Five exercise hacks to get you started
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One hour. Did you know 12% of depression cases could have been prevented with just one hour of exercise a week?
Summer holidays are about to hit, could you find one hour in your week?
Yes—don’t worry, this magical hour can be broken up into bite-size chucks five minute, 10-minute, or 15-minute blocks. What can you manage?
Exercise isn’t easy for many people, often pain stops many of us from getting active and being social during the festive season—and 53.8% of people living with chronic pain are women. That’s 1.81 million women. And 45% of people living with chronic pain also experience depression or anxiety.
Regular consistent exercise is vital for the development of your confidence and ease the festive season stresses (oh—and mindfulness and meditation, but that needs its own article!).
Here are some hacks to get you started:
- Be organised. Have your shoes and exercise kit ready to go in the morning, setting yourself up for success is important.
- Have appropriate footwear before you get started, to prevent injuries. I’d recommend going to your local Athletes Foot and get your foot analysed. Prevention is better than treatment!
- See your local Allied Health Professional to assess biomechanical deficiencies, assess opposing muscle groups (weak/strong), etc. Again—prevention is your friend…
- Start small. Walking is a great first step (even if it’s just five to 10 mins); including a warmup and warm down.
Here’s a pre and post warm up exercises to get you started. The pre-walking program is more dynamic; and the post-walking program has a static focus.
Pre-walking program (you can print the PDF here):
- Lateral leg swings
- Leg swings forward and backwards with support
- Standing hip external rotation
- Dynamic calf stretch
Post-walking program (you can print the PDF here):
- Hamstring stretch – in standing
- Quadriceps stretch
- Calf stretch
- Hip flexor stretch
Here are some tips:
- Variety. Choose different loops for your walk. Changing the surface (off road, gravel, path, grass, etc).
- Start small, 20-30 mins is plenty. Let’s not go crazy. We need to build consistency and make it a habit. If you overdo it—guess who’s not adhering to the program…(If you’re interested, I’ve put the recommended Physical Activity Guidelines at the bottom of the article, or you can visit www.exerciseright.com.au for more information).
- Mix up the intensity. Once you get stronger and more consistent—add some surges. Hard for 15 sec, easy for 30 sec.
It’s the simple habits that often stick. Can you find one-hour next week?
Australian Physical Activity Guidelines: Adults aged 18 – 64
- Be active on most, preferably all, days every week.
- Two and a half to five hours of moderate intensity physical activity or one quarter to two and a half hours of vigorous intensity physical activity (or an equivalent combination of both moderate and vigorous activities, each week)
- Strengthening activities—two days each week.
Love, Kirra
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