I was leaving for Abu Dhabi last week on Wednesday at 5pm which I do four times a week to see a client and I felt completely drained, tired and could think of a million other things I would rather be doing. It suddenly occurred to me that it was my rest day and I hadn’t trained meaning I had less energy and motivation than usual. It got me thinking about using exercise as an anchor to positively affect every aspect of your life. Here are just some of the benefits of doing so…
Energy
I feel this uncontrollable urge to tell anyone who doesn’t exercise or isn’t training at that point in time to start right away. However, I am acutely aware of how annoying being told the positives of exercising is when you’re not currently training. What I will say is this: that little bit of effort in your session can actually make your whole day, week or even year a whole lot easier. To quote The Rock (which I often do…): “Training is my anchor — it centres me and allows me to then work a full 12-14 hour day of business. Find your anchor. Protect your anchor. And always clean up your own sweat.” If you’re not going to listen to the big man himself, who are you going to listen to?
Success
Todd Heatherton, PhD, Professor of Psychology and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College USA says, “This ability to self-regulate, or exert willpower, say researchers, may be the most significant key to success in any work environment — it’s what allows you to stick to a task when others give up, and to overcome obstacles that at first seem insurmountable.”
The list of studies that have been completed resulting in the same outcome of how fitness increases brain function which in turn leads to success and a greater career go on and on. A twins study published in the Journal of Gerontology in November 2015 showed chemicals released in the body through exercise could not only boost our processing power, but also increase the mass of our grey matter which is composed of neuronal cell bodies that are used to download information in the brain.
So, if you want to get ahead of the rest, feel great and be successful in your career, get your training going now. You may just find gains outside the gym, too…
Now, read Daniel’s previous column on how to set realistic fitness goals that you’ll actually keep.
