Don’t Start Something and Not Finish It

New Year’s Resolutions – did you make one this year? Have you stuck to it? For most people, the answers to those questions are, in order, “yes” and “no”. Just doing something at an arbitrary time defined by tradition is absolutely no way to govern your life. All it means is that you are choosing something, often at random, to complicate your life at a time when things may well be stressful enough already. The New Year may be a good point to decide on making a New You, but the truth is that unless you are ready, you will be more likely to set off with good intentions and then fail to keep to them.

Start your exercise plan knowing what you are looking to achieve, how you will achieve it and how much time it will take. Then, whatever the plan, stick to it. It will be difficult at times – that’s why you have had to build up to it. But regardless of how much you may feel one day that you cannot be bothered, if you carry on and do it those feelings will dissipate. It should be mentioned at this point that if you are injured or ill, “sticking to it” goes out the window. Your body will not go through the process as it needs to, you will do yourself more harm than good, and it will make the exercise pointless.

But is it is just a matter of being unmotivated, you need to power through and get on with it. Lack of motivation is what you are fighting against, so don’t let it win. You may be able to think of a hundred things you would rather be doing than training, but be aware that there will be a little voice in your head if you do them instead, and it will be saying “you should be training” – you won’t enjoy it as much as you would if you had gone through with the training first. That is just life’s way of guilt-tripping you into sticking at it – and if you do that, YOU will be the winner.

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Dos and Don’ts of Physical Fitness

Do make sure that you warm up before any round of exercise and down afterwards. If you fail to prepare with a good warm up you may well find that you tweak a muscle pretty early on and are unable to exercise for days or even weeks afterwards. Fail to warm down and you’ll feel stiff. Either way, it’s counter productive

Don’t overdo things. You may feel like going the extra mile on top of what you had planned because you feel like you can. But a regime is a regime, and doing too much will have detrimental effects just as not doing enough will leave you short of the level you were aiming for. Neither situation is welcome

Do prepare with a decent meal. Nothing heavy that will sit on the stomach. Your body will go through a lot of processes as you are training, and attempting to digest heavy food at the same time will lead to complications, and potentially the meal making an unwelcome reappearance at an inopportune time. Not what you want.

Don’t skip lunch before you go training in the afternoon. You need the energy levels that it will bring, and if you go without you will find yourself paying for it by becoming light-headed and weak, and will not be able to train to any real intensity. The effect will be such that you may as well not have bothered training at all.

Do allow yourself a break if you are feeling pain. Some people live by the maxim “no pain, no gain”. But if that pain happens to be a muscle tear or a lack of any one of a number of important bodily nutrients, the gain will be just about non-existent unless you have excellent health insurance. Listen to your body.

Don’t stop running because you are bored and think you can come back and do it the next day. A health regime is designed to be stuck to, and by moving it around to suit your whims you are messing with its efficiency. If you are getting bored, challenge yourself to finish, with the reward being a healthy but tasty meal at a restaurant.

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Just Keep Swimming, Swimming, Swimming

When sports players are recovering from injuries, they are often put through training that involves spending time in the swimming pool. There are a few good reasons behind this – first of all, it provides support and soothing for recovering muscles. But just as importantly the water provides them with resistance, which is excellent for building up muscles and making the sportsman (or woman) more ready to return to the competition field. If you have ever broken a major bone, you will have had to wear a plaster cast. When that cast comes off, the muscles in the area appear wasted and dead – without a lot of exercise they just will not be the same as they were.

Even if you have not had a major injury – and even if you have been injury free all your life, swimming is an excellent way of getting into shape. If you go for regular runs, you need to make sure that so many factors are right – pace, surface, footwear and running style. If they are not in tune you can pull muscles, damage ligaments or tendons and several other potential nasty injuries. While it is worth getting a running regime going for cardio-vascular exercise, swimming is one way to get fit where all you need is a swimming costume and access to a pool. Once those are in place, you’re away.

In comparison to running, swimming is a very safe way to get in shape. You have the low impact of water rather than hard, concrete surfaces that exist in most towns, or the treadmills in the gym. In the early days of your training regime, swimming is an excellent way to build towards the right shape, strength and fitness levels. You may well find that you really enjoy it too. There is something incredibly soothing about moving about underwater and letting it wash over you. It’s like a giant bath, only you are not going to accidentally pull the plug.

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