Contrary to Popular Belief, the Harder You Work, the Less Difficult it Becomes
Exercise is a paradox: it boosts your energy while you expend it. Often now many people tell themselves they are ‘too tired’ or “insert any other excuse here,” to not exercise. Change can be scary, and when exercise isn't exactly your forte, this fear becomes exacerbated and results in no action at all. A consistent workout regimen has proven to boost energy levels, improve overall mood, and have inherent mental and physical health benefits.
How Does Exercise Boost Your Stamina?
What is stamina? Stamina is the combination of prolonged physical or mental energy and strength. Clearly these are two important factors in improving your workouts and allowing you to perform at your best. When you have stamina, you’re better able to power through a stressful or challenging workout while sustaining the mental and physical demands of the exercise without giving up or breaking down.
There are ways to increase your stamina so that you can work toward completing increasingly challenging exercises without feeling winded or over-exerted.
Some ways that you can improve your stamina and endurance are:
● Exercise!
○ Do it daily. This will come with change but remember: change is growth, discomfort is growth, and pushing your perceived limits is growth. As you inflate the time you spend exercising, an increase in energy will follow as you are building up your stamina threshold.
● Frequency + Duration
○ To effectively boost your stamina, you must gradually increase the frequency (how often you exercise) and the duration (escalate the time you spend working out by steady increments). The recommended frequency and duration for adults is anywhere between three and five workouts per week for at least 20 minutes each time. This is just a recommendation however. Start with whatever is easiest for you to take action.
● Mind Over Matter
○ Never underestimate the power of your mind; you are capable of so much more than your brain can trick you to believe. To improve in anything, you must begin to override the little voice in your head that starts to negotiate all the reasons why you should stop when things get difficult. You have to begin to push and challenge yourself through this and understand that transformation comes with determination.
“Movement is the Essence of Life” - Bernd Heinrich
What Really Happens in Your Body When You Exercise?
Several mechanisms promote energy, beginning at the cellular level. When you put your body under stress (exercise), it produces mitochondria within muscle cells. Mitochondria are essentially little energy powerhouses that are circulated throughout the body. These little energy machines breakdown and create energy from glucose. Glucose, which is found in your food, then becomes imperative to exercise. What does this mean? You must fuel your body with the nutrients it needs to help energize your workouts so you can build more energy.
It’s also suggested that directly after a workout, you refuel your body with high quality protein to help provide your body what it needs to begin to repair and restore. Real food is always best here, but if you are crunched for time, a high quality grass-fed protein powder supplement can help provide everything your body needs to repair and recover from your training.
What you put in your body is a direct reflection of how well you will perform in your workouts and in life. When you are providing it with a high quality product that cuts all the c#!p out, you are left with only the essential ingredients, the ones that your body craves after a workout.
The Importance of Rest and Recovery
Rest is equally as important as being active because your muscles need time to recover. As you rest, your body is working hard to rebuild and repair. Some of the reasons why a 48-72 hour rest break is important are:
● Promotes muscle recovery
● Allows our bodies to adapt to the gradual 'stress’ we put on it
● Prevents overtraining because you are giving it time to ‘adapt’ through rest and recovery
● Promotes mind and body relaxation
“The More Fluid You Are, The More You Feel Alive” - Arnaud Desjardins
It’s Time to Fight Fatigue
Being sedentary can be so detrimental to your health now that is often likened to the new version of smoking. While it may seem counterintuitive to get up and move to make you more energetic, you have to believe in the process. It’s not about finding the next big ‘thing’ or ‘hack’ that will give you more energy. It is 100% about you taking control of your life, setting goals, and beginning to take action in areas - such as exercise. This is really what you are looking for and what ultimately will help you the most. Hacks and cheats only help temporarily. They don’t promote long term success. Only consistency and frequency can do that.
Check out our blog, ‘Make Your Moves’ to understand why moving more has so many benefits for body tissue and how imperative it is to get up and MOVE!
Are you finally ready? What if we could help you sleep better, manage stress better, and teach you how to set and attain goals all through movement and nutrition? Well, we can. EPOCH wants to help you create actionable steps for success. We will provide you with a personalized fitness plan beginning with how to get started, how to build healthy and continual habits, and how to sustain your success. Make a change, today.