How Exercising Regularly For 1 Year Changed Me

Since I wrote about how I started exercising, I thought I’d talk about how exercising regularly for a year changed me. To be clear, this post isn’t for the athletic type, but for exercise-resistant folks like me.

Throughout my young adult years, everyone loved encouraging me to exercise because of my scrawny frame and poor health. It made me look particularly weak even though I was just typically weak. I resented the advice, mostly because I knew they were right, but also because I used to hate exercising! I enjoy a good walk in the park but that’s about it.

Two weeks into 2021, I decided to start exercising after another bout of decluttering and feeling down in the dumps. My body and mind were gradually going downhill. I was dealing with generalized anxiety that turned my shoulders and neck into hot hard slabs that invariably resulted in a headache. Premenstrual syndrome would set in weeks before the actual event with symptoms like nausea, headache, and malaise. I was skinny but very out of shape.

So I started exercising.

I didn’t even know what I was doing, only that I was so sick of my mental rut and excuses I had to do something. As mentioned in the exercise post, I started off very easy, so easy it barely counted, but I exercised daily and slowly increased the duration and intensity. These days, I still don’t love it, but I do it. I’ve been exercising regularly for a year now, and what it did for me was not what I expected.

Changes I observed after exercising

My body changed

The oddest thing happened. About 3 weeks in, my torso and arms started to plump up. These were the areas I worked on the most. Curious, I googled to see what I did wrong. It turns out that this is normal because muscles expand with exercise, but it’ll tighten up eventually.

So I waited. It took more than 2 months for my abs to tighten! My flat butt, which had begun its slow descent, became firmer and rounder while my arms became more defined and toned. Two tiny bits of muscles appeared where my shoulders meet my neck.

It was an interesting process, I become aware of the difference between scrawny and lean. I was scrawny, now I’m heading towards lean.

I feel stronger and more energetic

My core supports my weight better than ever when I’m standing or walking. It’s such a strange (but good) feeling. My posture and balance improved too! Even though I still get tension aches, the worst of the premenstrual syndrome went away. This was something I didn’t think was possible and I’m super grateful!

What’s more, I used to get tired easily and would be drained after a day of cleaning or a day out grocery shopping. After exercising for more than half a year, my energy levels were much better than before.

My mind is clearer

There’s more clarity in my mind. It’s not constant, but the fogginess that surrounded my brain lifted considerably. Unfortunately, I still feel anxious, and exercising seems to only ease the anxiety temporarily.

Oh, and the endorphin rush is a real thing! Sometimes I find myself stupidly happy if I had a particularly grueling session.

I also find that when I slip into a depressive mood or anxiety, my thoughts are more manageable. However, I don’t know if this is because of the exercising or my continuing efforts at self-acceptance.

• Read about my shitty memory here

Other things I’ve learned

I have neglected my body

I’ve always tried to eat healthily and not use harmful things on my body, but I’ve never given its structure much thought. So when I started seeing how exercising is changing my body, I realized how much I’ve overlooked it. I’ve overlooked it so much I didn’t know some muscles existed, let alone how to engage them.

Our body is so intelligent and amazing. When we exercise, we don’t only reduce our risks of chronic health issues, but we also become less prone to muscular injuries.

Exercising has allowed me to develop a closer relationship with my body. I still have a tonne to learn – like how to engage some muscles properly, but I think I’ll figure out more stuff with time and mindful exercising. Incredibly, I kind of look forward to it.

My idea of exercising was totally wrong

I’ve always thought of exercise as a tedious, athletic activity that only means pain and perspiration. But exercising didn’t have to be high-level or over strenuous. I could exercise lightly for 20 minutes, and it would be better than not doing anything at all.

These days, there are so many videos on YouTube of various difficulty levels and styles to choose from we’ll definitely be able to find something that suits our fitness level.

Change your mind about exercise being time-consuming and tedious and it’ll reduce the resistance you feel toward it.

Progress is slow for me!

I thought exercising will become easier the more I do it, but the progress is slower than I anticipated. This gave me a newfound admiration for people with muscles. How much work they must have put in!

Though some exercises did become easier to do, it still hurts after almost a year. Sometimes I think about giving up, and then I remember that I used to feel sick two weeks before my period but I don’t anymore. That, and all the changes I observed in my body, make exercising worthwhile.

I have a feeling it’ll always hurt, but my strength, endurance, and stamina will improve. If you have exercised for a while, can you tell me if it gets easier and easier?

And no, this isn’t me in the picture. :p

I wrote this because I didn’t know exercising would do these things for me, so I thought someone out there may benefit from reading about my experience too. I hope you’ve found my little report useful!

Never in a million years did I imagine that I’ll start to exercise and encourage others to do it too.

To be clear, I’m still pretty weak, but what mattered to me more was overcoming the strong dislike of exercising. I don’t love it, but I hate it less than a year ago.

Most importantly, I don’t intend to stop. 🙂

Do you love to exercise? Or do you hate it like I did? If you didn’t like exercising but manage to over come the dislike, do tell me about your experience in the comments! If you’ve always loved exercising, tell me about your experience too!