Excruciatingly slow at the beginning, then extremely easy later on.
I'm sure this has been said before a million times in some form or another, but with the lockdown and a lot of people stuck inside, I'm sure physical health and well-being is a challenge for many people. When you start working out again, or maybe if you've never done it before but you've decided that enough is enough and you want to get in shape, you're going to face a wall that everyone experiences.
At the beginning, especially if you're very out of shape, it's going to feel insurmountable, and every exercise you do will feel completely futile. Maybe you can only do a single pushup, maybe not even that. Maybe you can't even look at a set of stairs or a treadmill without breaking into a sweat and nearly passing out.
This is the early stage of "compound interest", which in finance is the exponential growth of an investment. Imagine putting a single penny in an investment and having it double every so often. For the first little while, your wealth will grow by a negligible rate. Only 1 cent to 2 cents the first time, then 4 cents, then 8, etc. It seems like a complete waste of time. But, starting with only one penny, and doubling the amount every time, you would have over 1 million dollars after only 27 cycles. For reference, at half that, 13 cycles, you'd only have 81 dollars.
This isn't a post about finance so that was just an example of exponential growth/compound interest to make my point, but, this is more or less how it feels when you're getting in shape as well. Those early stages are going to feel grueling and utterly pointless in every measurable way. But, if you dig deep and stick with it, you'll notice a change. You'll slowly but surely start losing some weight, and gaining some strength and coordination. You'll find it easier to do the workouts, your body is learning better and more efficient ways to perform the movements. Your mental health is improving, making it easier to stay focused and goal oriented. Your sleep is getting better, and you've likely started eating healthier to complement your goal of getting in shape.
All of a sudden, you'll wake up one day and feel significantly better, and maintaining your newfound level of fitness will be MUCH easier than it ever was to get there in the first place, especially compared to those beginning days. As your body and mind get in better shape, they develop new skills and tools that make it easier to keep going, just like how compound interest starts making a ton of money once it's had a chance to build up.
So really the point of this post is just to say that the real challenge of getting in shape is overcoming that initial feeling of hopeless, and having faith that one pushup will turn into two, then that will turn into four, and so on and so forth until one day you're doing 50 or more, maybe even 100 or more. You just have to believe in your end goals and stick with it no matter how shitty it feels or how pointless it seems. Good luck.
I'm sure this has been said before a million times in some form or another, but with the lockdown and a lot of people stuck inside, I'm sure physical health and well-being is a challenge for many people. When you start working out again, or maybe if you've never done it before but you've decided that enough is enough and you want to get in shape, you're going to face a wall that everyone experiences.
At the beginning, especially if you're very out of shape, it's going to feel insurmountable, and every exercise you do will feel completely futile. Maybe you can only do a single pushup, maybe not even that. Maybe you can't even look at a set of stairs or a treadmill without breaking into a sweat and nearly passing out.
This is the early stage of "compound interest", which in finance is the exponential growth of an investment. Imagine putting a single penny in an investment and having it double every so often. For the first little while, your wealth will grow by a negligible rate. Only 1 cent to 2 cents the first time, then 4 cents, then 8, etc. It seems like a complete waste of time. But, starting with only one penny, and doubling the amount every time, you would have over 1 million dollars after only 27 cycles. For reference, at half that, 13 cycles, you'd only have 81 dollars.
This isn't a post about finance so that was just an example of exponential growth/compound interest to make my point, but, this is more or less how it feels when you're getting in shape as well. Those early stages are going to feel grueling and utterly pointless in every measurable way. But, if you dig deep and stick with it, you'll notice a change. You'll slowly but surely start losing some weight, and gaining some strength and coordination. You'll find it easier to do the workouts, your body is learning better and more efficient ways to perform the movements. Your mental health is improving, making it easier to stay focused and goal oriented. Your sleep is getting better, and you've likely started eating healthier to complement your goal of getting in shape.
All of a sudden, you'll wake up one day and feel significantly better, and maintaining your newfound level of fitness will be MUCH easier than it ever was to get there in the first place, especially compared to those beginning days. As your body and mind get in better shape, they develop new skills and tools that make it easier to keep going, just like how compound interest starts making a ton of money once it's had a chance to build up.
So really the point of this post is just to say that the real challenge of getting in shape is overcoming that initial feeling of hopeless, and having faith that one pushup will turn into two, then that will turn into four, and so on and so forth until one day you're doing 50 or more, maybe even 100 or more. You just have to believe in your end goals and stick with it no matter how shitty it feels or how pointless it seems. Good luck.
![[Image: ZEuCq7L.gif]](https://i.imgur.com/ZEuCq7L.gif)
