimes I'll do it in the morning, and other times I'll sleep in a little later and so it before lunch instead. Then gradually, once I can do it with ease, I'll bump it up to 15-minutes, and then 20. Everybody can still find 20-minutes each day to focus on their health, plus it's the length of your average HIIT session, without the aforementioned roadblocks we present ourselves with.

I'm not big into running either. The last time I went a run of any worth-while distance was for that 5K Instagram challenge. If I'm totally honest, I went on a few trial runs before I did my actual timed lap! I'm not the type to be tagged in something like that one morning and then go do it in my lunch hour that day. I'd have fucking died! But having only practiced a few times, I felt I did pretty good. But the conditions do need to be perfect for me to stand a decent chance. First of all, there can't be a hint of cold in the air. That kills my lungs like nothing else. Plus my route needs to be carefully planned. For my Instagram challenge, I meticulously planned my route, ensuring there were as few inclines a possible to give me the best chance of actually making it back in one piece. Now say what you like, but it worked! On the day I did the full 5K without stopping. Which was my first ever! But suffice to say that unless I suddenly find the time to put that much planning into a single run, I'll need to find cardio exercises elsewhere. So I squeeze some cardio into my life in other ways, by way of Karate classes and (post-COVID) the HIIT classes at the gym. I prefer cardio that doesn't really feel like cardio. And strangely, I actually really miss them! Plus, I forget how much walking is involved in my normal life. Walking to the train station, walking from the station to the office, then walking around the office during the day. Then I have the same in reverse to tackle. It wasn't until I became almost completely sedentary that I realised how much walking I usually do.

My point really is that I used to feel really sorry for myself when I'd look around the room at training and see everyone out-performing me. But the goal should be to out-perform yourself. Maybe it's taken 4-years away from the game for me to realise, but I was comparing myself to full-on athletes and wondering why I wasn't as fit as them. I mean honestly, no wonder! So going forward, my focus is on maintaining an exercise schedule that as sustainable enough that I keep going back to it. If that means 10-minutes of push-ups every day to start me off, then so be it!

~ Aedan.