Physical Fitness – my 9th virtue to add to my Self-Improvement Plan
I am naming physical fitness as my 9tth virtue to strengthen and improve upon. There is always room for improvement to improve as a person, why not the way I approach exercise to improve my overall physical strength, endurance (both cardio and muscular endurance), cardiovascular health, muscle development, fat loss and appearance.
As a personal trainer, my approach is more science and planning. I need to make sure I use the latest and more interesting technique to keep me from getting stuck in a rut and feeling like it’s work. When I go to the gym every morning, it’s not like I’m dragging my a$$ out of bed. I usually wake up before my alarm goes off, and try to beat my record of getting dressed in my workout clothes, which takes me about 12 minutes. I might even spend some time this week working on improving that time, or optimizing the steps it takes me to get to my zen meditation spot and down the stairs to the garage.
There are alot of things I can improve upon in the area of physical fitness. One of these areas includes rehabilitating my bum leg. I believe that my leg got weaker due to lack of use, and being pent up in a leg brace. I probably will never know for sure, but my leg has been stronger slowly, as I am up to 22 minutes on the elliptical, when I was confined to doing the arm bike alone for cardio.
Considering I have osteoporosis (early stage), it is very important to do weight-bearing activity, particularly for cardio. Weight-bearing activity builds bone density. Weight training does, as well, but I needed those big leg bones to build as much bone as they can to support my body weight. I currently do 3 leg strength training sessions per week. Iy makes a difference for standing and supporting my body weight for longer times. One of these is standing in my kitchen to make myself something to eat, or to make my son or anyone else something to eat. Sometimes scrambling for all the ingredients while standing really hurts my legs, mostly my calves. I’m sure that nutrition will also be one of my virtues, which will include a kitchen makeover to make whole healthy foods readily available in portioned sizes.
One thing I also want to improve upon for my fitness besides keeping my workout plan fresh is have a plan for working out in the afternoon, too. I think a plan for where it will happen will work best, because I have a choice whether I want to go back to the gym to do it.
I would love to be able to have a playlist of workout videos to go to. I have dumbbells, resistance bands and a vibration plate. Not to mention a bike. I could make a whole workout plan for just the afternoon. Maybe I’ll even include physical therapy in my regimen.
I’m very excited to include physical fitness as one of my top virtues that are most important to me as a person, and what I want to work on continuously improving. Because this will be a short week, leaving only 3 days until the start of 2023, I’m going to do alot of planning to get 2023 mapped out in terms of fitness planning, and start my 13 virtues all over again from scratch, revisiting planning and organization. That will overlap nicely. Here’s to chronically improving fitness for 2023!
Do you have resolutions in place for 2023? How do you approach physical fitness? Leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you.
