Let’s Get The Ball Rolling

You’ve dared to begin to exercise. Now, let’s set you up to win exercise. 

Fitness is a game.

Here’s a useful way to think about it...

Liken fitness to a bowling alley. You turn up and pick your lane. If you’re new to bowling, you may choose to have the bumpers up; at least until you get the hang of it.

It feels good to knock down the bowling pins and hit your objective. When you first start, it can be frustrating to repeatedly bowl the ball into the gutter. The bumpers increase your chances of success. 

If you keep bowling the ball into the gutter, it can be demotivating and probably won’t want to come back anytime soon.

• The bowling lane is your chosen sport. 

• The bowling pins is your fitness goal. 

• The bowling ball is your directed effort and consistency. 

• The bumpers are your exercise guidelines.

Let’s elaborate on each of these. 

Photo credit: Pixabay

Finding your chosen sport.

I’m going to include bodyweight circuits, weight lifting and other types of exercise like yoga and Pilates in here. When I say sport, in this context, I really just mean physical activity with an objective.

When new to exercise, choosing too many bowling lanes to focus on may result in you not feeling accomplished in any of them.

You may see more success narrowing your selection to one or two sports or activities. 

Remember: You can always change them later. 

Choosing your fitness goals. 

Within those sports, you will find tangible objectives to target. These are the bowling pins you want to knock down.

You may not bowl a strike each time, maybe you’ll only hit a handful of pins. That’s okay. With practise, you’ll get better and more accurate. 

Here are a few examples of sports with goals attached:

1. Bodybuilding - increase muscle mass by 2kg

2. Yoga - be able to sit in Downward Dog for 2 minutes

3. Running - be able to run 5km in 20 minutes 

4. Swimming - be able to swim 1km without stopping 

5. Bodyweight exercise - be able to do 30 push ups in one go

Directing your effort and consistency

You have a limited amount of time, attention and energy. In a similar way, when it is your turn to bowl, you only get two balls to use each round.

Deciding how you want to bowl can be likened to how you are going to direct your time, attention, energy.

Here’s some example strategies:

1. I’m going to bowl hard and fast, and achieve my goal in 6 weeks. 

2. I’m going to play the long game, I’ll give myself a year. 

3. I’m going to take it lightly, I’m here to have fun. 

4. I’m going to dedicate 4 hours a week to this.

5. I’m going to focus on my footwork for basketball practise. 

Finally, onto the bumpers... setting yourself up to win. 

Within your chosen sport, there will be rules and guidelines in place to help you achieve your objectives. These guidelines can be broad or very narrow. 

If they’re too broad, you can loose your direction and bowl into the gutter.

If they’re too narrow, you can bowl, your ball will get stuck and you won’t hit the pins at the end. 

Remember: ‘Goldilocks Guidelines ’, not too broad, not too narrow.

Broad enough to give you room to explore, narrow enough to not get lost along the way.

Here are some examples of ‘Goldilocks guidelines’ you may come across in popular sports and activities...

1. When playing football, if I pass the ball to my team mates more, we’re more likely to retain possession of the ball and control the game. 

2. When doing push ups, if I start from my knees and work my way up to doing them on my feet over a year, I’ll be able to do a full push up.

3. If I want to lose approximately 0.5kg of weight each week, I need to eat around 500kcal less each day. 

It can be difficult to come up with your own guidelines when you don’t have a lot of experience in the sport. That’s okay. This is why we watch YouTube tutorials, hire private teachers, attend classes, or read. 

In summary

1. Choose your sport.

2. Identify your goal within that sport.

3. Decide how you want to play the game .

4. Choose some Goldilocks Guidelines to help you win.

Lastly, if you still need some help with this. I’ll be glad to give you some advice and get the ball rolling.

Fill in this form, and we can chat.

Keep moving,

Monty