Exercise requires great energy, strength, concentration…but how hard should you work? How hard is hard enough? When is too much, too much? Here is my family, showing off our sports, and the intensity in our face…we may be serious, but we have fun, and we support each other! We have our game face on: Bring it on!
We are all individuals, and that intensity can be perceived differently by all of us. In general, intensity can be split into 3 categories: High, medium, and low intensity. You can help judge is by your heart rate as well. Your maximum heart rate should be 220-age. Then take 75-85% of that for high intensity, 60-70% for medium intensity, and 50-55% for low intensity. If is always safer to start out slow, and work your way up, but eventually, you need to make it more challenging for yourself. You need to sweat, feel tired, and feel like you actually did something as well. Much of this is not so much about how far your body/legs can take you, but how far your mind can take you. We have to listen to our bodies, but at the same time, we cannot rely solely on our minds. If we do, we may never get out of our “comfort zone”. We have to push our limits, but we have to listen to our bodies, and mind, and find that balance. Finding that balance can be very tough!
Here are a bunch of us from run club getting ready to go for a run…putting our game face on! Ready to take on the day, take on the run. We are ready for a challenge. If life we face those same challenges, and the intensity of those things in life also vary, again, ranging from high to low intensity as well. How well conditioned we are can determine a lot of how we are going to handle those challenges in life. Are we going to get tired easily, and throw in the towel? Or are we going to use that towel and wipe off our foreheads, put our head down, and face those challenges in life head on? Again, intensity requires great energy, strength, and concentration.
Here I am doing a plank. To hold that position requires concentration, strength, and focus. When I do this in a workout I try to do continuously for a minute, take a break, then repeat back and forth. I could not even come close to a minute when I first started, and I would not have yet had I not become more “intense” with working at it.
Intensity requires a lot of strength, “reinforcements”, and concentration…more so to convince your mind than your body. When things with exercise get tough, do we quit or back down? When things in life get tough, do we quit or back down? The choice is ours…and yes it requires work and effort. But that does not mean you can’t have fun with it, and also help push yourselves in the process.
Here I am pushing my daughter Megan with her workout…or more so, cheering her on, with both of us laughing in the process. Bottom line, we were having fun, and spent more time laughing, but also, encouraging each other to keep working. I do this in my Fun Fit workouts during the week at Anytime Fitness, with all of us cheering each other on to keep going. We also do this with our weekly run club gatherings.
We can still be intense, but also, and more importantly, have fun! If you don’t also make it fun, it becomes a chore, a nuisance, or just plain work. You need to make it fun, and then you will keep doing it, and as a result, gain all the benefits of this as well!
As this states: The law of the land is intensity. Without it, you’re doomed to failure. With it, you’re destined for glory. Use that intensity to your advantage, and see how many other benefits this will give you every single day, with every single thing you do, to help solve and get through every obstacle and problem that you may encounter during the day! Your intensity can help you have “success in life”.
Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 3110