There are many reasons for not exercising. You might just had a baby, have been sick, overcome an injury, illness, surgery or did not exercise for any other reasons. * You all have one thing in common, re-start slowly and avoid over-exercising for success.
During your time off, muscles become thin, weak and muscle mass has decreased. You must rebuild muscle strengthening, conditioning, stamina and endurance. All of it takes time.
Write down your goals, find a group, friend or class to hold you accountable and have fun together whilst you exercise. It makes it easier to stick to your plan.
Then decide how much time you want to schedule in for yourself weekly and blank those times out. Choose an exercise you know you love, or you always wanted to try. Ready to start?
The secret to regaining your muscle strength, stamina and cardiovascular fitness is to take it slow and steady. Too much overload too quick makes muscles prone to strains, sprains and other injuries. Start with low weights and low repetitions, short walks or runs and steadily increase repetitions and duration.
If you are using your bodyweight for your exercises, you can modify these. Let’s look at the plank (or front support in Pilates) as an example: Start the plank on your forearms with knees bent. Lift the knees and hold. Increase the time you hold this position. If you feel good with this position, progress from your forearms onto your hands and increase time again until you master the plank. Then you can start lifting a leg off alternating and so on.
Celebrate your wins including the small steps and adjust your goals to stay challenged.
Congratulate yourself! You are about to change your habits, body & mind and are increasing the quality of your life. Well done!
*If you re-start after illness, injury, surgery or are post-natal please see your doctor or health specialist to get clearance and check for contra-indications before you restart any exercise regime.
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