Learning English is a Lot Like Exercising!

So we have this funny saying in English

when we're talking about exercising and working out

and it's the saying, don't skip leg day.

What this means is don't go to the gym

and just lift weights with your arms

and shoulders and chest muscles and back muscles,

you need to work out your legs as well,

otherwise your upper body is really,

really fit and your legs are really, really skinny.

So don't skip leg day.

And when I thought of this saying

I thought this applies to English as well.

When you're learning English

it's important to not just read,

it's important to listen and to speak

and to do a little bit of writing as well.

It's important to not skip leg day,

so to speak, when you're studying English.

So in this English lesson, I'll go over a few more ways

that learning English is a lot like exercising.

It's a lot like working out.

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We have another saying in English

that people use when talking about working out

and getting fit,

And it's the saying, you can't out exercise a bad diet.

What this means is that exercise alone

isn't what makes you super healthy,

you need to eat healthy food,

you need to get a good night's sleep.

When I think about learning English.

When I think about all of you learning English,

I hope you're taking that into account as well.

I hope you're thinking about your diet.

I hope you're exercising a bit.

I hope you're getting good rest every evening.

All of these things will help you learn English

just a little bit better.

Hi, Walter.

Here's Walter by the way.

He just wants to lick people right now.

When you're exercising, it's good to have a plan.

It's good to decide what you're going to do that week.

When are you going to run?

When are you going to lift weights?

It just really helps you to make progress

and learning English is the same way in my opinion.

I think it's a really good idea to have a plan.

You should decide what you're going to do

each day of the week and then you should stick to it.

You should stick to your plan.

So just another way that exercising

and learning English are very, very similar,

it's really good to have a plan.

If you go to the gym and you lift a 25 pound weight

every other day for an entire year,

it will help you to get a little stronger at first

but eventually it won't help anymore

because you need to challenge yourself.

You should move from a 25 pound weight eventually

to a 30 pound weight and then maybe to 35.

And I think the same is true when you're learning English.

When you're watching English videos in particular,

maybe you have the English subtitles on

and that helps you understand what's being said,

but you should challenge yourself.

You should turn the subtitles off every once in a while.

Maybe you're reading English books that are very,

very straightforward and easy to understand.

At some point you should find a book

that's more challenging and more difficult.

If you don't increase the difficulty regularly

when you're learning English,

it'll be hard to make, make really good progress.

So similar to exercising, you need to challenge yourself

when you're learning English.

We have another saying in English,

variety is the spice of life.

When you're exercising and trying to get healthy,

it's good to do a variety of activities.

You should do some walking and some kayaking

and maybe some rock climbing

and lift some weights and maybe run on a treadmill.

When you do a variety of things, your body responds

by becoming healthier.

When you're studying English,

I think the same thing is true.

Variety is the spice of life.

Don't just watch the same television show,

watch a few movies.

Don't just read the same books, read the news,

maybe read some comic books as well.

Don't just listen to rock and roll music

because that's what you like the best

when you're studying English,

listen to some country Western music as well.

So if you can incorporate variety into your workout

to get healthier, you should also incorporate variety

into your English learning.

Similar to making a plan, it can be good to set goals

when you're trying to get healthy.

Maybe your goal is to run in a five kilometer race

in a few months.

When you set a goal, it makes you work hard

as you get closer to that goal.

When you're learning English, you can do the same thing.

Set a goal in the future.

Think to yourself, in four months I want to be able

to have a perfect English conversation

with a native English speaker.

Or think to yourself, in five months,

I'm going to take an English test

and I'm going to get a really, really good score.

So if you set goals, it really helps motivate you.

From the time you set the goal until you get there,

you work really hard to attain that goal.

This is one more thing you can do

to just supercharge your English learning.

Other people can help motivate you

when you're exercising and working out.

This is why sometimes people will take a class.

Maybe they'll take a class where everyone

rides stationary bikes.

Maybe they'll take a class where they do

some kind of workout together.

When you're with other people,

it can be energizing and it can really help motivate you.

This is the same when you're learning English.

If you take a class, it can really, really help.

When you go to a class, you will be with other people

who are doing the same thing as you.

This can really help you feel better about your progress.

You'll be able to have conversations with them.

You'll be able to share the things

that you find challenging.

They might give you little tips that will help you

progress faster in your English learning

and you might be able to help them out as well.

So another way that exercising and learning English

are very similar, taking a class,

being with other people can be super helpful.

This past Sunday I went for a walk.

I went for a 10 kilometer walk.

It took me an hour and a half

and it even rained a little bit while I was walking.

And it was really, really good.

The next day I was a little bit sore.

So what I did is I had a rest day.

When you're exercising and working out,

when you take a rest day, it means you don't work out.

You don't exercise on that day.

It's just good for your muscles to have a day to heal.

I think this is also true when you're learning English.

There are seven days in the week

and when people ask me, what's a good plan for the week?

I usually recommend that you study English

for five or six days, and then take a day off,

have a day where you rest.

I think your brain needs a little bit of time to recover.

If you study for an hour or an hour and a half

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,

Saturday, it's probably a good idea

to just not study English on Sunday.

Your brain will still be doing something.

I'm sure it will still be processing

and storing some of the information

that you learned earlier in the week

but taking a day to rest is just a really,

really good idea when you're learning English.

Well, thank you so much for watching

this English lesson where I compared exercising

and working out with learning English.

I'm still kind of surprised

at how many things they have in common.

Remember, if this is your first time here,

don't forget to click that red subscribe button over there.

Give a thumbs up if this video helped you learn some English

and if you have the time,

why don't you stick around and watch another English lesson.

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