I get it. We all do. You’re a parent. You
didn’t get much sleep last night. Your job is really adding to the stress this
week. After you drop off one of your kids for soccer practice you have to go
and pick the other one up from their friend's house. By the time you get home
from that, practice is over and you're back on the road.
You're tired. You're stressed. You already
skipped the gym once this week, so would it hurt to skip it one more time? I mean,
all you want is to kick your feet up for a little bit and relax for once this
week. Is that so bad?
Well, although I don’t blame you, you may want
to do your best to endure and hit the gym anyway.
Why, you ask?
First of all, if you are willing to cut the
gym out of your schedule today, it becomes easier and easier to do so in future
situations. And we all know how hard it can be to get back into a fitness
regimen once you have fallen off the wagon.
But here is why it is so important.
The time you save by skimping on squats today
you are losing in the long run.
You see, weightlifting does a lot more than
just increase how “swole you are”. It provides an immense amount of health
benefits. So much so that one study found that doing some light training for 20
minutes a day actually reduces the risk of early death by as much as 32%.
It doesn’t stop there. For those 65 years of
age and older, hitting the weights has shown to be incredibly important. In
fact, those in this age group who strength trained twice a week actually had a
46% lower odds of all-cause mortality.
Getting to the gym will save you time by
earning you time. All by helping you live longer, which I am pretty sure
everyone would enjoy.
On top of this, the quality of that time as we
live is much better. By this I mean the quality of life is improved. Firstly,
by reducing overall levels general aches and pains as well as pain associated
with certain disorders. On top of this, lifting helps you to maintain and
improve your functional capability and therefore functional independence.
While you are still physically able to move
about and enjoy yourself, your cognitive and mental health also continues to be
maintained and improved through weightlifting.
Combine this all together and you are getting
more time. You are also getting more time in the sense that you will lead a
more engaged, active, and fulfilled life in your later years because of the benefits of weightlifting.
I know it is hard with the hectic, crazy world
that is parenthood and adulthood but remember this one thing. Just 20 minutes
is enough to make a massive difference grand scheme of things. And your worth
that time!
