Dr Lachlan Cossens
What a wonderful time of year - the short cold days are behind us and long warm days are ahead! It’s also around this time of year when our motivation to exercise creeps back. Whether the sunshine motivates you to dust of the runners, service the bike or head down to the park for a kick, here are 5 simple tips that will support you to reach your goals.
1. Choose something you enjoy
I know it may sound silly, but it’s surprising how often people tell me that they have joined a gym to get in shape but they don’t actually enjoy doing weights or the classes available! The key to exercising and staying active is to choose something you enjoy! It doesn’t matter what you do as long as you enjoy it and it’s sustainable for your lifestyle.
2. Plan your exercise
By creating a schedule and writing it down you will hold yourself to account. This is also a good way to block your training schedules so that you’re not doing too much too quickly, which leads to my next point.
3. Build into your exercise
Rome wasn’t built in a day and your fitness base won’t be either. It’s best to start off small and progressively build into your exercise over a few weeks. Progressively increasing your workload will allow your body to adapt to the exercise, 5-10% increase each week is a good place to start.
4. Being sore after exercising
Ah yes, the old DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) is real. If you haven’t done a particular exercise in a long time, or you’ve increased the intensity of it, it’s normal to be sore through the muscles that you’ve just used. DOMS is not generally noticed until the day after exercising and can often last up to 3 days. This is nothing to worry about, just something that comes along with exercising.
5. Warm up & Cool Down
While it can often be overlooked, warming up and cooling down is actually quite an important element of exercising. Performing a warm up prepares your body, putting you in the best position to complete your exercise to the best of your ability. Your warm up should include dynamic exercises that move your joints through their full range of motion and activate necessary muscle groups for your activity. The cool down gradually allows your body to relax. Your cool down should incorporate gentle static stretches, allowing the body to relax in each stretch for 20-30 seconds.
These factors are important to keep in mind as you start to increase your exercise. If you have any further questions or are looking for someone to help map out a plan for you, feel free to come in so we can get the most out of your increased motivation! For myself I’ve decided to join a gym and get my bike serviced. Please, please, please ask me about how this is going to keep me accountable to my own advice!