Fitness first

Excuses don’t raise your heart rate: The skinny on cardio part II I’m tired. I’m busy. I’m bored. I’m sore. I’ll go next week. It’s Friday, Saturday or national yarn appreciation day…. Everyone has excuses not to exercise. And they are all perfectly valid excuses. We all have days where we are just too tired, busy or lazy to hit the gym or the streets. It is perfectly justifiable that we should sometimes just want to take a load off. Friends, family and colleagues would likely agree—you do work hard, take care of others and suffer a distinct lack of sleep and leisure time. Unfortunately the only thing not listening to you is your body. You can tell your protruding belly a thousand times that you will get back to working out in X amount of time. You can plead with your metabolism to ‘just give you a break so you can have that 6 o’clock mutzig with your friends.’ But the body is a very rude and demanding thing—it doesn’t listen to your excuses. This is because your body feels like it deserves support. It takes care of you in spite of your willful desire not to take care of it. It lets you get to work, enjoy your family and friends, dance, sing and pray. And what do you give it in return? Excuses. You can tell yourself and others as many excuses as you want, but this will not improve your cardiovascular health, increase strength and flexibility or help you lose weight. Your body will not change until you stop the excuses and get moving. And when you do, it will reward you with reduced stress, higher endorphins (the chemicals that make us happy), more energy, longer lives and…yes yes…weight loss. So, get moving at least 3 times a week for 30 minutes. Your body will thank you. Amity Weiss is a professional personal trainer from America living in Kigali. Contact: amity—weiss@yahoo.com