There are a number of benefits to having no days off.
“Success is never owned, it is rented, and the rent is due every day.” — Rory Vaden
EDITORIAL DISCLAIMER: Any advice or recommendation given in my writing is what works for ME and may not be the best regimen for you based on your psychological or physiological makeup and stability. Please consult a doctor when making decisions about your health.
Iwas at the doctor this past week getting my annual physical, and my doctor asked me how often I worked out per week.
I thought about it for a moment and then realized that other than the times I’m on vacation and change my workout up to fit our schedule, I pretty much work out every single day.
For me, working out every day isn’t about only keeping my weight under control and staying fit (which is a big part of it), but it’s also about giving my body and mind the daily push it needs to be strong enough to face the challenges that may arise.
Let me explain.
The body loves a routine.
For the most part, your body loves consistency, as it relates to knowing what to expect and when to expect it.
When you build a consistent routine that your body can get used to, it will begin to expect it and almost crave the exercise to have a feeling of normalcy. This is a feeling that happens with time, in which your body will begin to see exercise as a very normal part of your day.
We all understand how our body adapts and responds accordingly to exercise. It is the reason our muscles grow if we lift heavy weights and our body becomes more oxygen efficient if we run consistently.
By having a daily routine, you increase the chances that your body will make the internal adaptations a bit faster than if you worked out a bit more sporadically.
Consistency is always the key. For those who are able to exercise in the morning, the benefits are tremendous, and to do so consistently will help you start the day on the right foot.
Since I would think that the success of each day is important to most of us, then it would stand to reason that starting each day with some type of physical exercise would be a good way to get it going in a positive and healthy manner…even if it’s only 15 minutes.
An individual’s morning routine is very important, as it sets the stage for the flow for the rest of the day, and the mind will typically respond in a positive manner by making that routine part of the daily expectation, so when the time comes, the body and mind are both ready.
Your brain can use a sweat every day.
Allowing your body to sweat and experience all the benefits that come with it is important every day. This is because the endorphins that your body can release when you sweat can help in a number of ways.
We are all familiar with the concept of a runner’s high, in which the body experiences a euphoric high from reaching a certain level of positive physical stress through exercise. This euphoric feeling will often put us in a good mood and is a psychological booster to help either begin the day on a good note or work off the stress from the day.
By focusing on challenging ourselves every day physically, there is also a mental aspect to this, as the work that it takes for us to sweat typically involves us pushing past a point of comfort that requires mental focus and commitment.
This is very important because exercise for the sake of exercising is not as helpful from an endorphin release standpoint as exercising to truly push yourself to feel the intensity of a workout. Recent studies have shown that the more intense your training, the larger release of endorphins through your body.
By starting our days or ending our days in such a manner, this endorphin release is a good way to put the body in a positive mental state for whatever may come next.
When one is able to push through that feeling of discomfort and feel the pain in one’s muscles that begs one to pull back but yet she/he keeps going, it also builds a mental toughness that one can then take into the day to tackle issues that arise.
When we are faced with challenges that may not be pleasant or require a large amount of mental effort, the approach that we use to push through our workouts daily and ensure that we are giving our all is the same approach that we can then take into the mental athletic field of our daily work activities.
By relating the two and knowing that we have already or will put in the work to meet our daily exercise goal, we are more apt to not back down when we are faced with the daily challenges to achieve our work goals.
The consistency will make it hard to lose momentum and keep you in control
And lastly, this is probably the number one reason that I work out every single day:
Because I simply don’t really want to.
The reality is that I work out six days of the week with little to no problem, but it is often that seventh day in which I find myself questioning if it’s really needed.
For me, it’s always a Saturday in which I am reflecting on the events of the week and assessing how well I feel I delivered on my commitments, and typically, this is a time of positivity in which I feel good about the things that I was able to accomplish for the week.
Often when this happens, I’ll hear that little voice that asks do I REALLY need to work out today. The week has been so good. If I skip this one day, will it make a difference?
While the answer is probably no in the grand scheme of things, for me the answer is always yes because I know mentally it is a challenge for me to do so.
If it were easy for me to always work out seven days a week, then perhaps it wouldn’t be that important for me.
However, since I know my psyche tries to talk me out of giving my full out effort on the seventh day because the rest of the week was pretty good, I feel obligated to make sure I don’t miss that day.
It’s almost as if the rest of the days are important, but me not missing that seventh day is the most important.
It is somewhat a symbolic reminder that I should never rest on my laurels, and just because things are good now doesn’t mean that they will always be if I’m not willing to put in the same level of work and effort each day to keep them as such and/or help them get better.
In actuality, my seventh day is probably my lightest day in terms of what I do (I only do one quick 10-minute HIIT workout followed by a quick seven-minute ab workout), but it’s the most important to make sure I never forget that the rent for success doesn’t take days off, so I won’t either.