One of my 2008 New Year's resolutions was to increase exercising to a minimum of three times per week. I achieved this goal by the end of 2008, through joining my company health club, which is open to retirees. It provide me the motivation to start exercising again by first joining some of the daily classes, and then progressing to a personal strength training program, with aerobic exercise on alternating days. Since the facility is open only on work days, I maxed out at four to five days of exercise per week.
The breakthrough came with the warm spring days of April and May. During weekends, I started playing tennis outdoors again on one day and recently, added a short run on the non-tennis day. After achieving seven consecutive days of exercise last Sunday, I decided to see how long I could continue the streak. Today was day number twelve.
The last time I exercised more than seven days in a row was in 1991, when I was training to run my first, and only, marathon. Unfortunately, I hurt my back a few months later and the frequency of exercise quickly declined. Just before retiring, I was exercising only a day per week at the most. Therefore, it was a challenge to reach my goal of three exercise days per week. However, as I further decompress during retirement, it appears regular exercise will be easier to achieve.
Hopefully, I'll be able to write about a 30 day streak next month :-)
Update: This streak ended at 16 days on May 20, 2009.
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2 comments:
Good for you--keep it up! That's the one thing that I've found in retirement, if I can at LEAST get my workout in, I know I've done something worthwhile and don't feel quite so guilty for "goofing off."
When I was working, I was exclusively a gym-goer. When I retired, I quit the gym and am having a lot of fun enjoying new activities, hiking, biking, tennis and even recently added hot yoga. The variety definitely keeps me going--most weeks I do something active every day.
Should be easy to keep your streak going now that the weather's nice!
@Retired Syd,
Sounds like you are continuing to have a great early retirement.
Hopefully, retirement will enable me to continue with consecutive days, since there is almost never anything pressing enough to prevent me from getting some exercise.
I didn't join our company gym until several months after retiring. A great benefit is that I can work out at times when everybody else is at their job. I sometimes get the entire gym to myself and the full attention of the staff trainer, when needed.
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