Phil – Body Strengthening

MY PHIL-OSOPHY
Why do I love exercise? The answer might surprise you. It’s not so that I look great in the mirror and can show off how big my muscles are or how great I look in my swim gear. It’s because I have experienced life with and without exercise and can 100% confirm that life feels so much better with exercise in it.

Up to the age of 14/15 I wasn’t in great shape, but as a kid you don’t worry about it so much I guess. But with professional football aspirations, I knew I had to turn that around. For my 16th birthday present, my parents bought me a block of 10 PT sessions and I was hooked right from the start.

Don’t get me wrong, during the first few I was thinking to myself, “how on earth can I get through this?” and “this is so hard!” But every time I just gave it my best and felt so proud of myself for doing so. And that’s where the addiction started – the feeling post-workout was one of the best feelings I had ever felt. A mixture of pride and satisfaction unlike any other, a real sense that you had done something great, not only for your body but your mind as well.

Over many years now, fitness and exercise have been like my best friend, a place I can go to whenever I want to feel a bit better about myself and about my life in general. When I’m happy, I exercise. When I’m stressed, I exercise harder. And even when I’m tired, I sometimes exercise, because I can always guarantee that I will feel better and more energised afterwards.

So to answer the question, why do I exercise? Because it makes me feel better about myself! And even if none of the other side effects of it happened (more energy, weight loss, muscle gain etc) would I still do it? Absolutely!

So my Phil-osophy is this: use exercise as your excuse to feel good about yourself. Let it take you to a place where you can test and challenge yourself towards being a fitter, stronger, more confident person. But most importantly, enjoy the feeling it gives you when that final whistle goes. A feeling of pride in yourself. Because nothing else matters.