Having the habit of doing
physical exercise is important for having a healthy mind and body. If
you want to commit and create a personal routine, you must plan it thoroughly. To train daily, it is best to combine different
routines so that your muscles rest a day between sessions.
Experts advise practicing physical activity regularly, since it is very beneficial for your health. Doing so helps you disconnect from your daily problems and reduce your stress and anxiety levels.
The peer-reviewed medical journal JAMA, published weekly by the American Medical Association, published a study in this regard. Although the importance of constant physical activity has been demonstrated, doing it daily is not good for your health. The reason is that the body needs proper rest to achieve optimal performance. Therefore, the trick to getting all the benefits of training daily is not to train the same muscle groups every day.
For its part, the WHO establishes different levels of activity depending on age groups to enjoy good health. Still, if you're not in the habit of exercising, don't suddenly aim to do it every day. It is better to establish a routine progressively and, thus, enjoy all the benefits of exercising daily.
What are the benefits of exercising daily?
The prestigious Merck Manual on diseases and treatments tells us that physical activity can provide you with the following effects:
- Improve your mood, increasing your energy and self-esteem. In short, it contributes to mental well-being, as it relieves depression, stress and anxiety.
- It helps you control weight, as it increases your metabolism.
- It reduces the risk of suffering from cardiovascular diseases and relieves the symptoms of some others, for example, obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis or high blood pressure.
- Helps you sleep better.
- Contributes to muscle toning.
- Keeps tendons, ligaments and joints more flexible.
- Improves the condition of the skin and combats premature aging.
- Oxygenates the arteries and increases lung capacity. This reduces fatigue.
- Reduces the risk of cancer, something supported by the NIH (National Cancer Institute).
5 tips to create the habit of exercising
Avoiding a sedentary lifestyle and its consequences by practicing regular physical activity will help you achieve substantial improvements in your life. How can you create this habit? Don't miss the following tips with which you will start exercising and make it a regular routine.
1. Choose what you want to do
When we talk about exercising, we are not
really specifying anything. That is, exercising is running, playing soccer,
walking, swimming, dancing and going to the gym. You have a lot
of different options to help you move your body, but not all of them are
created equal. It is important that you choose an activity that suits your
personal preferences and needs. For this reason, to create a healthy habit
you must know what you want to do. The more you define the goal, the
easier it will be to choose the right activity.
For example, if you decide that you want to go for a walk, you have to be very specific. Walking is walking around the block to your building, but it is also avoiding taking transportation to work or taking a mid-afternoon walk at a medium intensity for 45 minutes. You can't just consider the exercise you are going to do, but also where, how, for how long and at what time of day. To all this you must also add the question of what you need to carry it out. In the previous example, you will need comfortable clothes and good sneakers.
Is what you have answered to these questions realistic? The next step is taken if the response is affirmative.
2. Start with simple things
Your goal may be ambitious and, to achieve it, you must travel a long path in which you will encounter many obstacles. Some of them are laziness and laziness. Each failure and each new attempt weakens your self-esteem and causes greater mental resistance to doing so. Therefore, our proposal from Mifarma by Atida is that you start with something simple, more than what you consider yourself capable of doing. In a person who is going to resume sports after a long time, this advice also applies.
How to start with simple things if you intend to go to guided classes? First of all, you should know that it may not be the best thing to start with. Because? Because you must organize your agenda to arrive on time. This means that you have to prepare your clothes in advance and perhaps take them to work in the morning. Then you must arrive at the sports center or studio, change and, after class, return home or to your usual tasks.
Instead, a more realistic option would be to start doing a series of similar exercises at home. The advantage of doing it this way is that your planning will depend exclusively on you and it is easier to adapt it to your way of life. For example, you can do it before going to work. Start with 5 or 10 minutes of exercise until you can gradually increase it.
Even if it forces you to get up 15 minutes earlier in the morning, after a week you will realize that it is worth it. If instead of at that time, you prefer to do it at 5 in the afternoon, when you get home, that is also fine.
So that you don't forget that you have to do it and don't make excuses, set a reminder. And so we come to the third tip.
3. Set a reminder until you have established
the habit
It may seem silly, but it is not; Exercising is something that is easily forgotten. Therefore, we strongly recommend that you do not skip this step. The purpose of a reminder is so that you don't forget something you have to do. However, it also serves as a powerful motivation. It creates a certain psychological pressure on you and is essential to help you create the habit.
You can do it in a note on the office table, in your agenda, on the refrigerator or, the simplest thing, with an alarm on your smartphone. Although, without a doubt, the best trick is to do it after an activity that is already a habit. For example, when you get up in the morning; Leave your clothes ready in the bathroom and get dressed for your morning exercise. Other people prefer it after brushing their teeth or making their bed. Only you will know what time is right.
However, once you have thought about which of your pre-existing habits can help you the most, include them in your initial planning. This way, your action plan will have no cracks and will be more than just a goal that you don't know how to achieve.
If you do this, your chances of success are
90%, compared to 38% for those who do not make a complete plan.
4. Establish immediate and healthy rewards
The exercise itself should be your reward, as it improves your mood and when you look in the mirror you will also see positive changes. However, your brain will not be aware of these benefits and the messages it will send you will be related to the comfort and laziness of continuing down that path.
What can you do to combat it? The easiest thing is to help him with small immediate rewards. Although this is a great idea a priori, the truth is that rewards sometimes become your worst enemy. For this reason, you must carry out this fourth tip carefully.
Choose your rewards in line with your goals. That is, if you want to lose weight, your reward cannot be a hamburger with accessories from a fast food restaurant. The reason is obvious, it will not lead you to achieve your goals.
It is known that the so-called reward psychology is the main reason for consuming unhealthy or unhealthy foods. However, this should not overwhelm you either, because it will be something very temporary. When you establish the habit, doing sports will be your reward.
The so-called positive rewards are appropriate. They will help you have greater discipline and think about how good you feel after physical activity. Some examples are:
- A relaxing shower.
- Do relaxing stretches thinking only of yourself.
- Take a piece of fresh seasonal fruit.
- Have a coffee or tea calmly…
5. Monitor your progress
To objectively see your progress, mark it on a calendar or in an app on your mobile. After several days, this becomes a great motivator that will not let you go back to square one. In short, do not take the habit of doing physical exercise as a boring obligation. It is a moment of disconnection in which you relieve stress and have fun. Change your mentality and stop seeing it as torture!
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