I talk a lot about reasons to work out. Today I’m going to talk about reasons not to work out. (Yes, I believe we are all better when we work out, but why we do it matters.)
It’s a bad idea to work out because someone else thinks you should. Even me. When we work out for someone else, we resent the process. Working out is hard enough as it is. We don’t need to carry somebody else’s goals for us, too.
It’s a bad idea to work out because we think we are inadequate the way we are. We’re not. We are worthy human beings whether we do a single rep or not. People who go to the gym are not better than people who don’t. When we do go to the gym, we do better if we go because we know we are worthy of care.
It’s a bad idea to work out when we are sick or hurt. Rest is as much a part of health as working out. Working through pain is just… painful. There is no virtue badge for doing the work anyway.
We can do this.