I revived my exercise program about one month ago and I have been consistently taking small steps on my running. In this time, I have had 23 exercise slots. I started by just walking, then added in a minute or two of running, and now am moving into my run/walk program. I do a 5 minute warm-up and 5 minute warm-down and now I am doing a 4 minute run / 1 minute walk module. This means that I run for 4 minutes, then walk for 1 minute. So I am running about 50% of the total time of my work out (including the warm ups and downs).
As I use a treadmill, I can work with speeds and heartrate to guide my progress. Currently I run between 9.0km/hr and 7.0km / hr. At the same time I observe my heartrate. It is currently within 50-60% of my maximum heart rate which is acceptable for base training. I talk about how to calculate your maximum heart rate here.
So now that I am building up my time running, I adjust total work-out time (20-35 mins), speed while running (my target is 10km/hr) and my heartrate (so I can do more exercise with less exertion). The biggest lesson here is that small and consistent is the only way to build up a healthy fitness level.
I also have a target for my first triathlon of the year: an Olympic distance in Suixian in Henan province in China. Here’s to a healthy year for you and your family.
About three years ago, a trainer friend of mine passed away from a heart attack. He was over-weight, lived off fried food and did not do any exercise. He was multi-lingual, a warm friendly funny man in his 40s. I miss his sense of humour and diverse talents. Recently another trainer friend of mine suffered from Bells Palsy which causes a partial paralysis of the facial muscles. He is in good shape, doesn’t drink or smoke and works out and plays basketball. He is also multi-lingual, a warm friendly funny man in his 30s. He has been on a punishing travel schedule traveling two or three cities a week, training up to 20 days a month. I look forward to enjoying his diverse sense of humour and talents for many years to come.
We are all striving for greater success in our lives, but at what cost? We push through the tiredness, stress and heavy workload to make the next target. What are you doing to pause your life? You need to add a few days a month (or at least a quarter) to fully relax. I am spending two days this week in a bamboo mountain forest retreat attending a yoga and emotional freedom workshop. I have never done yoga and am not really that sure what emotional freedom really means, but I do know one thing. I am totally going to forget about checking emails and traffic jams and the small frustrations that can get in the way of our lives.
I expect to come back full of fresh air, much more relaxed and enriched by learning some new techniques. I will come back healthier and fitter from the fresh air and morning walks in the forest. Really looking forward to it. I plan a monthly away day with my wife and it allows us to get grounded before we move onto another month. Take the kettle off before it boils. And that reminds me, it’s time for some peppermint tea. Have a relaxed and refreshing day.
I was recently invited to speak at the 10 year celebration of Toastmasters in China. The first club to charter in China put on a wonderful show with almost 300 attending. I shared some insights into life changes and leadership through the metaphors of three heros. Today, I have enclosed a link to the third hero: The One Minute Presenter.
Click to play the 7 minutes 53 seconds video:
I was recently invited to speak at the 10 year celebration of Toastmasters in China. The first club to charter in China put on a wonderful show with almost 300 attending. I shared some insights into life changes and leadership through the metaphors of three heros. Today, I have enclosed a link to the second hero: The Bamboo Leader.
Click to play the 8 minutes 48 seconds video:
I recently was invited to speak at the 10 year celebration of Toastmasters in China. The first club to charter in China put on a wonderful show with almost 300 attending. I shared some insights into life changes and leadership through the metaphors of three heros. Today, I have enclosed a link to the first hero: The Change Catalyst.
Click to play the 9 minutes 47 seconds video:
Having just joined a gym, I am fully aware of the path most people’s gym membership takes. Intense usage for the first month, followed by sporadic visits and finally lapsing within a couple of months.
The energy and enthusiasm that gets us started on a road towards a target can be lost as life gets in the way. Exhausting workloads, intense international travel, family commitments and taking care of children. It’s very difficult to stay committed to complete a change. Not only in health but also any significant life changes requires attention and constant maintenance. Conventional wisdom says that if you complete a new action for 21 days it becomes a habit, but in my experience that is just not true. Maybe in the past when the amount of stimuli in people’s lives were much lower, but not today. There are so many things competing for your energy and attention that it requires ongoing attention to stay the course.
One technique that you can use to sustain yourself is to set very easy targets to start. By setting low targets you guarantee that you start succeeding from day one. My ultimate running target is to run a 5 minute kilometer average for 10 kilometers. But I first target was “to put on my exercise clothes”. I found that by making this goal so simple it broke through the procrastination that had held me back for several months. Then I set an easy target to walk for 40minutes on the treadmill. Now as I regain my fitness levels, I am very gradually moving up these targets. For example, now I walk for 4 minutes and run for one minute. I will gradually increase the amount of running over the weeks, and by tracking my speed and heart rate will be able to slowly but surely reach my targets. Most important of all, I won’t get injured and I build up my confidence by making it easy to succeed.
Ultimately, the most successful people don’t necessarily have special knowledge or approaches. With google, best practice techniques are within easy reach of us all. But successful people are consistent. They demonstrate good beahaviour constantly and relentlessly over days, months, weeks and years. Set yourself up for success, make success easy for yourself. Small easy targets. Be constant and enjoy the fruits of your hard work! Best of luck.
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