I Am Not Alone

My good friend CH (of debt ceiling fame) recently made me aware of an absolutely fantastic blog post over at Nerd Fitness. Spend 45 seconds reading the first couple of paragraphs, and you will quickly understand why I am such a fan of this. If you'd like the condensed comparison of Nerd Fitness versus Stationary Waves, read on. This guy scares me in how closely his ideas resemble mine.

Look How Closely His Ideas About Fitness Parallel My Own

“Nobody believes your excuses except for you.”

I discovered this quote through my buddy  Tyler, and I can’t get enough of it.  I’ve been running Nerd Fitness for over two and a half years now, and I’ve heard pretty much every excuse in the book when it comes to exercise, fitness and weight loss.

 Although I've never blogged about it, I have often said, "There are always a million good excuses why you shouldn't exercise; There is only one excuse not to: Because it's the right thing to do." Same concept, different wording.

If you don’t like running, DON’T DO IT.  If you don’t like lifting weights in a stuffy gym, DON’T DO IT!  There are a million different ways to get your heart racing, from hiking to Ultimate frisbee, kung fu classes to parkour.

Again, I'm not sure if this one has made it onto Stationary Waves yet, but it is absolutely pivotal to my fitness philosophy. Don't do something just because you think it's supposed to be good for you. Do something you love! The way I usually phrase it is, "The exercise you do is always better than the exercise you don't do." In other words, do something that gets you moving!

Here’s a workout I just came up with in two minutes. Do three sets of 15 repetitions of each exercise, waiting 90 seconds between sets:

• Push exercise (wall push ups, knee push ups, or regular push ups)

• Pull exercise (body rows or dumbbell rows)

• Leg exercise (squats, lunges, or box jumps)

• Core exercise (planks or reverse crunches)

This one absolutely freaked me out. Does this workout look familiar to you? Look closely. It is The Matrix! (Granted, mine is a bit more elaborate, but simplicity was the point in the above quote.)

Let’s take a look at the big picture.  I’ve already taught you how to NOT suck at goal setting, but here’s a quick recap:

• Be specific. Don’t just “want to lose weight.”  It needs to be something like “I want to lose 10% of my body fat by my wedding in September,” or “I want to do a pull up by December 1st.”  You might set too easy of a goal or too unrealistic of a goal; you won’t know until you start working towards it.  What’s important is that you stop talking and over-planning and start doing.

Do you see that? Where have you seen it before?

Well, the whole post is well worth reading, and I strongly encourage you all to do so. Then don't forget to come back here. ;)