Well, for starters, fitness never attacked anyone, was never bestowed upon anyone, was never achieved without due effort. To get fit, overall or for a specific activity, requires participation on a regular basis.

 

Health & Fitness Week

What is the secret to fitness? Well, for starters, fitness never attacked anyone, was never bestowed upon anyone, was never achieved without due effort. To get fit, overall or for a specific activity, requires participation on a regular basis. If you do the work, you will get the results, eventually. Fitness comes in small and sometime unnoticeable increments, the way sneakers wear out, one molecule at a time. Your body adapts to the demands you place upon it, changing so as to become better at supplying whatever ability it takes to better perform your chosen activity. Like getting a tan or learning to play a musical instrument, if you just keep doing what you can do, you will improve, and be able to do a little more, go a little faster, or a little further, or a bit better.

Once you get it in your head that you CAN do better, you quickly come to expect yourself to perform at the new improved level. Once again, simply repeat the process. Train regularly. Experience a bit of overload, the reasonable challenge to which your body will adapt. Soon enough, you will find yourself in the position of having improved, expecting even more from yourself, and starting with the renewed vigor, fueled by your recent accomplishment, to push for even greater gains.

“Are you a runner,” I’m frequently asked. I don’t consider myself a runner, so I answer “No, why,” wondering if maybe I was wearing a running t-shirt, or it was my sneakers, or if they had seen me running. “Your legs look like a runner’s legs,” I am told. Not sure if this is a compliment or not, I choose to take it as one, and respond accordingly. Before I started running on a regular basis, no one had ever asked me this question, but now, after 20 years of running at least a few times a week, I get it a lot. The activities you choose today will continue to show on you for years to come. Consider that in five years you will be wearing the physique you’ve developed over the past decade, and you can see the importance of choosing wisely. What do you wish to look like a decade from now? Start training for your chosen physique today, knowing you’ll be developing it for years, and wearing it for years to come.