If, like me, you have an exercise routine that you do several times a week, eventually you reach what is known as a ‘plateau.’ I ride my bicycle over one of a few routes to work and back a few days a week during the spring, summer and fall. You might run or work out at the gym. At first it’s a big effort and then it gets easier. You’re in better shape and you feel good, but you feel that you could achieve more, get stronger and feel better
Well, you’re right. What you need is “The Big Workout.”
For me, the big workout is the fundraising bike ride I do for the Multiple Sclerosis Society every year – a two-day, 150-mile trek. At the speed I ride, that’s two days in a row, 5 hours a day of riding a bicycle.
The benefits of the big workout are:
- A reason to train
- The big workout itself
- The afterglow
Training for the big workout gives me incentive to improve myself – to go a little faster, to climb a little steeper, to go a little longer. As a result, I get myself into better shape. During the big workout my body gets a major cleanse, I get lots of endorphins, and I get in even better shape than I was before. After the big workout, I feel stronger and faster. I have more energy and deeper reserves.
If you take my advice there will be a long bike ride, triathlon, run or other big endurance test in your near future. It is a wonderful thing to go back to your routine and feel the differences in strength, endurance and surprising hidden reserves suddenly at your disposal.
I enjoy going on long walks and hikes, but in the past I have also liked mountain biking. Maybe I will try it again some day.
It’s great to reward yourself with a little exercise. Makes the body feel good.
That’s a great point you make, that we have to challenge ourselves beyond our routine workout. I’m not much for exercising myself, but during the years when I was forced to carry Bow on my back, and he was growing from a three year old chimpanzee to a five year old, I lost a lot of weight and developed muscle. The thing that made it more challenging as I went along was that he was getting heavier, so that the same tasks became more difficult as time went on. Just walking to the kitchen with a heavy, moving burden on your back can help you stay in shape!
When we went into the pens, I no longer had to carry Bow, but I kept getting exercise by dancing with him and twirling him in the air. (He was heavy, but very agile, and he loved to be twirled.)
Now Bow is too heavy for me to lift at all, so I need a new challenge!
I often wonder what I will do when I can no longer bike, for all things must end. I am thinking I will go for long walks, time myself, see if I can improve my time 🙂
I think you made some good points and motivating factors in this article. I can’t do this type of exercise due to physical problems but I exercise in other ways.
Anything that gets your heart going is good for you.
I enjoy staying active year round, being fit and strong makes such a wonderful difference in life. I vary my routines as the weather changes as well. I do think its vital to find something suitable for year round. Great article!
Thank you, Katie. Staying active helps us to be energetic and to maintain a positive attitude.