We all encounter obstacles and experience setbacks in life. When I refer to setbacks, I’m talking about physical challenges, such as illness or injury—like my own experience with testicular cancer for the third time. Obstacles, on the other hand, are the everyday things that make it difficult to prioritize our health and fitness. These can include work, family responsibilities, indulging too much in life’s pleasures, injury, genetic factors, or even depression. These “I can’t” moments are often just “valuation excuses.” I discuss them in Chapter 4, “The Fitness Mindset,” of The Fitness Mindset: 7 Habits for Peak Performance.
We talk ourselves into believing our valuation excuses. As such, we accept our own closures and limit our possibilities. They arise in the mind as an excuse not to care for ourselves and exercise. I have my own and you have yours. But I choose to make it a priority to exercise every day. Why? It makes feel good and I get stronger. I actually conquer my obstacles and overcome my setbacks every day!
There are so many benefits to exercising that outweigh the excuses NOT to exercise. I mention them very briefly in the Introduction of my book, The Fitness Mindset: 7 Habits For Peak Performance, before talking about extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in regard to social influences and behavior and the alarming statistics of overweight and obesity in the United States.
“Exercise contributes to positive thinking, increases confidence, metabolism, bone density, cardiovascular health, energy, and hormones. Exercise decreases anxiety, improves digestion, slows down the aging process, releases endorphins into the brain that reduce pain as a natural opiate, and boost the feeling of well-being… [And] studies show that exercise can improve mental function and performance by reorganizing and restructuring brain activity” (pp. 8-9).
I am a third time testicular cancer survivor. I think I might be the only one who holds that title! I had 10 weeks of aggressive chemotherapy from November to January. I continued exercising during that time when I could. Since my last chemo session, I’ve had 24 training sessions in 31 days. That’s six training sessions per week.
I had a recent injury to my right shoulder in the gym with chronic pain and limited mobility but I still exercise – the left side of my upper body only, e.g., left arm cranking, left chest, left lat, left bicep, left tricep, until my right shoulder heals.
My problem, and my obstacle these days, is very low recovery. My body is running on chemo, blood thinners, estrogen, no testosterone, and my RBC and hemoglobin is low which causes low stamina and dizziness.
But I still make time to exercise for an hour alternating between upper and lower body with cardio. I do cardio first (in most cases it should be done last). I choose three machines for 10 minutes each for 30 minutes. This gets me sweating and motivated to fire up my mind for an intense one all-out-set of an exercise with the weights for 30 minutes. Exercise with NO EXCUSES!