Spring Forward to Action Week 3, Day 2: It's Raining, It's Pouring

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

24 Apr 2007 07:37 AM

Storm clouds are gathering outside and the gray sky is oppressive. It's hard to regret the rain during a time when my area desperately needs it. We've been in a severe drought since last year and many of our local bodies of water have been significantly decreased. We went weeks and weeks without rain and when we did get rain, it was always in drips and dregs.

An Exercise Drought

It seems that we as a nation have been in an exercise drought for a lot longer than the last couple of years. We need exercise as regular and as predictable as we need rain. When we're in a drought, the ground dries out, grows hard and develops cracks. It can affect the foundation of your home and it can leave your garden a dry and brittle place where only the weeds grow.

A drought of exercise can leave you stressed, overweight and frustrated with yourself and the world. It can affect the foundation of your life and leave you vulnerable to obesity and more. A drought of exercise can also leave you feeling like a failure.

Rainmaking

What we need during a time of a drought whether it's a lack of rain or a lack of exercise, we need a rainmaker. A rainmaker for exercise is a personal trainer. Yes, a personal trainer costs money and I know it can be hard to justify that expense. But I'm here to tell you that I'm already in the market to get a personal trainer back again.

Two years ago, I hired a wonderful woman who worked with me weekly and who helped me to design workouts. One of the reasons this worked for me is that once a week she came to the house and helped supervise my workout for an hour. It kept me on track and gave an accountability I couldn't get elsewhere. While I was responsible for my own workout the rest of the week, I could follow the program she gave me because honestly, I wanted to impress her the next time she came.

Accountability

Accountability is a factor you cannot manufacture for yourself and you cannot simply pull it out of thin air. When a personal trainer gives you a workout, you know they are balancing it against all the different needs you have from cardio to strength training to increased flexibility. They are monitoring how you are handling the workout, stepping it down when it's too intense and ramping it up when you need to.

You are given recommendations for the rest of your week and you know that sure, you don't have to do what they are suggesting, but I guarantee you that if you don't - when next week rolls around, you are not in better shape and better able to meet the challenges your trainer gives you.

We need more rainmakers for the rain drought and for the drought in exercise. Would you consider that a personal trainer, even with a personal investment of $40 to $60 a session is worth it, because in the long run, you'll be in better shape and able to pour a little rain on your own personal drought?

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Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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