Have you ever felt the sudden urge to change your lifestyle? You chuck on your old pair of runners that have been collecting dust and decide to set a new personal record after 'x' amount of years? Or maybe you've been paying for a membership at the gym that you completely forgot about, so you decided to use this new found energy and motivation to go 100 times in the first week back?
"Soo..."
So, finding the motivation to kickstart a healthier, active lifestyle is GREAT, however! Jumping into an over active lifestyle of an hour a day, every day is a recipe for injury and you may find yourself regressing more than progressing. We typically don't noticed how unfit, over weight or how much our pain effects us until it's 'too late'. Start small & focus on your general 'wellness'. This could be measured by pain, exhaustion, fatigue the next day. Make alterations as you go.
If you're sick of a sedentary lifestyle & want to move, set aside time initially for general mobility.
If you're a father or mother suffering back pain & want to play with your children, acknowledge movement is key, self asses what movements are pain free or seek professional advice for exercise prescription to be done at home.
Wanting to get back into running? Start with breaking up 100m of walking, 100m of running because as soon as you pull up with delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) you may regret going for that run in the first place.
"I'M CONVINCED, HOW DO I START?"
In order to progress, you have to know what you're progressing in. Set some goals!
The top excuses for not participating in home exercise programs are:
"I don't have enough time" & "I don't have enough energy". Both are fair points however, if you want to encourage an active lifestyle for yourself, your friends or be a role model for your kids you may have to either make the time or, you may find that you can incorporate physical activity into your current lifestyle.
Again, start small.
Choose exercises that can compliment your lifestyle. If you live near the river, take your partner & child for a 30 minute walk to hear about their day. If you start work later in the morning, give yourself 30 minutes in the morning to do some body weight exercises or stretching (I use the word 'give' as this is your gift to you, your way of encouraging yourself to improve). Fun fact:
30 minutes in a 24hr time period = 2.08% of your ENTIRE day.
"IF I'M NOT JUMPING STRAIGHT IN, HOW OFTEN SHOULD I EXERCISE?"
Great question,
Aiming for 150-300 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity a week is the prescribed amount. Since we were just talking about that fun fact above, lets aim for 30 minutes (2% of your day), 5 days a week. This can be walking, running, cycling, swimming, resistance training or anything else you can think of that involves general movement.
In order to start your new active lifestyle, it's important to know how to program your sessions:
Warm up:
The aim of a warm up is to prepared the body for exercise/ movement. A warm up can be 5-10 minutes of light walking, jogging, cycling, etc.
Exercise Phase:
This tough part, the actual workout. This phase is where you're placing more stress on the body to help develop strength, endurance & benefiting general wellness in the long run.
Cool down:
Typically, you're slowing your heart rate down in a safe manner through this phase. A few minutes of light intensity to finish off like a light walk. You shouldn't be gasping for air while talking.
Please let me know what your thoughts are on this topic!
- Dan
