Having a healthy balance between activity and rest is essential to living a long, healthy life of vitality. Over the past several blog posts I’ve been outlining a variety of areas of wellness necessary to live well, feel well and be well on all levels. The area of movement and exercise is one that is commonly focused on in the wellness world, but often one that is difficult to create a routine around that sticks for the long term.
Our bodies are designed to move. Haven’t you heard that sitting is the new smoking? Yikes, that makes sitting sound super unhealthy! There’s a ton of information out there about the optimal type and amount of exercise and movement that we need. However, really the best kind of movement is movement you actually enjoy doing and the best amount of time is how much time will realistically fit into your current schedule—without creating any additional stress.
Beyond identifying what you like to—and are willing to do—and the realistic amount of time you can commit to it within your schedule, the next most important aspect of movement and exercise is consistency. If you only sporadically move your body, you will not receive the same level of long-term benefits that come along with consistent exercise. These benefits are well researched, vast and most impressive. Some of the benefits of movement and exercise include improved sleep, increased energy, reduced cholesterol, reduced blood pressure, reduced cognitive decline, increased mobility throughout your lifespan, increased mood stabilization, and reduced stress levels. These are all pretty convincing reasons to get off the couch and get moving.
I find the most difficult part of being consistent is that I don’t ever really feel like exercising. Now, if you suggest taking a restorative yoga class, to that I say, yes please! Doing thirty minutes on the elliptical machine and 15 minutes of strength training, not quite as exciting to me. While yoga can absolutely serve as exercise (and so much more!) for me, it’s more of a relaxation practice, and I find that to get in exercise I personally need to more traditional movement. To shake the low motivation I have to remind myself that I am most likely never gonna feel like it (at least not very often.) So, to stay motivated, I find it is super helpful to focus on the benefits, including how I feel after I complete a workout. I want to be healthy—health and vitality are two of my personal values—so this means I need to exercise. I have to plan it and prepare for it so I don’t talk myself out of it. When I do move my body, I feel accomplished, stronger and more emotionally balanced. Focusing on those super valuable positives helps me to get off the couch and to the gym.
If you are struggling to get exercise into your routine, I suggest that you keep an exercise log. First, plan out what days you will exercise, what form of movement you will do, and for how long you will do the exercises directly onto your calendar. If you put it into your mindset by writing it out and planning ahead of time, you are far more likely to make it happen. Then, keep a log of how you feel before you exercise, how you feel after you exercise, and what motivated you to do if you didn’t feel like. When you reflect on this log it will serve as a helpful reminder of why you are choosing your health and vitality over a temporary feeling of laziness—or even dread.
If you are just not a gym person, the most effective way to start the process of moving is finding a form of movement that you really enjoy. (You can catch an older blog on 5 ways to get more movement without the gym here!) This could be dancing, joining a community sports team, walking, yoga, pilates, signing up for a community 5k and training for it (with a friend makes it even better!), swim, hike, taking a dance class… Finding something you enjoy and doing it along with a buddy can make it something you actually look forward to doing regularly!
When you commit to regular movement and exercise you are committing to your health and wellbeing and creating a greater life of longevity and vitality. To begin to make it happen for you, first identify what movement you actually enjoy, then the amount of time you can dedicate to doing it. Create your exercise log and plan for exactly when you will do it. Begin using these tools and see the impact moving your body can have on your life for the better beginning today!