For many of us, the challenge with exercise isn’t knowing what to do, but actually motivating ourselves to do it.
I’m trying to add weight training to my regimen, and I bookmarked a bunch of 10-minute online workouts that I intended to incorporate daily.
Shockingly (not shockingly) I haven’t actually been doing the workouts. All bookmarks, no action.
But I found instant motivation the other day while reading John Leland’s book “Happiness is a Choice You Make,” based on the year he spent interviewing elderly people for a New York Times series of stories.
It was a line about sarcopenia, the natural loss of muscle mass that comes with aging. Leland wrote that by the time we’re 80, we’ve lost a third to half of our muscle mass. WHAT?! I seriously got up and lifted weights that very instant, finally tapping into my bookmarked collection of quick workouts.
And I’m going to do it again now. Join me, won’t you? It’s easy enough to search YouTube for free guided exercise sessions. I’ve found lots of good ones from Popsugar and FitnessBlender.
Even though it’s Monday morning and I’ve got a busy day ahead, I’m going to take 10 minutes right now to stave off sarcopenia. Ten minutes I feel like I don’t have but would just as quickly spend scrolling social media.
This is the 10-minute “tank-top arms” workout I’m about to do (and I’m proud to say I did twice last week after reading that line in Leland’s book). Happy lifting!
P.S. After posting this, I forgot all about doing the workout until about two hours later. I actually just completed it.
P.P.S. I somehow managed to injure myself during this workout or the last time I did it, even though I was only using five-pound weights. THIS BETTER NOT BE BECAUSE I AM GETTING OLDER. It’s probably also because I haven’t been lifting weights. Anyway, I jacked up my right shoulder, like the little muscles beneath the shoulder blade, and it’s been wonky for a week. I’m still trying to get into a routine (as always), so I’ve been doing Booty Burn videos instead until my shoulder heals.