LoveEast.53

| Roger Love on Fitness
Making a difference – every damn day
One of my long-term clients made a big
change to his life recently.
To complement his resistance-training -
weights and bodyweight - he bought a
month-long pass at a yoga studio in south
Hackney and resolved to go every day one
way or another. He is a middle-aged, handson
dad who works long, hard hours, and
certainly doesn’t fit the cliché of the yoga
bunny.
But he is determined and wants to be as
strong and mobile as possible for his whole
life and he succeeded in his daily goal … and
then repeated it the next month. The yoga
is feeding into his strength training, and he
is feeling increasingly flexible and light of
mood.
As we discussed this, I found myself inspired,
and it got me thinking about 'daily practice'.
I remembered another client, a mum of
two in her late 30s, who did a month of at
least 30 minutes of exercise a day - weights,
swimming, running, circuit training in her
garden - and the journalist friend who ran
three miles a day for a year (1,095 miles in
total) and is now a respected ultra-runner.
Too often, when we, as a society, talk about
exercise we do so in the form of prescriptive
guidelines - what’s the minimum we can
take to be fitter?
We are advised to do at least 150 minutes
of moderate activity a week (or 75 minutes
of vigorous activity) and do strengthening
activities at least 2 days a week.
This is great. Maybe, though, we should be
thinking more about doing exercise every
day. Not necessarily an hour of intense
weights or Spinning, but something - even if
for just 10 minutes - significant.
One hard-as-nails American trainer, Bobby
Maximus, encapsulates this in the phrase:
‘Every damn day.’
A nutritionist friend puts at the heart of his
weight-loss plan doing something - anything
- daily.
I am also reminded of the London Fields
osteopath who told a client, who feared that
getting into his 40s was making him creaky,
not to be ridiculous and that, if he did 50
press-ups a day from now on, he would still
be doing 50-a-day at the age of 80.
So, as we launch into January, how do you
start your daily practice?
You could go for the monthly yoga pass.
Stretch, off Broadway Market, and Yoga on
the Lane, in Dalston, among many others,
offer unlimited yoga for just over £100 a
month.
For variety, London Fields Fitness Studio do
a £35-a-month pass offering an eclectic mix,
including circuit training, yoga and dance.
You could mix the classes up with your own
practice at home.
For free, you could resolve to do 10,000 steps
or 10 burpees or three sets of press-ups every
day.
This may not be what you do all year, but it
would get you started.
For me, I have two daily practice resolutions
for 2020. One is to get better at using
parallettes - low parallel bars - so will aim to
do holds on them daily. Also, I would like to
do another 100km walk this year, so I will be
stretching my hamstrings … every damn day!
Roger Love Is a personal trainer based in
Netil House E8. rogerlovept.com
LOVEEAST Jan/Feb 2020 25