Covid Exercise – Get moving!
Step Into Spring
These are some of the toughest weeks of the year. Days are getting longer and lighter and shop windows are filling with bunnies, flowers and bright colours – but you might be wondering how you’re actually going to make it to Spring.
We tend to think of the time around Christmas as the low point of the year, but it’s often the last few weeks of Winter and the first few weeks of Spring that can feel so overwhelming. Another Winter has taken its toll on hair and skin and coughs and colds have nibbled away at energy reserves, yet there is one really easy way to get yourself ready for Spring. This year it is slightly different that COVID has hit us but we are fortunate in the UK that we are allowed out once a day for exercise. This is really important not just for fitness health but mental health too.
A little effort goes a long way
It can be easy to do nothing when you feel at your lowest, however gentle exercise can make a huge difference without feeling like it’s taking over your life.
Let’s see how easy it can be to put our best foot forward…
The first thing to understand is that you can do this. You have got this covered. The only thing standing between you and walking is your brain. The brain is adept at coming up with reasons and excuses not to get moving, so try listening to your body instead. While your brain is screaming that you’ll never be an Olympic athlete, your body is quite enjoying the sensation of putting one foot in front of the other.
The undeniable truth
This is just between us, but do feel stiffer than you’d like? Are you breathless by the top step of the stairs? Have you just really got out of the way of walking?
We can throw out the old lines about getting off the bus a stop earlier or parking at the far side of the car park and walking. That will help to get you walking a few steps extra, but it takes away from the sense of achievement that you will so deserve when you start walking for 10 minutes a day. That’s all. Just 10 minutes a day for a week.
When you’ve carved out 10 minutes for you and your body every day to go for a walk, you can consider adding a few minutes to each walk. Or, you may even want to head out twice a day. You might feel like you want to start at 10 minutes and double your minutes by the end of the week, however research shows that effort put in in small increments over a longer period of time generates a greater result than large increments done over a shorter period of time.
What else could you do with in 10 minutes a day that would generate such great results? Cleaning the house? Reading a book? Sleeping? 10 minutes won’t really make that much of a difference.
A positive change
Walking will get your joints moving and it will strengthen your lower body muscles. Walking will strengthen your bones and improve cardio-respiratory health. Walking will take you outside, help you to manage your mind and work on your wellbeing and mental health. 10 minutes a day? Let’s get walking.