I was born built like a brick. My torso is that of a 7 foot person, my arms and legs are short and thick. My brothers are very different. So we did very different things.

Exercise is interesting because it is very unfair. You can’t get anything more unequal or unfair than exercise. 

Some people are just born taller, faster, stronger, more endurant, and you can do EVERYTHING in your power to overcome them, they were just born better. They were just made to excel. Or maybe you were just born weaker, slower, and with less stamina. 

The good thing about exercise is you can always improve. You can beat yourself. Be better than your former self. and if you’re just an amateur, that is really the only thing that counts. Because “out there” there is always someone that is better than you, or that will be better than you. Records are made to be broken. 

What You Are Born With : 

I think going to the gym, or playing sports is an excellent school of life. It teaches you about yourself. Are you fast? Are you slow? Do you have stamina? Are you Strong? Are you better by yourself? Do you work better in a team sport? Are you better as a second? A leader? Defence? Offense

It teaches you about hierarchy. It also teaches you that there is something you are better at than other people, and maybe there is something you LIKE and that you are better at than other people naturally. 

Depending on how heavy you are, if you have long legs and arms, a long torso, or short legs and arms, there is a lift out there for you, one that you excel at compared to other people. Find it, and make the best of it. 

Maybe you’re especially agile, and have great hand to eye coordination. Maybe you have a low center of gravity and you can jump high. Play basketball. Maybe you have strong legs and a weak upper body, become a sprinter on a bike.

There is a sport you are good at out there, go and find it.

What Story You Have : 

We aren’t all born in active families, I get it. Maybe you didn’t have a chance to do anything else than kick a football with your friends, and with your long torso and short arms and legs you never get very far. You could manoeuvre correctly, but your speed was never up to par. But you just kept at it until your friend group fell apart. then you stopped exercising all together. 

Maybe you got an office job and you used to love running. but your knees started to hurt, and you got plantar facsiatis. So you just gave up because your doctor told you running was bad for you.

Maybe skiing was your big thing, but a double ACL tear made you stop all physical activity, and now you’re fat with two ripped ACLs and have developed arthritis in you knees. 

All these things are true, and are limiting factors that come into play when you have to make a choice about what physical activity you choose. But if you want to live a reasonable life, you HAVE to chose. And there is SOMETHING you can do, something you can get better at out there for you.

What you do to change that :

Even if your genetic make up is probably the main factor that determines what you will be good at, the effort you put in can change things a LOT.

Studies have shown that some athletes in certains sports weren’t even made for that sport to start with, but the love and dedication they put into their work to get great at it changed their muscular make up. There is room for change.

You should be doing at least ONE physical activity. Something you pursue and you love in order to move around, get your heart rate going, and that keeps you mobile and strong. If you were born an athlete but never do anything about it, shame on you. You might have untapped potential you haven’t even started to look into.

Type 1 : You used to be a young decathlon athlete. You won a few medal and went to the state championship, where you came in 4th and were utterly destroyed by the competition, and on top of that you got and injury that put you out of it for 6 weeks. Disgusted you decided to give it all up you go and do something else. So you started cycling because you could be on your own and just ride. But year after years your activity waned off. You started playing video games, and eating less healthy because you go out more. 20 years later, you’re overweight and working in an office. You tell everyone how you used to be a champion, but people seem to be jokingly saying “reeeeeaaaallly?”. You brush it off with a quick laugh and insist on showing them the pictures of you as a kid. Systematically they ask you “what happen?”, and surprised like you are every time, you come up with a different excuse that has become a lie. You know you should have kept it up, but you never did, and never will. 

Type 2 : You have joint pain from a sedentary office lifestyle that are starting to bug you in several different places, and you think that you’ll just have to deal with that. Until you find a gymnastics program for beginners and you remember how much you liked that class as a kid. You start with much difficulty, but the step by step program is paired with mobility exercises, and you’re astounded that your joint pain in MORE tolerable after a session than before. Five years later, you have little to no pain, and you have learned to manage it. on top of that you just cleared your first strict muscle up! Congrats!

Type 3 : At sixty years old and having never done any physical activity, you realise it’s too late for you anyway. Every years you have the impression something else has given up on you, and you can see changes building up rapidly. With a bit of a panic strike you decide to join a Swedish Gym, and start working out. You’re a bit ashamed because you can hardly follow the beginner class, but everyone is struggle, so you all laugh it off together. You make friends, and start going out with them once every two weeks. Ten years later, you’re in better shape than you were when you were 40, and you caught up with all your friend who worked out all their life, and reunited with them because they’ve seen your “miraculous” progress along the way. 

We are all born different, see different struggles along the way, but what makes the difference is what you do with what you were given. And it is never too late to find something you like doing. And that usually even changes with time. So keep looking if you haven’t found it, and keep moving. 
You can find all the excuses you want in the world no one cares about them.

If your joints hurt it is your fault. If you aren’t exercising it is your fault. If you have pain it is your fault. Go out there and find others like you. Someone out there has the same story as you and has overcome it. 

The decisions you made with what you were given have led you to where you are. The beauty with taking responsibility is you can change the path you are on. No one is forcing you to do anything you don’t want to. There is always a solution out there. 

Take what you have, and make the best of it. 

That’s it. 

I hope you enjoyed this article, if you did please like and share it. You can find out more about me on my Facebook,Instagram,Youtube and Itunes.

Morgan.