The 5 Minute Rule

School is about to start here.  It has already started in a lot of places around the country.  And the days are getting shorter.  Anyone else struggling with their energy level with all of the planning and shopping and schedule-figure-outing?!  

Enter the star of the show: Exercise!  

Harvard Health and the Mayo Clinic and a large body of research agree … exercise gives you energy!  And most people know that if you were to ask them.  

Yet it seems the largest hurdle (well, maybe second to “not enough time”) that I hear from clients is that they just don’t have energy to exercise.  How do we get past that feeling of not having enough energy so that we can be motivated to do the exercise that will actually give us energy?  It’s a conundrum!  

I like to encourage what I call “The 5 Minute Rule.”  Usually, when someone is, say, exhausted after a full day of work and they just really want to curl up on the couch for some social media scrolling … they aren’t physically exhausted as much as they are mentally exhausted.  What seems to work is to just say to yourself, “I’m just going to get on the treadmill (or turn on the video, or walk out the door …) for 5 minutes.  If I’m still exhausted, I’m done!”  The vast majority of the time, you’ll feel great after those 5 minutes, remember why you wanted to get this exercise habit going in the first place, and have lots of energy for whomever you want to share your time with later in the day!  

What helps you to get started with your exercise when you just aren’t feeling it?

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