Regular exercise and activity is good for physical and mental health, it helps improve your overall health and fitness, assists with maintain a healthy weight and reduce your risk for many chronic diseases as well as promote good mental health.
Women who exercise regularly do so to:
- Improve their physical fitness
- Have fun
- Have some ‘me time’
- Manage their weight
So what’s stopping you achieving the recommended 30 minutes on most days or 150 minutes of physical activity for the week? Many day to day demands create barriers to exercise, by making some changes there is ways to overcome these:
No time – juggling children, household duties and paid work
- Make exercise appointments with yourself each week in your diary. Don’t feel guilty about taking some time out for you, the best way to look after others is to look after yourself first.
Lack of energy – feeling tired from the effects of a busy lifestyle can make it difficult to maintain an exercise routine
- Find something you like to do, by choosing something you enjoy you are more likely to stick with it. Pushing past the first few weeks will give you more energy to cope with day to day activities
Health problems – can limit some forms of exercise, talk to your doctor about appropriate activities. Most physical limitations don’t rule out all forms of exercise
- Low impact and water activities are great alternatives to keep you moving, try group classes as this also provides you with a support group. Regular program reviews are part of your membership, use these to keep progressing your workouts, your body will benefit from exercise
Where to from here?
Set achievable goals, don’t go the all or nothing approach. If you only have time for one or two exercise sessions per week to start with, congratulate yourself on this, every little bit helps. Some exercise is better than none at all.
Find a training buddy, attending regular classes or gym sessions at the same time you will start to see the same faces each week. Many friendships have begun by working out together, this provides extra motivation especially in the early days of creating the habit.
Resistance training provides many benefits and is something that should be factored into every exercise program. Not only will it help to “sculpt” your body, it increases bone density to prevent osteoporosis, builds strength to assist with day to day tasks and when programed correctly can help with muscular imbalances that cause aches and pains.
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