First things first: don’t beat yourself up if you’re not exercising as much or as hard as you think you should.
Many people believe you have to be dripping with sweat and working as hard as you possibly can in order to make gains from a workout. But that’s not what exercise is all about.
Whatever you’re doing, as long as you commit to it and you’re consistent, you’re going to get benefits. Don’t ever think that just doing 10 minutes of something is not enough. It’s better than doing nothing.
By creating a fitness routine you provide yourself with a structured approach to gaining and then maintaining a strong, healthy body and a strong healthy mind.
You may not be an elite athlete who is supported by a whole lot of other professionals (trainers, nutritionists, physiotherapists, etc) but that doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from the same smart system that helps them maintain their focus.
So, what is it you need to put together?
1. Visualisation
The power of the mind to affect fitness is undeniable. New studies show that by visualising our self performing a specific physical activity we are priming our brain and body to do it. What’s more we prime our self to do it well even when we don’t really feel like it.
The power of visualisation to help us overcome obstacles is so well documented that there are now studies on how it can be used in sports rehabilitation to help overcome sports-related injuries faster.
Visualisation or mental role playing helps the brain allocate attention. This changes the way mental resources are apportioned and focus is directed. The brain is absorbed in the role that’s visualised and many of the obstacles that prevent us from exercising, such as tiredness, stress, lack of organization, are diminished in our perception and removed.
2. Focus
Exercise is the means through which we reprogram the body and brain. Even a single session of physical exercise affects our memory and improves our ability to learn. Sustained exercise helps the brain create thicker, better connections that lead to improved cognitive function.
In order to do this in the first instance, we need to be able to focus on something that is important to us. Something that will get us moving even on days when we don’t want to.
The trick is to find a way to activate the brain’s reward system so that a dopamine spike is experienced each time, which leads to associating exercise with a pleasurable sensation and some anticipation.
In order to achieve this, you can keep track of exercise with a fitness tracker or a diary of workouts done, work on a monthly challenge where each day is crossed out, work towards a realistic and specific goal such as improving the number of push-ups you can do, or the distance you can run or the length of time you can exercise.
These are goals which provide a focus. To be able to use this to motivate our self even when we feel tired, low and dispirited we must have a clear target that is achievable, a finite period of time to achieve it in providing us with an end in sight and a clear means of recording it all in a way that shows progression towards our goal. Use whatever works easiest for you, as long as it motivates you to keep on going.
3. Variety
The next element we need is a means of maximising the benefits of the time we invest in exercise. Because we haven’t got hours and hours to waste we need to be able to get the most from whatever time we put in.
The best way we can do that is by providing our muscles with a mixed bag of exercises each time. That way the body doesn’t optimise its fitness routines, we stay fresh and motivated as boredom doesn’t get the chance to set in and we see fitness and health benefits much faster.
By choosing a variety of workouts, changing up and even sometimes changing down the tempo of our exercise routines and also trying various types of exercises, we ensure that the stimulus to which the body responds with adaptations, remains fresh and challenging.
4. Nutrition
Food is fuel. The quality of the fuel we ingest determines how quickly out body responds to the physical, mental and psychological demands being made of it.
Research shows that there is a direct link between building strength and a diet that supports it. There is also a direct link between what we eat, long-term and how it affects bone strength which, in turn, affects the health of our brain.
Most of us are locked into some type of eating routine because we like it, we find it easy to use and we are accustomed to it. By experimenting with healthier options and small reductions in the ingestion of food stuffs like unsaturated fats and sugar that we know are harmful to us we can deliver small, consistent boosts to our fitness and overall health.
5. Support
Sustaining a weight-loss or health and fitness drive, entirely on our own soon depletes our mental and physical resources and makes it hard for us to stick to it. And this can lead to failure.
This is where emotional support really helps. Studies have shown that weight-loss and fitness routines undertaken in a virtual or real-world community setting deliver better results by helping the participants stick to what they are doing when they feel low.
Studies show that those who workout with others have a high success rate, benefitting from the added motivational boost that a friend, a family member, or trainer can add to their fitness routine.
You may think it’ll be motivational, and allow you to keep tabs on whether your workouts and nutrition are working for you, but if fat loss is your goal, then weighing yourself could be counter-intuitive.
The number on the scales may plateau, and even rise. That’s because muscle is a much denser tissue. If you compare a pound of fat and a pound of muscle, the size of the latter is much smaller.
To summarise, muscle weighs more than fat. So as you build muscle, you may actually find you weigh more when stepping on the scales.
What you should actually be considering is body fat percentage. Women between 20 and 40 years old should be aiming for between 21 and 33 per cent.
Alternatively, you could take holistic approach to measuring progress.
It is all too easy to get hung up on the numbers, bring your focus back to how you feel.
We all know that exercise is good for us so why aren’t we all super-fit already? Because no one can sustain their enthusiasm for exercise forever. Even the best of us can lose our motivation.
