Where to Start?

A few weeks ago, I decided to start exercising, I had been several months or maybe a few years without doing practically any type of physical activity, so I did not know where to start. I tried routines on YouTube, Nike workouts, and several of the thousands of apps out there that work like a virtual coach. No type of exercise suited me, nor did I. Within days I was bored practicing, my highest number of workouts was two a week, and my longest streak was two weeks. This, added to the quarantine and my anxiety causes me to eat more than normal, causing me to gain weight. It wasn’t until a few days ago that I tried running and biking, I don’t do it as often as I’d like, but they are the exercises I feel most comfortable with.

Clearly, with the quarantine, it’s more difficult to start doing any activity outside the home, also, is not so comfortable or safe to go out to a park for a run. Some will have the advantage of living somewhere with little traffic and that is a place that can be used quite well. But I think those who have a bigger problem are those who live in apartments or who do not have a free space to exercise. At the beginning of my quarantine, I had to go through that, living in a small space, without open areas in which to breathe or exercise, I understand how difficult it can be. Fortunately, I was able to return to my hometown, where I am lucky to have large spaces with few people to do some activities. The beginning is always the most difficult, in these times I think that the emotional/sentimental part is complicated to overcome, you feel like you do not want anything, school saturates you, work can become absorbing. But here comes a piece of advice from my mom “Always give yourself your time.” At that moment, I decided to be able to set aside an hour (sometimes more, sometimes less) to dedicate it to myself. The fact of not having the physical condition, muscle aches, fatigue, and exhaustion that you felt in the process are some of the reasons why one wants to give up exercise.

But there always comes a moment, perhaps soon or sometimes with a little delay, in which you stop feeling it as a burden or something obligatory, and you begin to accept it as a form of entertainment and even feel it as an escape from the routine, which sometimes is needed. It is also difficult to decide what type of exercise or activity to do, I suppose that we are faced with a type of paradox of choice thanks to the fact that we feel overwhelmed by all the activities that we have within our reach and that is why it costs us so much choose what to do. I think the best option, in this case, is to try everything we can, you will never know what is best suited to your preferences if you do not experience new things.

So, if you are in the process of deciding whether you should exercise or not, or if you are in the process of choosing which activity to do, let me recommend that you decide to start, as I mentioned, it will not be easy, but you will fall in love of the process, I’m sure of that. In the second option, I cannot advise you much, the best thing is that you experience what suits you better, in case you cannot go out, the YouTube routines may work for you or you can even imitate an Argentine guy who ran 4 kilometers, going wall to wall inside his home. Finally, it’s about you figuring out what works for you. I hope I’ve helped that a bit.