Do you always feel lethargic or dull, like you have a lack of energy? Do you get sick regularly? Do you have trouble falling asleep? The best remedy or answer for all of the questions above is to work out and build a healthy lifestyle!

Most of us take care of our vehicles more than ourselves. We service our vehicles every 5000 KM or once in 6 months but when it comes to our own bodies we tend to ignore the signs. “A vehicle can be replaced while our body on the other hand cannot be traded in or replaced for a new one. So we must treat it with care”. After all, health is at the center of our life. Every other aspect of our life counts on having good health.

In this article, I will talk about the 07 benefits of exercising regularly, common myths that surround exercise, and a few tips on getting started on your fitness journey.

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7 Benefits

• Exercise will make you happy and confident

If you had a stressful day, a workout session or a light jog can help. Exercises are known to improve your mood and decrease feelings such as stress and anxiety. This happens when your body releases endorphins that trigger a positive feeling in you after working out. You will also feel better about yourself when you exercise, which can improve your confidence.

• Exercises will help you with weight loss

Exercising will burn calories, fat and will also build lean muscle. Lean muscle needs more energy to function, therefore increasing your metabolic rate, which will burn more calories to help you lose weight. Consistency is the key!

• Exercises will increase your energy levels

Regular exercises will help you to do your basic day-to-day activities more efficiently. As you work out, your heart needs to pump more blood and deliver more oxygen to your muscles. With regular exercise, your heart and lungs become more efficient hence, improving your energy levels.

• Exercises will improve the quality of sleep

Regular exercises will help you fall asleep faster and also improve the quality of sleep. (Don’t exercise just before bed as you will be full of energy which will harm your sleep). Ideally, you must try to finish your workout at least 1-2 hours before bedtime.

• Exercise will reduce your risk of chronic disease

If you are worried about your heart health, high blood pressure, and similar chronic diseases, exercises will certainly improve your overall health and decrease the risk of chronic diseases. It will also improve your immunity and reduce stress therefore this may reduce the chances of getting a cold, flu, or other illnesses.

• Exercise is good for your muscles and bones

Regular exercises are good for the muscles as well as your bones. Exercises will help to build

bone density as well as help to prevent osteoporosis later in life.

• Exercises will increase the quality of your life

Exercising regularly will improve your life in all aspects, from improving your mood to reducing the risk of many illnesses, exercise also will improve your life. Since exercise has so many benefits, you may live longer and reduce the risk of leading causes of death.

Getting Started

The first step is the hardest, but if you can overcome it, you can keep going and pushing forward. We all have got 24h (1440 Minutes) a day and if you can commit roughly 30 minutes to 45 minutes daily which is around 02% – 03% a day is more than enough to do a moderate exercise.

Common Type Of Exercises

You can do any of the following exercises listed below to get started. Exercises can be combined as well. Important thing is to find what you like to do consistently and enjoy the exercises. For beginners, start with the exercise which you are most comfortable with and then gradually increase the intensity level.

• Aerobics – These are continuous movement exercises such as brisk walking, jogging, dancing, and swimming.
• Strength Training – This includes resistance training such as weight lifting or high-intensity sprinting.
• High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) – These types of exercises are short bursts of high-intensity exercise then followed by a low-intensity workout or a rest. For example, you can run/skip with high intensity for 30 seconds and then followed by a 20s rest and repeat the same for a couple of times.
• Calisthenics – This includes exercises that target large/multiple muscle groups at once and use mainly your bodyweight to perform the workouts. Examples such as push-ups, pull-ups, squats, lunges.
• Yoga – Yoga is a practice that involves the mind and body. Combination of physical postures with breathing techniques. In addition, there are types of yoga that focus on meditation and relaxation. Regular yoga benefits are endurance, strength, calmness, flexibility, and well-being.

Some Tips

• Make a realistic plan – Create a small plan for the upcoming 7 days, then convert it to a month, likewise create a plan with attainable steps that don’t involve a lot of thinking before the workouts. Create a routine for yourself and include daily workouts into it.

• Make it a habit – This is the most important aspect of working out regularly. Make it a habit, consistency is the key. It won’t help if you work out really hard for 03 to 04 days and stop completely, what matters is you should work out consistently and increase the intensity gradually with small steps forward.
• Get your health checked – If you already have any underlying health conditions, it’s best to get yourself checked before you do any high-intensity workouts.
• Stay Hydrated – You should always stay hydrated throughout the day, not only when you work out. Aim to drink 3L of water every day (keep a water bottle with you always and have a goal to finish 3L every day somehow).

• Warm-up and cool down – It is important to warm up before a workout to get your body ready for the activity and also after the activity to cool down. This will help your muscles and bones to function well during workouts and prevent injuries.

• Have a balanced diet – Try to have a balanced diet. Don’t focus your meals completely on carbohydrates, instead, focus more on vegetables. Have your meals at the right time.

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• Listen to your body – Take adequate rest between days (Ideally 2-3 days per week). If you feel any pain during workouts, you must stop and rest before continuing. Don’t exert yourself too much at the beginning to prevent injuries and be mindful of the body and its limits.

• Stay Motivated – Make sure to have fun while working out and mix up different exercises to keep things interesting. Try to involve your loved ones if possible to your workouts to make them more fun and interactive. Working out as a group can keep each other motivated and accountable to the exercise routine. A healthy family is a happy family 😀

Starting to exercise can be challenging but once you somehow get going it will be impossible to stop. That feeling of completing a workout is really satisfactory. The goal is to start slowly with a routine/ plan with adequate rest, good nutrition and increase the intensity and exercises gradually. Once you see your own results you will build confidence and you will be motivated to keep going.

Common Myths

• Myth – You can focus on losing fat on certain body parts

Truth – There is no such thing as spot reducing naturally, If you want to lose fat on certain spots, you need to lose fat proportionally from the entire body.

• Myth – You exercise regularly but you are not losing weight

Truth – While you exercise and burn fat cells for energy, you are also building muscles. So you are losing fat and building muscles. It is important for your body to have more lean muscle mass than fat mass. In addition, muscle tissues burn more calories even while resting than inactive fat cells.

• Myth – Exercising will make you look muscular

Truth – This depends on your goal. If it is weight loss, moderate workouts will not make you muscular, it will strengthen and tone your muscles, improve bone health and hence help you get lean.

• Myth – You can live a healthy lifestyle by just only exercising

Truth – Exercising will definitely be a step in the right direction, but having a balanced nutritious diet is equally important. (It’s alright to have a cheat meal once in a while as long as you are focused on a healthy lifestyle in the long term). Also, we should never ignore our mental well-being as it is essential for an overall healthy and happy lifestyle.

• Myth – You should workout everyday

Truth – Thankfully this is another common myth, you should give your body time to rest between workouts, when you workout, fibers in your muscles break down and for your body to rebuild those fibers stronger, you need to give adequate rest to recover. You should aim for two days per week of active recovery. That is something that doesn’t put any stress on your body, preferably some gentle stretching or a light casual walk.

ENOUGH READING, START EXERCISING NOW!

You can find a beginner workout plan below 😀

Beginner Workout Plan