Why Starting A New Exercise Routine is Torture
April 3, 2009
The biggest drop-out rate for newbie exercisers is in the first few weeks of an exercise program. In the trickle-down theory, this is directly related to that horrible feeling most everyone gets in the first six to eight minutes of exercise. This “ugh” feeling is why people don’t keep at it. They never get past feeling awful. And the less they exercise the more awful they feel in these introductory moments.
This is founded in basic physiology. Here’s the Science as I understand it.
In order for you to produce energy aerobically (meaning in order to work hard) your moving muscles must consume oxygen.
When you take those first few steps of a jog, your body still doesn’t get it and is still pulling in only enough oxygen to do what you were doing five minutes ago when you were sitting at the kitchen table lacing up your shoes.
This phase, which I call the UGH phase, is officially called oxygen uptake.
This phase lasts about six to eight minutes. During the UGH phase, your amazing cardiovascular system recalibrates to meet the increased demand on your system. It is often bearable, especially if you are a regular exerciser. Exer-veterans may not even notice this time frame. But for exer-virgins,often it is horrible.
Think of it this way. Your body is a restaurant. A good restaurant. It’s 6:45pm on a Saturday evening and all the tables are empty but the pantry is stocked, the tables are set and the waiters are here but they’re out back taking a smoke break. Suddenly the evening rush of people arrives, seemingly all at once. They are sitting at the tables. Until the servers can actually stub out their smokes and get back to work, there’s some lag time but once these guys get moving, they can handle six 4 tops and an 8 top all evening long (or at least I could as the kick-ass waitress that I once was, all through college.) Once they get up to pace, that is.
It’s during these few crucial minutes that exercise-haters drop out (or some diners turn around at the hostess stand and go elsewhere.) SImilarly, the exer-haters turn around and go home, never reaching the next, less awful phase which is officially known as steady state. This is the physiological equivalent of a muscular “aha” moment. The wait staff is cranking.
Established athletes can always grunt out the first few minutes of exercise because they know it will get easier as they continue. Regular diners can wait more patiently if they know good food and good service is on it’s way. The bodily ease comes because your body is matching the demands you are making on it with a bigger oxygen supply.
So the bottom line is to stay with it at and within ten minutes, you will be less miserable and your workout will be more worthwhile. And you don’t even need to leave a tip.
Sign Up for Special Insider Info and Tips!
