6 Ways to Improve Your Relationship with Exercise

"I was surprised and concerned. I'd hoped to protect her from body image concerns longer. Part of my shock was that I thought most people had left that view behind in the 90s. I told her that when I was growing up, many people saw exercise mainly as a way to burn calories, but that view is outdated. Today we know its biggest benefits are strength, function, and longevity. Many people focus on these or on performance instead of weight control."

"Modern training approaches, whether aimed at healthspan or performance, typically involve a mix of exercise intensities: some days hard, some days easy. Easy exercise is less fatiguing and quicker to recover from. It requires the self-discipline to stay at an easy effort when you're tempted to push harder. Pushing harder makes recovery more onerous. When you discipline yourself to sometimes exercise at an easy effort, you'll exercise more frequently, with less dread and procrastination."

"Another outdated approach is believing that feeling fatigued is the key sign of productive exercise. In running, there's a phrase: "every run should have a purpose." For each run on a training plan, the effort, length, speed, terrain, and whether you do intervals or continuous running are all chosen because they create different adaptations. When you exercise, consider the adaptations you want. For example, you might want to increase your durability so you have energy to play with your kids or dog after your workday."

A child believed the goal of exercise was to burn 400 calories daily, reflecting an outdated calorie-centered view. Exercise provides greater benefits such as strength, function, longevity, and improved performance. Adopt a nourishing, not punitive, mindset toward movement. Modern training blends intensities: hard days and easy days, with easy efforts reducing fatigue and enabling more frequent, less dreaded workouts. Choose exercise parameters—effort, duration, speed, terrain, intervals—to produce specific adaptations. Examples include increasing durability to have energy for play and strengthening hamstrings or back for better everyday function.

Read at Psychology Today