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.
(upbeat music)
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.
(upbeat music)