by Tony Rushin
Did you set any New Year’s resolutions for 2019? If so, now that it’s April (Wow! Where have the first three months gone?), it’s time to reflect and perhaps reset your goals.
I have struggled for years – decades – with inconsistent exercise: 6 months on, 8 months off, 3 months on, 14 months off. You get the picture. I would start a habit of going to the gym in the morning and then, inevitably, something would throw me off and I would stop going. If I missed a day or a week I would rationalize: “I’m tired”; “I don’t feel well”; “I’m busy at work and don’t have enough time”.
Three things happened at the end of 2018 / beginning of 2019 that resulted in a new commitment and an 85-day streak of exercising: 1) I read “Younger Next Year” which was recommended to me by Halsey Knapp (there’s a sister book specifically for women); 2) I made a New Year’s resolution to consistently exercise – every day and 3) I shared my resolution with Luann and said I was wondering how/what to set as a minimum amount of daily exercise: she recommended “7”.
“7” is an exercise app that takes 7 minutes. Period. It was perfect for me because I can waste 7 minutes doing just about anything so it has proven to be impossible (so far) for me to rationalize not doing it every day.
All you need is a stable chair (if you can do it with a swivel chair you are a workout god). That’s it. The app cycles you through twelve 30-second exercises with 10 seconds of transition/rest in between: jumping jacks, wall sit, push-ups, crunches, step-ups, squats, triceps dips, plank, high knees running in place, lunges, push-ups with rotation and side plank. Warning: I tore into the first time – “it’s only 7 minutes… can’t be that hard” – and was gassed by step-ups and could barely do the triceps dips. However, I slowed my pace and got through it and have been consistent for the last 12 weeks.
I now typically do 2 or 3 circuits of the exercises and take 3-4 mile run/walks several days each week (I don’t do the “7” workout on those days). There are still times that part of me wants to skip a workout – if I sleep in or if I have an all-day Saturday outing with the family. However, it’s really hard for me to justify skipping a measly 7-minute workout. I’ve done some workouts at 11:30 pm after celebrating on a Saturday. I tried to talk myself out of that one but I simply said to myself, “7 minutes? Of course I can do that”.
If you’re still reading this tip, you might enjoy this article that reviews several 7-minute workout apps: 7-minute workout apps: I tried 30, here are the best. I found the article after I started with “7”… who knew there were so many?
