Exercise is important for your physical health, and it’s not just about the physical changes that consistent movement gives you because there are so many benefits that have nothing to do with body changes. Life will be easier the more you move, and you will have less pain when you keep your muscles strong. It is hard to be consistent with exercise in the beginning but once you get in a good routine and start seeing results, it becomes addictive and is hard to stop. When you start exercising often, people have this idea in their head of what it’s like to get in shape, but what you think happens and what actually does are completely different from each other. I started exercising when I graduated from high school, but it wasn’t until the last year or so that I started forcing myself to do more cardio. There were a lot of things that I expected when I started doing more exercise, but there were some things that you never start thinking about until you start being consistent with exercising. What do I wish I knew when I started exercising more? In this post, I am sharing a few things that no one tells you about getting fit.
How much more laundry going to have to do- Most people can do one long workout and call it a day, but because of my physical disability, I am not able to do that. I can do one long strength training session but have to break up my cardio sessions because I have a physical disability and can’t stand for long periods of time without putting a lot of strain on my lower back and legs. When I lift weights, I don’t sweat that much because I am doing it indoors, in the air conditioning, but when I do cardio, I have to go outside since I don’t benefit from most machines and it’s the only way for me to get a good workout. I go on walks three times a day, five times a week, and every time I go on walks, I have to change my outfit because I get too sweaty. Sitting in your sweaty clothes all day long is not a good idea because it can cause infections and you should always change immediately. As a disabled person, I already change my outfit more often than most people because I have bowel issues that sometimes require me to change my outfit. Since I started exercising outside I change them even more because I have bowel issues that sometimes require an outfit change and get sweaty from workouts. Everyone has to do laundry, but when you start exercising, no one prepares you for how much more laundry you’re going to have to do.
You will lose motivation the more fit you become– When you start exercising, often you are super motivated, but as time goes on and it becomes a routine, you become less motivated. Some people love to exercise and never lose motivation, but most people do it because they know it’s good for them but it’s not the highlight of your day. In the beginning, I was super motivated to exercise because I had goals but as I became stronger, movement wasn’t as exciting and it become more difficult to stay motived. In the beginning, it’s easy to stay motivated, but as you get stronger and your results slow down, it’s easy to lose motivation. No one tells you that most days you are not going to be motivated to exercise and sometimes have to drag yourself to the gym. Sometimes your motivation to exercise is harder than the actual routine itself because your brain will convince you to take a rest day and it’s so important you don’t always listen to that voice.
You will feel discouraged when you have a bad workout -When you start exercising more sometimes people think that they will crush their workout every single time as long as you are consistent. I only wish that were true but the reality is you aren’t going to break records with every workout, and most times you performance will be average. If you are breaking records every time, you’re probably not exercising at a high enough intensity and need to make your workout harder. You will feel good about yourself when you have a good workout and break records, but feel discouraged when you have a bad workout. We need to normalize having a bad workout because sometimes you didn’t sleep well and can’t push yourself to the max during exercise. Fitness influencers often will tell you about the positives of exercise, but no one prepares you for how defeated you’re going to feel when you have a bad workout.
You will start loving the feeling of being sore- When you start exercising more, you have more muscle soreness than someone who started exercising last week because your body is not used to exercise. As you become more fit, you will still sometimes get sore, but it won’t be as bad because your body is used to it. I don’t know if everyone who exercises loves the feeling of being sore, but I sure do because it tells me I challenged my body in ways it’s not used to. If you are severely sore and can’t get out of bed, it is likely you pushed yourself too hard and need to take a rest day, but occasional mild muscle soreness is a good thing. Never judge the effectiveness of your workout by how sore you are because soreness doesn’t mean your workout was better, and not being sore doesn’t mean you didn’t push hard enough. It does feel great to be a little sore, and you may start to love that feeling. Don’t neglect stretching if you are sore because that will help improve performance and alleviate some soreness.
Rest days are harder than the workout-I have never enjoyed cardio, and when I started walking, I hated every second of it because I was not in shape and it was much harder than it is now. Some people will never love exercise and will look forward to rest days, but for me, it’s harder than the actual workout. I have always been the type of person who has hated cardio, which is why I avoided it for many years, and I never thought I would start to like it. In the beginning, I hated walking, but now I look forward to it and do not struggle to motivate myself to go for a walk as much as I did when I started. Sometimes the reason you hate exercising is that you are not in shape and it’s really hard. Rest days for me are harder than the workout itself, and sometimes I want to skip them but know I shouldn’t because rest days are just as important as the workout.
Progress may start to slow down– When you are start exercising, often people think that they will see a lot of progress if they stay consistent and it is true that the more you exercise the fitter you will become. In the beginning your progress will be fast but as you become more fit your progress may start to slow down. It is normal for progress to slow down because the heavier you lift the longer it’s going to take to progress to the next weight. Don’t get discouraged if your progress starts to slow down because slow progress isn’t failure and can be a sign of improved fitness. Slow progress isn’t necessarily because slow progress is still progress. Everyone wants to have fast fitness progress but the reality is that fitness progress is not usually fast and can be quite slow.
Your hunger cues may increase- Exercise speeds up your metabolism, and sometimes you may need to eat more food to fuel your workouts. A low impact Pilates routine probably won’t affect your appetite that much, but if you are doing a lot of heavy weight lifting you should expect to have more hunger the heavier you lift. I do a lot of resistance training and find myself needing to eat more snacks to fuel my workouts because my body is burning more and needs more calories. Low-impact workouts such as walking won’t usually increase your hunger, but higher-impact workouts such running do and you shouldn’t be surprised if you have increased hunger. If eating more gives you a lot of stress, I would stick to low-impact workouts such as walking that won’t burn as many calories and increase your hunger. Don’t be surprised if you are feeling hungrier after exercise because having stronger hunger cues does not mean you are failing. Sometimes all increased hunger cues mean is that you are increasing your metabolism and need more calories.
Exercise is hard in the beginning, and you may dread it at first, but the more consistent you are, the easier it becomes, and you may actually start to like exercising. Sometimes the hardest part of getting in shape isn’t the routine itself, but it’s getting started because one you have started, it’s hard to stop. Fitness is not as straightforward as fitness influencers want you to believe, and there are a lot of ups and downs. Some days you will feel great about your fitness, while other times you will feel like a complete failure. Don’t quit when you have a bad workout because you will never get to where you want to be by quitting. If you have been exercising regularly and have consistently been having poor workouts, tweak your routine because you may have your goals too high and need to lower them to start to see progress. What have you learned when you started exercising? If you liked this post, please leave a comment below and share it with your friends.
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