Build your self esteem by working out

Many of us are goal-oriented individuals. We want that feeling of accomplishment to feel good about ourselves. We have goals in our careers, finances, and home life. Let’s extend that to our physical selves.

With aerobic fitness workouts, we have measurable goals. For example, running an 8 minute mile (my own goal), beating a certain number of stairs per 30 minutes, or biking at a certain constant pace for 60 minutes. When the machine or our clocks tell us that we’ve met our goal, we can celebrate.

Strength training also provides many opportunities for meeting goals. We may not focus much on the time factor though. Rather, we can count number of repetitions of a certain weight. In college, when I first started strength training (I was a pretty overweight kid), I had a goal of bench pressing 225 lbs. I started with 135 lbs and worked until I could complete 30 repetitions of 135 lbs, with breaks. I continued stacking up the weights through the months until that one day I pushed up 225lbs. I felt amazing that day.

Although your goals may not match up with what others around you can accomplish, don’t be discouraged. Ultimately, your goal could be to out-bench, out-run, or out-anything that friend or stranger.

Set measurable, yet attainable goals in order to provide yourself the ability to feel an accomplishment. Without goals and without rewards, your fitness and strength training activities may feel rather pointless. Give yourself something to work towards so that you’re excited to go to the gym, the track, or the weight room!

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