Every journey may start with even the smallest of steps.

Sometimes we find inspiration where we least expect to. Sometimes help comes from the most unlikely of sources. We all know life can take sudden and unexpected twists and turns.

While we do our best to plan and prepare for the challenges we create or anticipate, how much of this great journey of ours actually pans out the way we thought it would?

“Expect the unexpected,” they say. Indeed, sometimes few can foresee the barriers or mishaps fate surprisingly throws up in our way. We might even feel like we’ve done nothing to deserve the outcomes, but that doesn’t tend to stop them from happening anyway. But how are we to respond? Surely the way we respond to adverse situations is ultimately one of the major things that defines who we really are.

How about responding in the same way and giving back to our existence what it gives us? A good, healthy dose of the unexpected instigated by our own selves and fully under our own control might be just what the doctor ordered.

Stress and fatigue, or even more sinister conditions like depression, might leave us broken down and feeling unable to respond to the grind, but it’s time to wield the same weapon with which we are stricken: unpredictability.

Another ancient pearl of wisdom from the East tells us to appear weak when we are strong, and appear strong when we are weak. It’s a balance of forces we can use to restore order in some of our own private collections of personal chaos. When the chips are down, be unpredictable, shock the system.

Often when we’re run down, weak and feeling physically helpless, rest seems like the best option, and very often, it actually is. We know that rest was the right choice when we wake up feeling refreshed and recharged to take life by the scruff of the neck once again, but if we wake up feeling worse than ever, then clearly there must be a better option than simply more of the same.

Instead of more rest, it might be worth trying just the opposite: to get up and go, to do what is least expected and get some exercise. Now I know that’s easy for me to say, especially now that summer is over and those cold yet cosy indoor winter evenings threaten to keep us glued to those nice warm sofas, with exercise relegated to the very last thing on our minds. For many of us, this time of year means more traffic, more work, less time and ultimately more stress.

So how do we do it? What’s the secret to getting down to it when we really don’t feel like it? The principles of training tell us that the key to an effective exercise programme is progression.

This means that every journey may start with even the smallest of steps, so you don’t have to get up and run a marathon. You just have to get up and get moving. Unless you’re as fit as a marathon runner, your workout won’t have to be anywhere near as colossal.

If you’ve ever dreaded anything, then you’ll know that when you actually get down to it, nothing is ever as bad as the thought of it. The problem with exercise is that it almost always seems more daunting than it actually is.

According to the principle of progression, if your current activity levels include little more than walking, then just go for a walk, and next time walk a little faster. In this way your journey to a healthier and fitter you may begin without it having to be all that complicated or daunting.

Another principle of training is intensity, which basically refers to how hard we train. Intensity always starts low, whatever the workout, and increases towards a climax before dropping off again for the cooldown.

Even if you’ve hit the road walking at a snail’s pace, raise the intensity slowly and ease into it. That’s what the concept of warming up is all about.

You don’t ever have to be daunted by the intensity of a workout because intensity is never cranked up suddenly from nothing. Like progression, intensity will often increase in any given workout through small incremental steps which, in isolation, would not represent any significant trauma to the system.

If you’ve made it as far as your climax and cooldown, then you’ll know you were mad to ever have dreaded your session in the first place. By this time, endorphins will be flooding your system.

Chemically related to morphine, endorphins are natural painkillers and trigger feelings of euphoria and wellness. Aches, pains and negative mindsets have the wonderful habit of disappearing in the hours following a workout. You will even be supporting another of the body’s natural healing mechanisms: sleep.

By exercising, you can improve the quality of your sleep and wake up more refreshed than you would have through yet more low-quality rest alone.

So next time the last thing you feel like doing is exercising, consider it might just be the best thing you could possibly be doing. Remember that nothing is ever as bad as the thought of it, and when you’re done, the only thing you’ll regret is that you didn’t get going sooner.

matthew.muscat.inglott@mcast.edu.mt