Dear Sally
I’m a regular reader of the Fitness Matters column in the Sutton Observer and was very interested in the comment by one of your runners “I saw your groups and they looked so happy” – this rings a bell with me too. My personal experience of exercising strongly reinforces the belief that the most important thing about exercising is to be able to enjoy it.
Having had something of a health scare some years ago, I have been concerned to keep fit but always struggled to find something that I can keep going at. In no particular order I have tried going to the gym, taking the dog for a walk, using a rowing machine at home, cycling on the road with friends, walking to work, buying my own exercise cycle and running up the stairs at bedtime. None of these, for a variety of reasons, were sustained. The gym always seemed to be too busy at the very times that I wanted to go there, the dog died, my rowing machine broke down, cycle rides with friends changed to an evening in the pub within a short cycle ride of home and my own exercise cycle soon became tedious and boring in the extreme.
What luck was it then for me to discover the walking and running groups organised by SE Fitness in and around Sutton Park? My fitness has improved greatly and I have managed to stick to an exercise routine for the first time – I particularly like the combination of being sociable in a group of like minded people and the possibility to move up to the next group as your capability and fitness improves with time. The fact that the group is regular activity so I know that on a fixed day each week I have to make the effort to get out of the house and take part means that I actually stick to the plan. Once I have got there and joined the group, I never regret it.
Mike