It’s January. The beginning of the year. And we’ve all been set on completing our new years’ resolutions.
One thing we always set our minds to, and I’m no exception, is becoming fitter. Healthier. We try our darndest to do exercise everyday, or at least a few times a week. Determined to see ourselves lose weight and gain muscle mass. To get stronger in ourselves mentally, yes, but physically too.
I’m writing to tell you I’m doing this too. Determined to be healthier both in body and mind. But I’m also writing to tell you I’ve had a day or two where I haven’t done the full exercises I’d put my mind to. I’ve had days where I’ve done what I can despite the muscle jet lag as it were. Yesterday I tried to do my exercises and a sharp pain stabbed into my knee at every opportunity.
So I’ve decided that this ‘how to start an exercise regime’ allows us to have a day off. Or certainly allows us to have bad days. Because we’re human and sometimes slip off the horse. If only we get right back on again.
My Exercise Regime consists of:
Weekdays: Joe Wicks’ P.E. With Joe
Saturdays: Running
Sundays: Yoga with Adrienne
I like to have a bit of variety for myself. It keeps me interested and excited each day for sure. And I definitely recommend that if you have an exercise regime you mix it up a little. Maybe you do running three days a week and have the weekend to do something different like swimming or long walks. Maybe you do Joe Wick’s P.E. with Joe like me but have the weekends off – I’ve done that before during the Spring/Summer of 2020.
I’ve devised a great worksheet to use each week. You can download this below.
The thing is, I think mixing it up a little helps. We get bored easily – or certainly I do. There are days I feel sluggish and irritated, not really wanting to do any exercise, but afterwards I feel so much better.
I also think starting off slow is the way forward. Start off with 10-20 minutes of exercise rather than 30 minutes to an hour. Start off with running for a few minutes round your garden, or up and down your road instead of pulling out all the stops to run for half an hour. It’s the little goals, and you build up, rather than setting goals and resolutions you know you can’t achieve.
I’m just starting off running around our garden five times, and then building up on that before I go round the roads and the local park. I’m personally feeling a little awkward about running in public, so running around our garden helps both my determination to increase reps as well as building on that running around in public.
I’m also doing Yoga again. Up until last February I was doing Yoga once a week on a Sunday, but since COVID-19 happened and I moved down to Devon that’s fallen by the wayside. Now I’m determined to start it back up again. I’m only doing 15 minutes at the moment, as there’s a great Yoga teacher online called Adrienne who does short bursts of Yoga practices as well as hour-long sessions. I thoroughly recommend her if you want to start up Yoga but don’t want to go to a live session, be it in person or online.
So yes, I’ve got a routine sorted. But that doesn’t mean that some days that routine may slip. The fact is, by starting an exercise regime, I think you need to accept that the routine may slip, that some days you won’t feel like doing any exercise, and there may be muscle pain as you build up. The trick is to keep going in whatever form you believe is right for you.
You may just want to walk half an hour a day. And that’s a great start. But know that the weather may be against you some days so make sure you dress well and do whatever you can.
One thing which is great to do when starting an exercise regime, is to track your progress so you can celebrate the wins. There’s some great apps to do this, or you can even track it in your daily journal – bullet or otherwise.
Apps to Track Exercise:
There’s some great apps out there for starting a fitness regime too:
Good luck with your exercise, whatever you choose! Be sure to tell your friends about what you’re doing too, as perhaps some will join you in your goals. But certainly they’ll be there to cheer on your achievements.
Share what your new year’s goals are, I’d love to know!
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