Maintaining the Mature Body Part III:
The Myth of Discipline

In our youth we can get by with our natural vigor and genetic endowment, but as we mature, the old saw, “use it or lose it,” is shamelessly concise and brutally accurate. Everyone knows that regular exercise is an essential element of good health. It maintains optimum lean body mass to fat ratios, improves insulin signaling, decreases heart attacks, depression, hypertension, and host of other illnesses, and all the while increasing vitality, longevity and well being. So if it is such “good medicine,” why are so many of us out of shape? Whether you already exercise regularly or are thinking about getting started, I will offer some answers to this question that may surprise you and a few ideas that you can start using today.

The main issue is motivation. When I recommend a patient start exercising, they often look down at their shoes and mutter something like, “Yeah, I know I should exercise more. I just don’t have the discipline.” Discipline is overrated. It presupposes the part of the self that is motivated to exercise (the good side) has to beat up the lazy (bad side) to get off the couch and get going. But in a war with one’s self there can be no winners. Resorting to the stick, just hurts and contrary to popular belief, doesn’t build character, but dis-integrates it by pitting one part of the self against the other. As a woman in her 60’s once confessed, “It’s not that I lack willpower; I just have too much won’t power."

So if discipline doesn’t work, what will? There is only one thing powerful enough to integrate all parts of one’s self towards a common goal and that is pleasure. The only problem is that we are confused about pleasure and end up chasing after false pleasures that don’t really deliver. It’s like eating junk food that titillates the palate but ultimately doesn’t satisfy. Good health, on the other hand, has always been an enduring pleasure. But then you already knew that…at least intellectually. The challenge is how to know it experientially in your body.

Exercise increases the intensity of sensations in the body. That’s why it feels good, but only up to a certain point beyond which it becomes uncomfortable and then painful. But long before it gets to the point of pain we begin to resist and it is this resistance that limits how much pleasure (intensity) we can handle before we cross the threshold into pain. So what it comes down to is learning how to stay this side of the resistance where it’s fun. Knowing how to work skillfully with your resistance, when to lean into it and when to lean back is a great art that comes with experience.

The antidote to resistance is to take baby-steps. For example, if you set up a mountain to climb each time you go to exercise (so many reps of this and miles of that in a certain amount of time), some days you’re just not up to it and the resistance can cause you to find many clever ways to avoid climbing that mountain. If on the other hand, you say to yourself, “I’ll just go to the gym and do a few minutes on the elliptical and see how I feel,” the resistance factor goes way down and the fun factor is likely to go up. And after a few minutes on the elliptical you’re in a different frame of being and the chances of continuing to exercise is better than 90%. You can get through a whole work-out this way, baby-step by baby-step. All it takes is the willingness to trust yourself and understanding that the goal is to enjoy yourself rather than to flog yourself.

Baby-steps also are a powerful way to start a regular exercise routine. Going for a walk several times a week, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or working up a sweat doing yard work can be the beginning of a more active physical engagement with life. Explore the offerings at the local Recreation Center or YMCA and observe a class or just jump in and give it a try. Learning a skill adds an interesting dimension to exercise and has the advantage of a supportive social context. All you need to do is just show up and the group energy will carry you along. It could be a yoga or dance class, or any one of a number of fusion movement classes that combine music with dance, aerobic exercise, and sometimes martial arts. Plugging into a regular class can inspire you to do some general fitness training in between or on weekends so that you will be able to get more out of the class. But start slowly, very slowly. The mature body can be painfully slow to bounce back from an injury. With the right baby-steps it’s amazing what you can accomplish.

Here are a few things to explore around exercise:

Notice your relative level of enjoyment and resistance about exercise and try a more flexible, user-friendly approach.
Rather than committing to an exercise schedule and looking at a heart-rate monitor, listen to what your body is telling you and trust yourself.
Remember in the long run the consistency of exercise is much more important than how much you exercise.
If your work-out routine starts to feel stale, try exploring new ideas to keep it fresh. You may create a basket of physical activities that change with the seasons.
Approach jobs around the house as exercise time and get a lot done while getting in shape.
The bottom line: it’s all about enjoying your life and it’s up to you to figure out what that really means.