It is easy to be overwhelmed when thinking about starting an exercise program. What do I do? How do I do it? How fast will it work? Should I lift weights? Should I run? Dance? Pilates? Yoga? Of course this leads to being overwhelmed and never starting at all.

I have found a way to help with that problem. Only do/learn one exercise at a time. Then keep in mind to DO only one rep at a time. Back when I was a competitive runner I practiced a whole lot of Ashtanga Yoga. It really helped me to recover from all the running, and it worked out all the severe muscle tightness that is always the constant bugaboo of all runners.

For those of you who don’t know, Ashtanga Yoga is done in series. There is a primary series, second series, third series etc. I myself had worked up to the second series. Going through the entire primary series used to take around 1 hour and 20 minutes, and that was what I did most frequently. It was tough! I sweat, I worked, I breathed. Doing something like that at the end of a day was sometimes very daunting. I sometimes didn’t feel like it. So (without knowing it) I would just start with the warmups called sun salutes. Then I would say to my self…..

“I ‘ll just do the next three standing postures.”

When I had gone that far I said….ok now do 2 more. I kept up with that attitude until I had gotten fairly well through. By that point I realized, hey I can do  the whole thing! By the time I got to the end I was happy I did it. I felt good, and it wasn’t anywhere near as hard as I felt it would be before I started.

Why???

I think it is because I broke it down. Into much smaller chunks. Just one more posture. Just one more breath. Its easy to do one more breath, or one more rep of an exercise.

You can do the same thing. Start by learning just one exercise at a time. You have to take the time to let your body and mind catch up to the workouts anyway, so learn one at a time. That is why we broke the Burpee down into 4 episodes.  So you could learn it one step at a time. If many of you were to try and learn it all at once it could be too much to take in. You would try a few and quit. Maybe…..but by practicing each segment, while gaining strength from each segment, IS very do able.

Start by telling your self

“I am going to learn 5 exercises this month.”

Spend 2-3 days on each one. After you have learned one, practice the second one and THEN finsish off with one set of the first one. When you  have learned the second move to the third and THEN do one set of the second and one set of the first. Then…you get the idea.

Same goes for your exercise sessions. Instead of beginning a set of chin ups by telling yourself you are going to do 5 chin ups, tell yourself you are going to do one. Once you have done that tell yourself, ok, I can do one more, and keep going THAT way. It is MUCH easier to think one at a time instead of all at once.

This kind of mindset also keeps you more in the present, instead of thinking and worrying 30 seconds ahead. It  strengthens your mind/body connection. It is strongest when you are PAYING ATTENTION! Awareness is everything.

So, for this month why not try learning one exercise at a time, by doing them one repetition at a time?

Best,

Robert

I used to start a Yoga practice with the mindset of doing 4-5 postures. Then when I did that I told myself…let’s now do this and this. Then more. Before I knew it I was deep into it and went to the end.