Many of us experience exercise highs and exercise lows. You know how sometimes you feel like you are in the flow of physical activity and eating healthy just comes easy. And then there are times for one reason or another we get off track and it seems impossible to get back into a routine.
Working out is a mind-body experience where both physical and mental aspects play a role together to make it possible. When you exercise do you feel that invigorating sensation that it permeates to other parts of life? Such as being happy and positive, taking care of yourself more often, or even avoiding bad foods and eating more healthily. You see progress just flows in one’s life with simply just exercising and moving.
Let’s look at exercise lows and the reasons that can cause a person to get off track and find it difficult to get back into an exercise routine; have you or are you experiencing any of the following?
- You may feel uninspired with your common workout
- Reaching a plateau and becoming discouraged
- You may have taken some time off and now finding it difficult to restart
- A physical injury may have come in your way
- Or other things that can get in your way such as work, family or responsibilities etc.
Exploring the physical and mental aspects of an exercise routine can help with overcoming these situations.
The body isn’t designed to work out vigorously every single day or else hitting the wall and over fatigue will occur. But of course! The more you build strength and endurance the more you will enjoy exercising. You need to take care of your body and listen to its cues, give your body a rest every now and then or consider choosing gentle activities or you can target different muscle groups on different days. Another physical aspect is figuring out your body’s cycle during the day and use it to your advantage, for example if you have more energy in the morning then use that to get moving and get an exercise session done, or perhaps if you are losing focus in the afternoon you can go for a brisk walk to help with refocusing your thoughts and giving you an energy boost to continue the day.
There are many differing preferences in both the types of physical activity and the environment people like to partake physical activity in. It can be a type of sport, a fitness class, exercising at the gym, at home, at the park or beach. Just seek your place of preference and do the activities you love to do because it makes you feel great.
Variety can help keep you motivated by mixing up your workouts to constantly challenge yourself and keep your workouts fresh, you will less likely get bored and frustrated.
Keep in mind that your mind-set can play a big role too. Letting go of your own definition of exercise can be a start. Movement of any kind has its benefits be it short spurts of exercise or long runs, playing a sport, going for walks with a friend, dancing, or simply doing housework. Just because you didn’t make it to the gym or didn’t get to do your daily workout session it doesn’t mean that you can’t have an “active day”. Simply doing a few minutes of stretching just to get in touch with your body has its subconscious benefits physically. Or maybe doing 10 starjumps to get your blood flowing. These simple actions can get you motivated to keep going. HOW? Well when you move your body releases endorphins a hormone that helps improve your mood and boost your energy levels. So understanding that just getting started on a simple movement can persuade you to move your body more.
Enjoy the ups and accept the down and trust your body’s natural paths!