Sunday, November 08, 2009

Joy Exercise 13: Add exercise to your life

There is a correlation between exercise and feeling good, so think about how you can add some exercise to your life.
The secret to doing this is to begin small and have a purpose you are aiming towards.
So pick something that you'd like to be able to do in 6 months, e.g. walk 10km, ride a bike for 1 hour, run a race, swim for 20 minutes, do a 1/2 marathon, go for a 2 day hike, etc.
Now pick a really small achieveable step and add it to your routine for 7 days. E.g. walk around the block, run for 10 minutes, do 5 press-ups, etc.
Then every 7 days or so see if you can increase it by 5%. An increase of 5% per week will increase your total amount by 3.5 times in the next 26 weeks.
You can probably increase by 10% a week for a little while, but once you've been going a few months a 5% increase per week will make sure you avoid over stressing the body too much.
Some examples:
Example 1: Imagine you start with run/walking 1km x 3 times per week and increase it by 10% each week for the first 6 weeks, and then 5% from then on. By the end of 26 weeks you will be run/walking 4.5km x 3 times per week.
Example 2: Imagine you start with 15 situps x 3 times per week and increase it by 10% each week for the first 6 weeks, and then 5% from then on. By the end of 26 weeks you will be doing 67 situps x 3 times per week.

From little things big things grow!

No comments: