5 Tips to Help You Exercise More
Exercising more is a common goal among people looking to lead a healthier lifestyle. However, despite your best intentions to incorporate more activity into the week, regular exercise doesn’t always become ingrained in your daily ritual. There are some steps you can take though that will enhance your chances of successfully upping your activity levels. Read on to discover five ways to help you stick to your pledge to be more active.
Choose an activity you enjoy
Although going to the gym and running offer great fitness benefits, if you know that you won’t enjoy these particular forms of exercise, your fitness campaign is unfortunately doomed to failure. Pick an activity you will look forward to doing, as this will boost your motivation. Whether you choose a dance class, trampolining, skating, volleyball or even competitive cup-stacking, any activity that gets you moving will be beneficial for your health and well-being.
Set yourself realistic goals
If you simply say to yourself that you will exercise more frequently, the chances are that you will not succeed. You are far more likely to maintain an exercise schedule if you set yourself specific goals. However, to be most useful, your goals need to be achievable and you need to lay out how you plan to achieve your goals. For example, you may decide that you will aim to walk for 30 minutes each day, or you may decide to start with a 10 minute walk around the block daily and then increase this by 5 or 10 minutes each week till you reach your goal. When making plans for activity, also think about any barriers that may make exercise more difficult and how you can mitigate these. For instance, if you have a joint problem, choose an activity that will take the pressure off your joints such as swimming or cycling, or if you have young children, you can think about activities you can enjoy together.
Exercise with others
Research shows that taking part in physical activity with other people can increase your motivation to exercise. If you have friends, family, or coworkers who also want to be more active, you can suggest that you exercise together. Alternatively, you could join a fitness class, a hiking group, or a sports club. Even if you are new to exercise, you should be able to find a class or group suited to your needs.
Monitor your progress
When you see what you have accomplished through exercise, you are more likely to keep up your efforts, which is why you should monitor your progress. There are a number of markers you can use to chart your progress, but weight isn’t necessarily a good choice, as muscle gains can mask loss of fat. One good option is to record how long you exercise for at a session or how many repetitions you complete. If you are aiming to walk more, a pedometer is a useful tool, as it counts the number of steps you complete each day.
Reward yourself
If you reward your efforts, this will help to reinforce your exercise behavior. You may decide to treat yourself to something small at the end of each week in the early days of your regiment, and then perhaps a larger reward after three and six months. While food or drink rewards can be somewhat counterproductive when aiming for an all-round healthier lifestyle, there are a range of more suitable rewards that you could choose, such as a massage or purchasing a new item of clothing.
This post is provided by the creative team at Pingup. Pingup is a mobile appointment booking application that allows users to reserve appointments with various types of local businesses (including gyms and health clubs). You can see some of their other musings here on their blog.
Ben is the community manager at Pingup. You can connect with him here on twitter