Our brains are reward driven. We eat a slice of cake and we feel good. There is an instant reward right there. When it comes to exercise, there is but a promise of reward at a later date, as it takes time to get fit and then even more work to stay that way. There are no guarantees just the possibility of getting fit and healthy if we work hard, somewhere down the road, perhaps. That’s why cake wins over a workout every time.
So what can we do? We must form positive associations with exercise. If we feel good before, during and after exercise the reluctance to do it again becomes less and less over time. Eventually, we are able to sustain our fitness and therefore our life-long goals.
When we feel our motivation is slipping and we are losing any desire to exercise, we should reduce the amount of pain inflicted – even remove it completely. Remove the pain from the equation and the reluctance will lessen.
Task: Continue to exercise every day but significantly reduce the amount and/or the intensity of exercise until you no longer feel apprehensive about training.
That’s why so many of us listen to music when we exercise. We feel good when we listen to music we like and it helps us get through harder patches during our training session.
Training with others, people whose company we enjoy, has a similar effect. We can partner up with friends or family or a group of people with similar interests and exercise together. That way we focus on the social aspect of training and not on the struggle.
Task: Aim to make every training session a good experience.
It takes time to see results in the mirror. Health benefits of exercise go fairly unnoticed throughout life – we tend to notice when things go wrong with our body but we rarely pay attention to it when we feel fine. So there is no instant reward for exercise unless we add some artificially.
Crossing out days in a calendar can be incredibly satisfying as we get to measure our progress. We can get a jar and add a marble to it for each workout completed with a goal to fill it up by the end of the year. We have to create a reward system that works for us, that’s instant, something we get on completion of our workouts to compensate for the pain.
Food can be a powerful motivator, too. We don’t have to reward ourselves with cake, that would be counterproductive, but we can schedule our training so our breakfast, lunch or dinner comes directly post-workout serving as a reward for our struggle. Eventually our brain connects the two and we form positive associations with the physical activity.
Task: follow up exercise with an instant reward every single time to create positive associations.
Staying motivated comes down to how we see exercise and what we remember about our last training session. Was it fun? Was the pain tolerable? Was there an instant gratification after? Did we enjoy at least some part of it? If the answer to all these questions is “Yes” more often than “No”, having the motivation to exercise regularly will never again be a problem.
I can’t stress enough the benefits that exercise has on the body, soul and mind. It is clear from endless research that exercise has a great effect on us in many ways.
I have chosen three particular benefits that are noticeable in day-to-day life, that I hope will motivate you to step up your activity level.
Do you ever feel like there are simply not enough hours in the day? I’m sure most would agree that it’s a constant struggle trying to split yourself between the daily demands of family, work, friends etc.
So how do you find time for yourself and, more importantly, time to exercise? Well, here’s a few suggestions that may help you:
1. Turn your commute into a workout
Why not try running or cycling to work? Or, if this sounds too hard-core, try getting off the bus or train a few stops earlier, or park the car further away to extend your walking time.
2. Try a lunchtime workout
Make use of your precious 60 minutes by hitting the gym or going for a walk. Not only will it keep your waistline in check, you’re also proven to be more productive during the day by logging off for an hour than you would be by eating lunch at your desk.
3. Involve the kids
Got a young brood? Involve them in your exercise routine by going out for adventurous park trails or playing a team game in the park such as rounders. If the weather doesn’t allow for outdoor activity, why not go swimming? Not only is this great exercise for the whole family, the kids will love splashing around too!
4. No more ‘Couch Potato’
Just because you’re catching up on the soaps doesn’t mean you can’t do some push-ups, crunches, jumping jacks, and squats at the same time. Clear up some space between the sofa and the TV so you can perform the exercises safely, as well as making sure you don’t miss anything while breaking a sweat!
5. Power up your stair climbs
Instead of walking leisurely up a flight of stairs, gradually increase your speed and the number of stairs you take. For instance, take two steps at once – if you’re able to do it safely – and you’ll target your buttocks even more.
2013 is here and like thousands of other women across the country you are probably thinking about making a New Year’s Resolution.
Many of which go along the lines of wanting to do more exercise or to eat more healthy. If so, that’s great. But can you stick to it?
Here’s one way to a healthier lifestyle that is simple and easy to fit into your everyday routine.
How often have you felt bored, sitting in front of the telly just watching whatever happens to be on? Next time this happens, get up and start moving!
Sitting down and relaxing is great and we all need to make sure we have some ‘me time’ or simply ‘time to do nothing’. Relaxation is of course as important as exercise.
However, if this is a more regular occurrence, think of all the things you could be doing in that 30 minutes or an hour.
Make everyday chores fun. Dance and sing along to your favourite music while cleaning the house or ironing.Rope someone else in to half the time it takes and make everyday tasks a competition between you.
Make the most of the British summer (I know that seems a long way off at the moment!) and wash the car or do gardening on those sunny days.
And it doesn’t have to be work work work. Go out for a long walk or cycle to your local shops.
Not only will you feel better for getting up and about, you’ll burn those all important calories whilst doing it too!