What if we could take one medication that could reduce joint pain and risk of fractures; improve blood pressure, blood sugars, and cholesterol levels; increase stamina and energy levels; improve sleep; reduce stress, anxiety and depression; improve quality of life; help achieve a healthy weight; help you breathe better? What a great run-on sentence – and it could have been longer … the power of exercise goes on and on and on and on, but it just doesn’t come in a pill format.
Our bodies were made to move, but more and more we are finding that many of us are moving less and less. This is a fact across all age groups as well. It is a bit frightening for our younger generations because inactivity and lack of exercise will lead them to a life of chronic disease. This is not what we want for ourselves and definitely not what is wished upon them. Those who don’t find time for exercise will ultimately have to find time for illness.
There is good News however: it is never, yes never, too late to start being more active to improve your health. All the clichés about activity and health are for the most part true: if you don’t use it you lose it; motion is lotion; what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger, to name a few. So why is it so hard to keep ourselves motivated to be active every day?
A common mistake made by many when starting out on yet another exercise kick is to try and pick up where one left off. It’s hard for us to remember that it took time to build up to that level of exercise and it will take more than one day to get that back. When we think about what we used to be able to do, it can be a bit sad. The realization that you are a bit older and just can’t do it can be overwhelming. But, in fact, the reason you can’t do it is because you stopped doing it! The key word in that thinking is “used to do.” Without regular practice, we lose our ability.
Our bodies need some challenge to give us the change we want to see. A walking program needs to get our breathing rate up more than what it is at rest and to feel like some work by the end. This is how we improve our fitness levels and as a result feel better and have more stamina. Start slowly, we need to carve out time in our schedule to exercise, we can’t think the walking we do for grocery shopping counts as exercise. It is good for us, but think of it as a bonus! Our bodies are used to our regular routine.
Even though we may feel tired by days’ end or that we’ve been on our feet all day and must have walked a marathon, it is not exercise and is not making a difference. What will make a difference is the 10 minutes we set aside a few times this week to walk at a purposeful pace. Please, don’t be misled; 10 minutes may not sound like enough, but in fact, initially it can be challenging, especially if zero minutes of exercise was what we accumulated last week. We don’t have to start blazing out of the gate.
Consistency is the key. Consistency in how often, how long and how fast we go is very important. That 10-minute walk should feel a bit challenging by the end, and it may take a couple of walks to determine the pace we need to walk to feel this way. Once we have determined our pace, don’t aim to go faster, but rather more often and farther are the first steps. After a week or two, we will notice that this walk doesn’t challenge us in the same way it did at the start. This is a good thing because we are becoming more fit and to see more change (feel better, clothes fit better) we need to increase the challenge of our walk.
Next steps would be adding in more walks and increase our walk by 2-5 minutes. Be sure to feel comfortable with our current walk before adding more. It never should get easier; we just get stronger.
If we could treat exercise like a medication some of us may find that helpful. Often the reason we aren’t seeing the benefits we’d like from our exercise is because our adherence was not the best. Just like with medication, exercise has a proper dose, timing and schedule. It only works if you follow the instructions and “take it” as recommended. The only bad exercise is no exercise.
For information about the free services offered by your local Family Health Team ask your doctor or nurse practitioner during your next visit, visit the website www.afhto.ca or google ‘family health team locations.’
Sandy Turner is a Registered Kinesiologist with the Minto-Mapleton Family Health Team.
