The 8 Emotions of Exercise Part 7: Surprise

Hopefully you’ve enjoyed the last six installments of this article series and they’ve been helping you to look at your exercise journey a little differently.

New to this series? Feel free to start with Part 1.

In this article we’re going to explore an emotion that’s a bit more pleasant that some of the earlier ones in the series. Surprise is a fun emotion for some, but not everyone like surprises. If you’re like me and you do, then today’s article should resonate with you. If you don’t, then at least you’ll learn something interesting to add to your workout.

Why am I not surprised?

We’d all love to have an amazing workout, only to look at ourselves in the gym mirror and see that our hard work is immediately paying off. Except that never happens, does it?

Things don’t always go according to this expectation because it’s easy to be impatient about our results. We’re impatient when we don’t reach our fitness goals in a few weeks when realistically, it would take months to get to those goals.

If you want to take your exercise journey seriously, know that, while incredibly fulfilling, it’s often a long and painful journey.

What you might find surprising

When training, I love the feeling of knowing that my workout is a little bit easier than it was a few months ago. It can be an amazing surprise to be running at a comfortable pace at a point in my run that had me gasping for breath a few weeks before. It can be an amazing surprise for my workout video to end without me needing to check how much time was left like I did last time.

What did those above examples have in common?

My surprise regarding those examples wasn’t based on my fitness result, but on my process. My surprise was more to do with how my workout felt than how I looked afterwards, or what I might look like a few months from now.

What we can learn from this is that exercise can be so much more enjoyable if we focus on the process of getting fit rather than the outcomes we crave. If you fall in love with the process of getting fit rather than being obsessed with your target weight or six-pack abs, then not only will you enjoy your workouts more, but those goals will most likely be met.

Check out this great video I did with Baseline Tennis about how Keven Anderson achieved amazing tennis success through trusting the process.

If you’d like some tips on how to fall in love with exercise, check out my article on how to do that here.

I hope you get to experience your workouts becoming easier over time, having more energy at work, sleeping better as well as the other amazing surprises lined up for you in your exercise journey.

Body Twenty Moreleta Village is the best place in Pretoria to train your body and reach your exercise goals. Click here for your free trial of our services.

Keep Growing

Dave Roebuck