Your Workout Program Is Useless

Your workout program is useless.

You spent hours researching the best program on the Internet, and you found the one that is going to help you get stronger thighs, get bigger biceps, or lose 50 lbs. You might eve have paid money to hold that program in your hands. Well, I hate to break it to you, but that program is useless.

The program that you hold in your hands, the program that is going to help you achieve all those goals... it's not going to help you for long. That program is going to entice you to go to the gym for a couple of weeks, maybe even a month. But eventually, you'll get bored, work will get too busy, the kids will need you because they are sick, you will get sick, and before you know it, that workout program will be sitting in a drawer collecting dust, and it will be the most useless piece of paper you've ever spent
time or money on.

That program is particularly useless when it advises you to perform activities that don't truly bring you joy. When exercise is a chore, there's always something more important to do. Gym rats and lifting cults members (I won't name names) love to poke fun at aerobics and dance classes. But if someone loves to dance, chances are, they'll stick with Zumba, not with a place where people poke fun at their true passions.

A workout program is useless unless it is something that the participant truly enjoys. Because when working out feels like a chore, it's highly unlikely that a person will stick with it. If what brings a person joy is putting on some music and dancing wildly around the living room, then that's the right way to be active for that person.

If punching the living daylights out of a punching bag, without much rhyme, reason, or choreography, is what de-stresses a person and leaves them wanting more, than, as long as their form is good (to prevent injury), then let them punch that bag.

If playing tag in the park for an hour with his kids and then playing on the monkey bars is what puts a smile on a parent's face, then let him make a point to make the park the destination of choice each and every day.

Whereas structured programming may be extremely helpful and even necessary for those wanting specific results (more defined triceps, finishing a sporting event, passing a professional physical fitness test), for the majority of the population, just choosing active pursuits that makes them happy is a much more realistic way to stay active for the long run.

So if you feel like you need to be more active, think back to when you were a little kid, and what kinds of games you truly enjoyed playing. For most of us, the answer will be something active - playing tag, playing catch, racing each other on bikes, pretending to put on a dance recital. Just because you're not a kid anymore doesn't mean you can't play like one. Find the activity that brings you joy, and go for it. If you have kids, even better -- join them in all their active games, and learn to be a kid again. The benefits an active lifestyle can bring are better than any structured, but basically useless workout programs can provide.

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