Exercising and Working Out… A State of Mind!

I would like to start by saying I am excited to see Insider's Health moving in a positive and growing direction. Being part of the development process of IH I have the luxury of knowing how much effort has been put into creating this gemstone of a site. Over the past 2 years I have been involved in many areas of the creation and ongoing development of IH from design and structure to functionality and marketing. Ok enough about how proud I am of Insider's Health. Below is my First Article Contribution for IH!

I had never been a huge advocate of exercising or working out in a gym. In fact often I would argue that it is better to exercise your body by hiking or biking or joining a sports team. For over 13 years I stayed away from sports gyms, and justified it by joining Paint Ball teams and hiking the Appalachian Mountains and other national parks across the east coast.

About 2 months ago I joined a local gym with a co-worker and started working out daily during my lunch hour.  For me this was truly a new experience. As a teenager I was always among the top in my gym class, whether it was top in pushups or pull ups or even running the mile I always exceeded without difficulty. My body was shocked after the first week of working out. My muscles were very sore and over all I felt like I had been hit by a Mac Truck. This really made me feel bad about myself, right away I noticed how out of shape I was and immediately I felt myself thinking that the gym is not for me. The following week I did not feel confident about going back. I was thinking of all the reasons I shouldn’t go as opposed to thinking about all the reasons I should go.

I pushed through it and with my co-workers help I have been slowly building up my confidence and have been making it to the gym at least 3-4 times a week. Even though I have only been working out over the past 2 months I have realized how important it is to stay focused, energized and positive about creating a weekly routine at the gym. I’ve also found that it is not about how much weight you could bench or how many times you could curl 35 pounds, but more so about putting yourself in a strong state of mind to stay consistent with my weekly work outs.

On occasion I find myself self-conscious about the exercises I am performing and how much weight or how many reps I can do. I often look around the gym and see people lifting large amounts of weight, while I am barely lifting the bar itself. I have even complained about this to my co-worker and time and time again he reminds that it’s all in my head and to stay focused on the form consistency of the exercise instead of increasing weight and muscling through the exercise.

In conclusion this is why I believe working out in a gym is a state of mind. I believe it is important to not only focus on what you are doing but also to tune out everything else that is going on in the. If you have been hesitant about joining a gym as I have stop putting it off. Remember there that all the reasons you come up with for not joining are all A STATE OF MIND.