What’s the best form of exercise for you?
Exercising and moving the body is incredibly important for so many reasons - mental and emotional wellbeing, heart and bone health, fall and accident prevention, regulating blood sugar, good sleep, and maintaining brain function.
Adding exercise into an already busy schedule can be tricky and un-motivating so it’s good to find something that doesn’t feel like exercise, you will enjoy, and can maintain as a regular habit.
The type of exercise you chose may depend on various factors such as age, work and family commitments, budget and health. It’s unlikely you will sustain the habit if the type of exercise you chose doesn’t fit into your lifestyle. Often we are told by the media, friends or social media that the latest exercise trend is the best but this is not the case. The best exercise is the one you stick with.
So what should you look for when choosing what will hold your interest?
1. Look at your lifestyle:
Do a little audit of how much time you have, what sort of things you enjoy doing, are you an indoors or outdoors person, do you prefer low or high intensity, do you like being amongst people or prefer to exercise solo, do you have health concerns or injuries?
For example, Dorothea, Central Pilates Studio owner and principal instructor, doesn’t like the gym, doesn’t like to exercise just for the sake of exercising and gets bored very easily. She needs to know why she’s doing a movement and how this will help her body in the future. For this reason, Dorothea chooses Pilates, yoga and coastal running to complement her dance and aerial work.
2. Why do you want to exercise?
Once you’ve answered the above questions work out why you want to exercise. Is it because you want to play with your grandkids, do you have bone density issues, do you need to cross train for an activity you already do, do you have chronic pain etc. Once you’ve established your why, you can work out what type of exercise is going to work for you.
3. Try a few different things:
Keeping in mind your why and where your body is physically, try a few different forms of exercise that suit your timeframe and budget.
For example, if cardio health is important to you, other than the shoes, running is completely free. It can be done around your block and you can start small and build up, interspersing walking with running until you can run the length you want to.
Try a dance class, it’s a small investment, great community, loads of fun and great for your body, brain and soul.
If you’re worried about pain and injuries, and looking for a class that incorporates strength and mobility work, a comprehensive Pilates studio, like Central Pilates, might be exactly what you need. With highly qualified instructors who understand movement and bodies, Pilates uses tailored programming to help reach your goals.
There are so many different forms of exercise that you can choose from - walking, cycling, swimming, yoga, weightlifting. The important thing is that you enjoy it as this will keep you motivated to keep going.
4. Mix it up!
Did you know your body adapts pretty quickly to new movement? Whenever you start something new you might notice some muscle soreness afterwards but then it becomes less frequent. This is because your body has become efficient at that particular movement pattern. So to ensure your body is getting the maximum benefits, move in different ways - bend forwards, backwards and sideways, twist your body, move your arms and legs in all the directions they are designed to move in. Combine strength and cardio exercises for heart and bone health.
Now that you have some tips on how to get started in finding your way to exercise start looking into clubs, studios and gyms in your area. Do some research and make sure that if you have any health and physical considerations you seek out a highly qualified instructor to guide you through the most appropriate way of keeping fit for you.
