The Ghost of Exercise Past....

Sep 29, 2010

I often talk with folks who have had at least one bout of successful exercise in the past. They were on a program that worked for them at one point in their lives, but somehow got knocked off that program and have since tried to restart exercising over and over again without the same success. Has this ever happened to you?   

One person I was working with was very frustrated about her current exercise efforts. It seemed like no matter what she did, she could not regain that success with exercise she once had. We talked a lot about what that past exercise experience was like…where she went, what she did, how she did it, who she did it with, etc. One of the things that stood out to me was that she loved that fact that her family would go to the gym with her. It felt like another aspect of “family time” to her. This was working well in her life until her husband was laid off and they family couldn’t afford the gym membership anymore. Eventually, the whole family moved away from exercising together because things had changed.  

When we were talking about her recent experiences with exercise, I learned that she has been attempting to exercise solo and has just struggled with feeling motivated. She even tried to get another gym membership these years later, but didn’t feel like she enjoyed it as much as she used to. It occurred to me that although this is a different period in her life and things have changed, there was a certain aspect of exercise…that “family time”…that she truly enjoyed but wasn’t recognizing. She was frustrated that exercise didn’t feel the same as it did in the past…but she also wasn’t following through on the aspects that made her most enjoy it!   

We talked again about her past success with exercise and tried to take the major aspects of her enjoyment from it and began to put a plan into place that will help rebuild these qualities back in. She decided to add her family to the membership and ask them to come with her. She recognized that wasn’t motivation that was the issue, it was how she exercised overall that was going to make it an enjoyable experience.  

Sometimes something more drastic happens that might make you feel like you can’t just re-start that old successful program again. But with the right mind-set, you can examine the characteristics of what you loved so much about the program and adjust it to your current exercise efforts. For example, I worked with one person that was very successful with exercise until she was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. After this, she began experiencing painful flare-ups and was unable to maintain the consistency of her program. She began to fall off her program entirely, because she didn’t feel like she could maintain any “normal” routine. 

We talked about what she loved about exercise and began to come up with ideas to adjust her program. It took some creativity and planning, but she can now look at exercise in a new light and follow a program that still incorporates the things she likes about exercise. She still deals with pain and her arthritis, but dealing with it now is just another aspect of her program.   

Here is something to try!  If this is something you have experienced, I encourage you to sit down and examine your past success with exercise. Think about all the things you did and examine what you enjoyed about it so much. Was it the results you were getting? If so, what kind? Was it the time of day? Was the type of gym or atmosphere? Have you’re your recent attempts at exercise included these qualities? Examine your list closer and circle some of the things you feel like you can work with right now. Write down what has changed that might make you feel like you can’t do the exact same program. Then put on your thinking cap, your creativity cap, and your research cap! Start looking for ways to make this new program work! 

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