Exercise has many benefits and one of my favorites is that it really boosts my mood and brings me happiness due to endorphins, serotonin and dopamine neurotransmitters that are released while working out. While happiness is one of the more known and common characteristics that exercise brings upon us, there are others that contribute to this happiness and have helped me grow more as a person and love exercise, here they are below.
Strong
Weightlifting and seeing myself lift heavier weights than I ever thought I could makes me feel phenomenally strong. When I started lifting I focused on lighter weight and really improving/perfecting my form for basic lifting techniques. Once getting my form down I started to gradually increase weight. Progressive overload is important if you want to see muscle growth in the gym, but perfecting the building blocks first will make it a lot easier on yourself. You don’t need to be going up a crazy amount of weight or reps each week.
Confidence
Fitness makes me feel confident! When you learn more about what you’re doing and hold lots of knowledge about the subject, you feel more confident. When learning proper technique, gym etiquette, and how to use machines properly you can go into each session with more confidence and really tune into yourself. When we are not confident we are self conscious and are worried about what other people are thinking about us. Luckily, most of the time no one is worried about what you’re doing; they are trying to work on themselves as well. Don’t be afraid to learn!
I’ve also gained more confidence in myself physique wise. Gaining some muscle here and there and slowly losing fat around certain areas has helped me be more confident in my body. Seeing progress takes time and patience, once you start to see the slightest bit of change in your body it makes you believe in yourself more and want to keep going.
Persistence
Some days are a lot harder than others getting to the gym and sometimes just pushing through a workout. It’s not because we hate working out, it’s because we’re human and we don’t always wanna do things. Pushing through the workouts we don’t want to do and waking up early to get in a workout before you go to work really helps you believe in yourself because you don’t give up. When you are tired or drained from work or just feeling simply lazy and you push through to do what is best for you, it is actually an amazing feeling when you finish the workout. You proved yourself wrong and got in a good workout. If some days you really feel like giving up, just give yourself a day or two to rest and reset so you can realize why you started in the first place. Sometimes all you need is rest and that is ok.
Discipline
Not giving up leads to self discipline because you know you will feel better after your workout and that you have goals to work towards. I personally have to rely on discipline versus motivation when it comes to fitness and working out. Some days I’m very motivated and want to go for a nice run in the warm weather, some days it’s dumping snow and I don’t have a desire to run on a treadmill. I know every few days I think it’s fine if I skip today I can go tomorrow, and then I end up saying the same thing again the next day because then I get into a lazy routine. With the goals that I personally want to achieve I know that I need to go in the moment or the second I have free time and then after my workout I am usually very proud of myself for just going and it was worth it. I think planning your workouts helps with discipline because we all have different schedules. You can plan what time of day works best for you and which days of the week and what day you’re gonna do lower body, cardio, upper etc. I think the cool thing about planning it out is that it is your own custom schedule, no one else’s so I think that is empowering as well.
Patience
Patience is probably the most important thing when it comes to exercise and my fitness journey. These days we expect to see massive change 1-2 weeks of us working out because of the society we live in today. That is just simply not the case. There are many different factors that determine your fitness routine each week and what you eat. For example, I could definitely be more toned around the tummy area but I love my dessert and will not give it up every night just to have a perfectly flat stomach. With patience I know that by sticking to my intuitive and mainly wholesome food diet and sticking to my fitness routine each week, I will get there and I am not in a rush because I don’t want to sacrifice what I enjoy. I still love my body and appreciate what it provides because it’s a journey. Whatever your goals are and how many days a week you are being active, have patience. While having this patience, enjoy the journey you’re on.
Independence
Learning new things in the gym leads to confidence, and confidence leads to more independence! Growing as an individual and learning to have my own independence over the years has really helped me and contributes to my happiness. Now that I am pretty familiar with fitness and the gym, I feel that I can go anywhere and feel confident in what I am doing. I also feel confident enough to help and give advice to others if needed. Exercise is something that makes me feel good overall. When working on being more independent you start to put things first in your life that are important to you and you start to ditch what isn’t helping you grow as a person. Independence=power!
When someone starts their fitness journey, they mainly want to do it to change their body whether that’s losing fat or building muscle. There are a lot of other factors that tie in with fitness to change who you are for the better! So love your body from the start and accept it as is, then put in the work. If you are always chasing to change something for how you look, you’ll never be satisfied with yourself. Enjoy the journey, not just the end goal.
