I hope you have found the last five blog posts informative. The infographic is a great way to get out a lot of information in an easily read format but sometimes it’s nice to have a little more detail, and as I stated in the first post you can read the whole report with all the Activity guidelines for the various categories here.
I know I have changed how I talk about exercise over the years. If you read some of my old posts you can see how much I emphasised find an activity that love. However (thanks to a certain LLT trainer) I have come to recognise it’s not enough to just do the activity you love if that only trains one part of those guidelines. To ensure that you don’t suffer the consequences of weak muscles and poor bone density you have to do resistance training and balance training. To decrease your risk of cardiovascular diseases and high blood pressure you need to try and do 150minutes moderate intensity exercise a week.
I hear ” I don’t have the time” a lot. This basically translates into it’s ‘not a priority’, and that’s fair enough, everyone has their own things going on. By the time it needs to be a priority it won’t be too late (as exercise is pretty much magic and can reverse age related strength, balance and bone loss) but it will have become more difficult. You don’t have to hit the precise guidelines this week and it’s defintely not a case of all or nothing, every little counts. Yet the guidelines are certainly something to work towards and this brings me onto my next (and final I promise) point.
Progression. I hope in the be active, strength and balance articles I highlighted the need to keep challenging yourself with the exercise. If you can walk 10 minutes today, are you able to walk a little further or a little faster in 4 weeks time. If you can hold a balance exercise for 10 seconds today can you hold it for 13 seconds in 5 weeks time. If you can do 5 reps of a strength exercise today can you do 6 reps or use a stronger band in 6 weeks time. Exercise gains tend to be large at first and then slow down but they will be there if you keep on going and keep on challenging yourself.
I have very much enjoyed writing this series and I hope you have enjoyed (or at least found them interesting) reading them. If you would like to find out more about how you can get more active then please don’t hesitate to get in touch
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