There are many reasons why somebody might not workout. Physical restraints, time constraints, laziness, the dog ate their homework… But here are the top five excuses that I hear time and time again, some of them based on myths perpetuated by fear and not by fact, and why they are completely, categorically untrue. Unfortunately, women are the worst offenders, but I am here to put those excuses to rest.
- “I don’t have enough time.”
Puh-leeeaase. How much time do you spend mindlessly scrolling on social media, or watching shows on Netflix? It isn’t that you don’t have the time, it’s that you simply don’t want to prioritize how you spend it. Many people think that if you can’t dedicate at least an hour to a workout that it’s not worth it or somehow doesn’t count. Ironically some of my absolute best workouts are done in 30 minutes or less. That’s shorter than most series episodes! So what if you can only do 5 minutes, or 10? That is 5 or 10 more minutes of exercise that you wouldn’t have done otherwise. Those minutes add up. Just yesterday all I had time for was four minutes worth of intervals on my assault bike! But I got my heart rate up (waaay up), improved my VO2 max and felt freaking amazing after. The day before that I did a 20 minute weights routine so fast and furious I could barely lift my arms in the end. So don’t psych yourself out with that all-or-nothing attitude. Just do something every day. Besides, those 5 or 10 minutes a day can save you hours or days of your life in a doctors office or a hospital bed.
2. “I don’t want to get too big.”
Women, this one’s for you. I can’t even tell you how many times I have heard this one and it is by far biggest misconception I have ever heard (and the funniest to be honest.) Do you know how hard it is to get big, even if we want to? I know it may seem easy, especially when we are looking at men as our examples. But a few things to note: Men have loads of this magical thing called testosterone which aids in bulking and we don’t, muscle building or hypertrophy is actually really hard to achieve, even for men, and the time and amount of protein it takes to get “bigger” is impossible for most people. Unless you are a professional or semi-professional body builder whose literal job is to eat and train all day, every day, this should not be a concern for you. This becomes even more untrue as we age, because our bodies stop absorbing protein efficiently enough to really pack on the muscle. Also, often times we don’t get bigger from lifting weights, we get leaner. I weigh the same amount now after 20 years of weight lifting that I did in highschool, but wear a smaller size than I did then too. And that’s with weight lifting/strength training 3x/week and eating almost 100G of protein a day. Just something to think about.
3. “Weight lifting doesn’t burn a lot of calories.”
I go into this one in detail in my post “Muscle Matters” (which I highly encourage you to read) but to summarize, that’s a crock of crap. The more muscle you build, the more calories you burn around the clock, period. There’s a reason why the more you strength train, the hungrier you are. It’s called physiology. If you want to have more dietary and nutritional flexibility, be able to eat more food and not have the constant fear that eating the “wrong” foods or “too much” food will cause you to go up a pant size, do not, I repeat do not be afraid to pick up the weights.
4. “You have to feel good to workout.”
Well that’s just backwards. Who just walks around feeling good constantly anyways? If you do, please tell me your secrets. Whether it’s physical pain, emotional pain, stress or the like, I can tell you from many years of first-hand experience, exercise is always the great uplifter. It eases pain and stiffness, enhances our bodies to allow for more resilience and overall energy and strength, and improves hormone function and sleep quality. So, I don’t know about you, you mysterious people who naturally feel good, but exercise is a necessity for me to feel the best version of myself. And I’m not going to lie, being able to walk into my gym and pick up 50lb dumbbells makes me feel pretty darn good too.
5. “You shouldn’t work out if something hurts.”
My neck. My back. My neck and my back. So many adults of all ages walk around with aches and pain in one or more places on a daily basis. But, you can do one of two things, and I have seen where these two very divergent paths lead. One, you can stop being active altogether to minimize or avoid the pain or two, you can work through it. One leads to muscle atrophy, decreased range of motion and stiffness, two leads to increased circulation, muscle mass retention and increased mobility. One leads to more pain, two leads to less. I am not saying this in theory people. I am saying this as a person with their own pains and issues AND as a nurse who has seen what happens when someone decides that the pain is not worth the movement. Those people end up relying on walkers. Those people can’t get up out of their chairs without help. I don’t know about you, but I would like to be able to run up a flight of stairs or bend down to pick up my grandchildren decades from now. Are there days when I still have some pain? Absolutely. Do I have to rely on pain medication, over-the-counter or otherwise to manage it? That’s a resounding no. And I am stronger and more flexible than I have ever been.
So stop making excuses, because that is exactly what they are. Aren’t you willing to put in the little bit of extra time and effort it takes to buy yourself years of a strong, capable body that’s pain free, looks good in clothing (or out of it) and can tolerate the chocolate cake without it coming back to bite you (or make you want to extreme diet for days after?) I know I am. Think of it this way. Exercise is like investing. If someone were to tell you that investing one dollar a day could make you a millionaire in the future, you would do it right? No question. Well exercise is no different. Stop making excuses. Invest in yourself daily, for 5 minutes or 50 and those consistent investments with have the biggest, richest most rewarding payoff you could ever imagine.