Making exercise a habit probably isn’t a struggle for most of the people that read this site. Yet, every once in awhile even the best of us slip up.
When I travel I don’t always have time to workout. This is for a couple reasons. Generally, my trips are short so I use it as a break. Other times I do have access to somewhere I’d like to workout so over a weekend trip I might get one good workout in. But if I don’t I don’t worry about it. A little time off never hurt anybody.
Like this past weekend I did some NatMov style training with my brothers. Fun stuff and very different from my normal training. More on that later.
And usually when I get back home I get right back into training.
However, after this last trip that wasn’t the case. I went a full two days back without using my gym.
I know what you’re saying, oh man Logan, you’re really starting to slip. Two days you lazy bastard! All joking aside I am quite serious. Going two days without working out when I have no real excuse, when I feel I should, is a huge deal for me.
Sure I could blame it on all the work I had to catch up on. And the fact that the weather changed and now it’s very cold up here. Or I injured my hand in the martial arts. But those are just excuses and you know what they say about excuses.
Yesterday I finally got back in the gym, after what seemed like a long lay off to me. I did some squats, chinnups and barbell presses and felt great afterwards.
For me exercises is a habit. In fact, if I don’t do it regularly I begin to become depressed, real fast. And the longer I don’t do it the harder it becomes to not do it again. Resistance builds up. However since I’ve been doing it so long as a habit, I really can’t do without. I’m addicted!
Many people have to force themselves to workout. But if you enjoy what you do (and there are so many ways you can exercise, so find one, two or five things you enjoy doing) it is not a chore. I always tell people that if I had to spend 45 minutes on a hamster wheel treadmill I wouldn’t exercise either. But tossing some kettlebells around, lifting heavy weights or doing handstands and I’m in.
For me I couldn’t stop if I wanted to. When you reach this place you’ll never have to worry about not doing enough for you fitness and what that can do for you health.
Making exercise a habit is simply a matter of doing it long enough, with enough enjoyment, that you need to exert no effort in making it happen again and again.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. Join us for the Oldtime Strongman Blueprint Workshop and discover the habits of becoming a strongman.
Filed under Strength Training Concepts by on Oct 7th, 2011. 5 Comments. 
Lots of people are touting the benefits of the rebounder or the mini tramp for exercise. I shot this video impromptu for you during one of my workouts.
Jumping on a trampoline works out every single cell in your body as they get squeezed up and down from gravity.
This is one of the best ways to pump the lymph through your body. The lymph is one of the key components of your immune system. One expert said that if our lymph flowed as well as it could every day it would be impossible to get sick!
From Wikipedia:
“Unlike the cardiovascular system, the lymphatic system is not closed and has no central pump. Lymph transport, therefore, is slow and sporadic. Despite low pressure, lymph movement occurs due to peristalsis (propulsion of the lymph due to alternate contraction and relaxation of smooth muscle), valves, and compression during contraction of adjacent skeletal muscle and arterial pulsation.”
Bouncing on a mini tramp happens to be one of the hands down best ways to move lymph although all sorts of other movement and manual massage can do it as well. In some cases the massage may be needed to break up stagnation in areas.
There are also some other benefits to doing it. However I don’t think its the only exercise you’ll ever need as some people claim.
Also there are differences between a cheap trampoline and one of the top of the line models. But a cheap model as I have here can be picked up in many local shops for about $30.
Anyway I’ve been experimenting with doing a number of things between the sets of exercises while I train. Bouncing on the mini tramp is one of them. I highly recommend you give it a try.
This is a powerful one but pales in comparison to some of the other things I’ve been doing. More on that later.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. I released this on my other site and it’s been hugely popular in one day! If you’re at all interested in learning how to do a backflip now check it out.
Filed under Bio Feedback, Bodyweight Exercise, Health, Videos by on Jul 14th, 2011. 4 Comments.
