We all know the importance of movement and exercise , yet so many people can struggle to fit it in to their day. With everyone back to what seems to be as busy as they were before the pandemic, exercise can often get knocked down the list of priorities that need to be accomplished that day.
Or a common scenario can be that you say to yourself that ‘I’m going to get out and do some exercise this evening when I get home’ but often that doesn’t happen for a number of reasons.
Maybe you get home late from work…
Maybe you have to bring the kids to a football match ….
Maybe you forgot you have to go to a meeting …..
Of maybe you are just too dam tired to do anything and as soon as your bum hits that couch you are getting back up again.
If this has happened to you then don’t worry.
You are not alone.
I’ve been there myself and I hear it from my patients all the time in my clinic. So, to help you get more movement and exercise into your day, I have put together 5 simple tips that will hopefully reignite some energy, motivation or even something you used to do yourself, but you have lost track of. You can watch the full video above or if you would prefer, read below for a summary of each tip.
The morning time can work really well. Before the kids get up, before the busyness of life gets in the way, before you start checking the phone and before the emails come in. If you get up half an hour to 45 minutes earlier you can almost be guaranteed to get in a 20 – 30 minutes of exercise.
This could consist of a walk in the morning sun, a run, light stretching or some yoga type movements or you could lift weights or do a HIIT session.
But, the beauty is that if you get it done in the morning, at least you have it done for the day now matter how busy the day gets.
Tip 2 is to set up your environment to make exercising as easy as possible. Your environment could be your house and to set it up to ensure success you could have a room where you can have a mat out on the floor and have your exercise clothes beside it. Or you could have a couple of weights or a resistant band out on display so you can do a few exercises whenever you see it.
The aim is to take away any obstacles and try to make exercising as easy as possible. The opposite to this is having to go and first clear your room, find and put out the yoga mat and search for some suitable clothes to change into. These are all obstacles that can get in the way, distract you and stop you from the exercise that you had planned to do.
Whereas if it is easy, if you see the mat on the floor, if your runners are easy to find, if your track suit or your shorts are laid out and you are prepared, then it’s much easier.
Tip 3 Is to attach an exercise to an existing daily habit. An example of this could be when you get up in the morning and as soon as you walk out of your bedroom door, a yoga mat is waiting for you ready to do some movements.
It could be that everytime you brush your teeth in the morning you do 3 minutes of movement afterwards. After you drop the kids to school you come back home and straight away you do 10 minutes of exercise. Or It could be when you come in from work and you’re getting changed out of your work clothes you put on your exercise gear and do 10 minutes of exercise then.
It doesn’t need to be crazy, we are just looking for ways to get an extra 5 minutes here and there. But you’re attaching it to something that you do every day and the chances of you doing it are far greater.
Tip 4 is to be realistic about what you can fit into your lifestyle. Okay. This can be a huge one, especially after New Year. People make these New Year resolutions, they go way overboard, they last about 20 days and all of a sudden they realise that they are exhausted and say ‘I can’t do this. It doesn’t fit my lifestyle.’ So you have to be realistic about what you can fit into your current lifestyle.
People often ask me ‘what’s the best form of exercise? Is it swimming?’ My first answer to this is ‘can you swim?’ and then ‘are you a good swimmer?’ If they say no, then it’s probably not the best form of exercise.
Also, if the swimming pool is half an hour away, that’s a half hour to get to the pool, you want at least a half hour swim, allow time to get changed and time to drive back again. That could be two hours out of your day and if you are busy at the moment that may not be realistic to stick with consistently.
So try and be realistic about what you can do. I aim to do 30 minutes of exercise every morning at 7.30am during weekdays. It means I can be finished by 8 and have breakfast with the kids and be in the clinic by 9. I’ve been doing it for almost a year now and it works for me so your challenge is to find a time that consistently works for you too.
If your goal is to get more movement into your day and to try and get into the habit of exercising more, then a great way to start off is to think ‘little and often’.
What you’re also trying to do is make exercising a habit and if you can do small chunks of exercise little and often, the chances of you exercising regularly becomes greater. It also has cardiovascular benefits for your body as you will regularly get your heart rate up with small bouts of exercise.
Some simple examples could be, every time you boil the kettle for a cup of tea, do 10 push ups.
If you are working from home, whenever you get up from your chair do 10 squats. There are loads of opportunities during the day to fit in a few minutes of movement and by the end of the day those minutes will have added up.
So that’s my 5 tips. As I said, nothing groundbreaking but hopefully there is something there that will motivate and inspire you to exercise more if you feel that you have let your fitness and movement levels dip.
If you are struggling to exercise because of pain or injury and you need some help then you can book an appointment by clicking the link here https://midlands-physio-and-back-pain-clinic.eu1.cliniko.com/bookings
If you would like to receive weekly movement advice and injury related tips straight to your inbox every week then sign up for our newsletter below
