A New Year’s Resolution that you might actually stick to…
A New Year’s Resolution that you might actually stick to…
How many times have you made the same promise to yourself? It’s nearly the New Year, you’re abruptly reminded of last year’s resolution that you forgot to do sometime around last April. You promise yourself this year is going to be different – great! So what are you going to achieve over the next 12 months? What’s this year’s goal? What do you want to change?
The top most common resolutions are to lose weight, exercise more and quit a bad habit. Now, whilst we don’t claim to the magic New Year’s fairy, we can give you a little help along the way. Here’s our quick 5 simple ways to keep exercising safely this year…
- Hold off on the boot camps, just for now. Ask yourself, when was the last time you were doing boxing and burpees 5 times a week? Maybe try something more achievable for your body first. What are your current activity levels like? Is a daily 20 minute walk more reasonable to start with? How about a swim or a cycle? Ease yourself into your new fitness regime and avoid the overuse injuries that could stop you really getting into a routine.
- If you really need the boot camps, the crossfit or the F45, and patience isn’t your forte – then just make sure you have the rest your body needs. Start with no more than 2 sessions a week, on non-consecutive days, and build this up gradually after a couple of weeks. In a trained athlete, it takes 48 hours for muscles to recover after a dose of high intensity exercise (and 72 hours for tendons). Attempting to do back to back days for those slightly less trained bodies will increase the risk of injury. Now you have a legit reason for a day off!
- Don’t just ‘go for a run’. Compliment with some simple body-weight or low resistance exercises. You don’t need any fancy gym equipment, a quick home-based workout will do just fine. 2-3 strength sessions a week will not only make you feel fitter and stronger, but also help with shifting those few extra Christmas kilos. On top of that, strengthening exercises alone have been shown to reduce the risk of overuse injuries by 50%. I’ll take that.
- This one I cannot stress enough – warm up your muscles! We’ve all done it, we’re short of time and we just want to get the work-out, the run, the gym class over and done with. So we skip the warm up. Goes without saying that you’ll undoubtedly be performing at sub-par, seems counterproductive doesn’t it? Get your heart pumping, your blood flowing, get those neural pathways firing and your feet moving. Minimum 5-10mins before any form of exercise. Thank me later.
- Get a free 15min assessment with us at Williamstown Health + Lifestyle. This goes for everyone, the pre-seasoners, the new gym bunnies, the crossfitters, the walkers and the runners. Come down and have a chat, dispel any old injury fears, have a quick check over to make sure that boot camp is the one for you, and get your body working at its best. It’s what we are here for.
Give us a call or check online to book in with our osteos, physios, remedial therapists, myotherapists and pilates instructors. Get back to doing the things you love this new year.
