Guide to Creating Your Fitness Philosophy
(Before starting any fitness routine, contact your doctor for a complete physical and advice to ensure that you are healthy and have no underlying problems that could worsen during an exercise regimen.)
Mind, body, and Spirit
What are you doing today for your personal Fitness and well being? That question is being asked over and over again. In today’s environment, health and wellness is getting more difficult and harder to achieve or so we think. The normal individual feels that they just do not have the time to work out in the local gym or at home, which there seems to never be enough time. We commute to work and seem to always be driving somewhere, either with going to work, taking the kids, or shopping. It just never seems to stop.
In this rapid pace of today’s world, fitness is achievable and required if we are going to keep this pace and live well when we reach those later years. If we don’t, as we get older, we will find more and more health problems and just won’t have the energy we need to enjoy our life. And to stress the point “it’s never too late to start”, each of us must begin to make the time and look at the future and not focus continually on the now. To live well in the future, we have to consider fitness today.
Now to understand why I am very much aware of the importance of fitness and what it can mean to your lifestyle in the future is to understand my background. In 1983, I was diagnosed with aorta insufficiency. As a basic description, aortic insufficiency is the backflow of blood, after contraction of the heart, from the aorta back into the left ventricle. This condition can result in an enlargement of the left ventricle and has the potential for a backup of blood, not just on the left side of the heart, but back into the lungs and into the right side of the heart. Now initially, I had no symptoms or problems and was just required to have annual check-ups to ensure that it had not worsened. In 2002, it was discovered that it had progressed to the point that would require me to under go open heart surgery. Now up to this time, I fortunately had continued to be physically fit and had been working out regularly. Because of this and my positive attitude to overcome the situation, my recovery was quick and within 4 months I was back in the gym and working out regularly again. My doctors were astounded to say the least.
Fitness today is so important to our future that we can no longer keep putting it off. In our fast paced world, we just need to get more creative in how we workout and work our fitness regime into our daily routine. We can each start today by parking a bit farther from the front door of the store and walking, stretching when we get up, instead of taking the elevator, walk the stairs and instead of eating that super king size meal, eat a salad. All these things are a beginning but are not the end. Each of us must make fitness part of our daily routine. Today we have a vast amount of different types of exercise equipment to use in helping us improve our fitness. The Fitness industry has provided everything from power bands to weights and home gyms. But with all this equipment, each individual must make the commitment to begin and stay with it and look at the future and our health and lifestyle.
A philosophy that I have adapted is that the mind, body and spirit are all a part of our health and well being. Our physical well being is much more than just your body or your mind but is about your spirit. Your well being and health is a contract between your spirit and the world. We all know that when our spirits are up, we feel so much better and healthier. Eventually we as individuals will find that we make the most powerful contribution to our own health and well-being. Exercise will improve your spirit and confidence and in a nut shell will improve our everyday lifestyle and health.
This philosophy is focused on not only developing and strengthening the body but each individual must also develop the spirit and mind. For each one has an inter-connection with the other. You must have the spirit or drive to a healthier life style and the strength of mind to follow through to help the body to improve in strength and flexibility.
Take the time today and evaluate your fitness routine. Make a commitment to improve your life. Take a 20 minute walk with your family or do 10 minutes on that treadmill or elliptical trainer that is setting in the back room. Pick up those weights and do a set of bicep curls. It can do nothing more than lift your spirit and make you feel better.
