There is plenty of research written about the benefits of exercise, in fact I briefly covered this topic before. What's impressive about this research, aside from the sheer volume, is the number of conditions exercise seems to prevent, improve, or delay.

There is plenty of research written about the benefits of exercise, in fact I briefly covered this topic before. What's impressive about this research, aside from the sheer volume, is the number of conditions exercise seems to prevent, improve, or delay.

The positive physical benefits associated with exercise (or physical activity) are fairly well known and the positive mental benefits that exercise has is also fairly common knowledge.

Perhaps a more fitting title for this article, then, should have been “why do you exercise?” I’m sure we have all engaged in physical activity to beat the stresses of the day, or run to allow our minds to either escape our problems in life or in fact to think about and deal with those same problems.

Some of us work out to feel better about ourselves, to lose weight / tone up in order to look ‘better’ and others of us simply want to be the fittest, the fastest, the strongest..the best.

These are all good reasons above and beyond the physical benefits, but and it is a big but, exercise and physical activity should also be fun and not negatively affect our mental well-being. With the awareness now surrounding mental health issues amongst elite athletes, highlighted in the recent Tokyo Olympic games, perhaps we should be thinking more about enjoying our activities more than being super human within them.

There are a number of social media activity-tracking apps available, the most poular of which is Strava. You can record any number of activities, receive kudos from friends, follow other people, hold conversations and join a myriad of challenges using this platform.

But when you know followers will see your pace, overall distance, weekly physical activities etc it is very easy to become a slave to progression and ultimately over-training.

So in a nutshell, by all means strive for progress (not perfection) but please actually enjoy whatever activity you do and at whatever level. I can promise you that as you age and get slower, lose strength or reduce your training volume, it wont matter so much to you.