March Toward Fitness

Spring is in the air! 

The days are getting longer and the end of winter is in sight. The sun is out so much more!

It has not been a tough winter but nonetheless it is nice to look forward to spring. As we look toward Spring, we prepare our next challenge and since it is the third month of the year we decided to make it have three parts. 

1.  Exercise Three Times A Week This Month And Track Your Progress.

It’s common knowledge that regular physical activity has countless benefits for you: improve your mood, combats diseases, boosts immune system, increase energy level, helps manage your weight, promotes better sleep and can be a lot of fun. Yes, it can be fun but we’ll get to that in a second. If you are just getting started into the world of exercise, take it easy at first, but try to do continuous movement for at least 30 minutes. Your daily activities can easily become a time to exercise – walk the dog, clean the house, cut the lawn, vacuum, take the stairs more places. A great way to get started is simply walking.

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To stay on track, keep track. Write down what you did, for how long, and at what time. Add your thoughts on the workout as well. This will allow you to see what time of the day you feel the most motivated to work out or what time of the day is easiest for you to fit in this routine. Also, it gives you a goal to work towards but competing with your past self. Plus it is a great motivator to look back and see the improvements you have made over a short month. Imagine the improvements you can make over a year!

If you can only make it five minutes before being exhausted that is okay. Write what you did and how you felt. Make it a goal to go for six or seven minutes next time. If you can do more, do more. This is a slow and steady system. Don’t go too hard at first and risk injury or feeling that you can’t do something. We all have to start somewhere.

You know your body better than anyone. Make it challenging so you can feel the effects, but don’t make it so difficult you can be sidelined with injury or demoralized that you don’t want to do it again. So get out there and get moving at least three times a week. (Well, not right this second, finish reading the blog first).

2.      Make It Fun 

Exercise doesn’t mean torturing yourself on a morning run or an endless drone on a stationary bike. It doesn’t have to be straining to lift heavy weights or a monotonous “routine”. We want to avoid routine!

Make your exercise this month diverse and fun. If it is boring you are not going to want to do it and will find ways to avoid it. So make it fun!

Go on a walk with friends, a rigorous hike through the woods, fast paced dancing, swim races, kick-boxing, etc. get creative! Let us know what fun things you come up with in the comments or on our Facebook page.

3.      Try Something New

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You may not even be aware of what fun exercise can be. This isn’t the place for your old high school gym class routine. There is so much out there to keep you active, work new muscles, and keep your body guessing.

So this month try something completely new as you work toward your fitness goals. If you regularly workout it can be something as easy as incorporating an exercise ball into your normal lifting routine or interval training into your daily run.

If you are more adventurous now is a great time to explore something new. With spring coming a lot of groups are getting started and gyms are running promotions. Make this the month you finally go rock climbing (there are indoor and outdoor locations nationally), rowing (a lot of cities have competitive crew leagues that get started now), Zumba, dance lessons, swim, snow shoeing (we can still have one last winter blast!), etc. 

There are lots of different things to do! What are you going to do?

.:MF