Regular physical activity is one of the most important things we can do to maintain or improve our health. It helps to control weight, reduce the risk of heart disease, to prevent type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and certain cancers, strengthen bones and muscles, improves our emotions and gives us well.
Exercise increases our lifespan … But how do I increase my physical activity if they do not consider myself very active?
Then you start many recommendations for physical activity that will help you achieve the lifestyle that your body deserves!
1. It’s easy. Walking is the easiest way to start improving our business, costs nothing, is safe and easy. Walking works: for every hour of walking, we extend our life for two hours. Walk for 30 minutes gives us benefits for the heart, is the most effective way to exercise it. If we can find a beautiful place to walk in the presence of vegetation will not only be exercising our body but we are connecting with nature and creating emotional wellbeing. We can walk for 3 periods of 10 minutes, spread throughout the day, walking the dog or on a walk after lunch or dinner. A good investment is to purchase a pedometer, a device that measures each step we take. We must take 10,000 steps a day and generally walked just 1,000. A pedometer is a great way to measure our physical activity and achieve visible and measurable objectives.
2. You can exercise at home. Children will see our example and will form a good habit. You can combine our daily activities with physical activity. At home we can do cleaning activities such as sweeping, mopping, cleaning windows, working the garden. Using the telephone can do it standing, and if we exercise equipment such as stationary bikes and treadmills, we can work out while watching TV. Now with the Internet, you can watch videos on how to exercise at home, effective routines that can be done in a small space with the help of chairs or tables, we can find videos about yoga, strength training, etc..
3. On the street. We can go to shops and nearby places on foot or using the bike instead of the car. If going by car, park it away from the entrance is a good way to increase physical activity. We can walk a lap or two extras in the supermarket or other stores. If we go by public transport, we can stop to get off a few blocks before walking closer.
4. Office. If our work is in an office can be that our physical activity is very low. We hike for discussion on matters of work, we can go in person with people from other areas rather than call them on the phone, use the stairs instead of the elevator. Many companies have sports teams, may enroll.
5. Sport. Physical activity with the extra recreate is excellent. Sports provide extra benefits us because we do concentrate on the game and fun addition to activate us. We also train on an emotional level as many sports involve teamwork, practice setting objectives and goals, focus and skill in situations of profit and loss. Belonging to a team increases our sense of belonging, we do socialize and meet people who inspire us to follow his example, support and motivation.
6. Dance. Dance is a very nice way of exercising as it is expressive and involves music. The music leads to more movement and enjoy our physical activity session. You can dance at home while doing cleaning, or you can go to dance tango groups, Danzon, salsa, zumba, ballet, hip hop and other types of dance. There is something for all tastes and ages.
7. Holidays. They can plan vacation or weekend physical activity including visits to lakes to paddle, climb mountains, walk in relatively nearby villages, walk in the historic center, go for a bike ride, go swimming …
8. Motivation. For exercise we do so in ways that we like, that we enjoy it, not be a torture for us. For that we must also adjust to your fitness level. If you have a relative or friend who wants to exercise we will feel more driven. We also motivate buying a good pair of tennis or sweatpants motivate us to exercise. Music always generates movement it is full of pace and marks the time for a very dynamic activity.
9. Start small. We must begin by asking: do I like to work alone or with a group? Do you have a coach motivates? I can afford me? Few classes or for the moment I must choose activities that do not involve spending? Prefer? Outdoor activities? Is there anywhere nearby safe and green areas for exercise? What days and at what time could commit to schedule my physical activity?
Since we have decided the location, type and amount of exercise, we must first short sessions of 10 or 15 minutes and gradually increase our activity to improve our fitness.
10. Footwear and clothing. Warm up with gentle movements and repetitive and always do stretching to improve your flexibility, including movements that make you sweat (cardiovascular or aerobic) and also some strength like squats, sit-ups and push-ups, leg lifts and arm, even using light weights or rubber bands to strengthen muscles. In this way your exercise will be complete and you will see good results in less than 4 weeks, which will keep you stuck and motivated to exercise program that should be for life.
