How to Get Back On The Exercise Track

It’s been around 10 days since I started back with my new exercise regime, and it’s been going well…kind of.

I’ve been out running 2 times a week and doing 1 kettlebell class a week with my super group of clients (they are doing a great job to keep me on track). I’ve also made some small adjustment to my eating habits.

 

It’s got me thinking though about how I got to the point where I wasn’t regularly exercising and for many of us we just fall out of the habit or routine. We've all found been there, having to put important activities down to address things requiring immediate attention. Often, the first item chopped from schedules during those pressing times is exercise.

 

Exercise is an easy item to cut from the calendar, especially in financially challenging times as its offers back a nice chunk of time and money, and there is no obvious loss once removed. Usually somewhere between 20 and 60 minutes is regained. I felt this first hand as a Exercise Coach back in 2009 when the economy went south!

 

I thought I had to reduce my fees and ‘barter’ on price just to get people to sign up and stay training with me. Thankfully things have moved on and that is no longer the case.

 

However, I do still have to remember that people still laps from exercise and then the challenge then becomes to "get back into the habit". When exercise is out of sight its out of mind and the longer its stayed away from it is often more and more difficult to get back to and many times never is until some health crisis or rude 

awakening motivates you to get back on it. (It was the photo that did for me).

 

But fear not, I have put together a one of my ‘famous 5 lists’ of things you need to do to get back into exercise and stick with it….  

 

1.Pick up slightly below where you left off – It is vital when returning to exercise that you resist the temptation to start back where you discontinued. When exercise is discontinued the body's fitness gains from training slowly begin to diminish to a level equal to the where the body currently needs to perform at which is less than it was required to when exercising regularly.  Look to reduce your workout by around 20-30% from your last time exercising. This will help avoid excessive muscle soreness. Say you were suing a 10kg Kettlebell, you’d be best dropping down to a 8kg kettlebell.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

 

 

Me enjoying too much Cream tea at the Feversham Arms last month             

 

 

                                                                                         

2.Don't Try To Catch Up – When resuming back to exercise there's the over-whelming tendency to try to go to hard to soon, that often results in burnout, excess soreness and needless injury. The best fitness gains will occur when you maintain a regular fitness program that balances the ideal exercise to rest ratio that leaves at least 24 hours between similar workouts. Once you back in the regular routine then you can look at doing back-to-back workout days.                                                                                                                                                                                                

For example, if you train on Monday then train again on Wednesday allowing your body to recover on Tuesday. It is also acceptable periodically to allow two or three days between training sessions when your schedule only permits this.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

 

 

3.Write Training Times Down – Always write your exercise sessions into your calendar or schedule as when it's written it’s more likely to get done especially much more so than if we try to commit it to memory. Most have found that if they write their workout times in their calendars at least for the next two months running it provides the best level of commitment to maintain long-term fitness habits. Trust me it works.My most successful clients are the ones that commit long term 2-3 months and book the sessions in advance. One month doesn't convey enough commitment as it looks like there's an "out" on the calendar and doesn't inspire confidence in the program.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

4.Praise, Rather Than Beat Yourself Up – An all too frequent personal response to discontinuing exercise and then resuming it is to beat one's self up for discontinuing exercise in the first place. If you've ever felt like this then welcome to the club as it is a deeply ingrained human nature reflex we all have that never serves us well, and can paralyze us from moving forward creating the erroneous belief that we don't have the self-control and capacity to move forward.

This, of course, is a complete myth, and the reality is that at any time we have the capacity to move forward and return to exercise by simply starting again close to where we left off and doing it from a position of love for self and praise for our commitment to get back to exercising, rather from a position of being self-defeating from self-judgment. Trust me, you can do this and often do it quickly when done from a position of self-respect and empathy.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

5.Attend a regular class – A great way to re-enter the world of exercise is to attend an exercise class regularly. There are many advantages to taking an exercise class. Usually, there are people in the same boat of getting back to exercise and this creates a fellowship of group support to make that transition easier than if trying to go it alone. I’ve been sending letters out recently to my laps clients reminding them I’m still here to help and the encourage them to get back on it.The reality is everyone goes through peaks and valleys of enthusiasm for exercise and it's much easier to discontinue exercise when doing it in isolation than when belonging a group dynamic with an accountability component to it.  Just ask and of our class goers.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

They love to have a laugh (often at my expense) whilst working out. Its also a great way to get support and motivation. As the saying goes

                                                                                       “ We is greater than I”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

So if you have been out of the exercise routine for a while now is a good time. Don’t make excuses start back today. I promise you in a few short weeks you’ll be wondering why you ever stopped!

 

Keep well

Mike

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post adapted from Dr. Jeff Spencer, at mercola.com

http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2012/06/01/returning-to-peak-fitness-level.aspx