It’s very rare that you hear people wax lyrical about their love of exercise, yet all of us have tried to maintain an exercise regime at some point or another. If you’re all too aware of the burden of dragging yourself out of bed to hit the gym at the break of dawn, you’ll know how tiresome and demotivating it can be. It doesn’t need to be the low point of your week though – in fact, you can enjoy exercise and learn to look forward to those gym sessions each week. Here are five tips to boost your fitness and wellbeing, enjoying it all the while.
Choose activities that you love
Exercise is not something we usually look forward to, but more often than not it is because we choose activities that we hate. If you dislike weight and resistance training, hitting the gym four days a week to work on your biceps is never going to appeal to you. Look for activities such as dancing, hiking, aerobics or swimming, all of which can offer a more enjoyable way to keep fit.
The power of 10
Ten minutes of physical activity could be all you need to boost your fitness levels and benefit from the heart-healthy effects of exercise. Studies have shown that ten minutes of walking can lower your blood pressure and boost your fitness, more than a thirty minute session. And as an added bonus, it’s far cheaper than a session at the gym!
Cardio isn’t the only exercise
Heart healthy exercise tends to conjure up images of lengthy cardio sessions or aerobic exercise, but while this is true, it isn’t the only exercise you can do to boost your heart health. Strength training such as weight lifting or bodyweight exercises, such as push-ups, can also help to improve the health of your heart, as well as boosting the health of your muscular system.
Use exercise to de-stress
Exercise is a great way to de-stress, so try to look on it as something that you want to do to improve your health, rather than seeing it as a burden in your week. This will help you to look forward to it and enable you to reap the mental and emotional benefits.
Boost your efforts with a healthy diet
If you really want to improve your lifestyle, you need to understand the importance of a healthy diet in addition to exercise. Aim to reduce your intake of fat, salt and sugar, and top up on fruit, vegetables, protein and essential fatty acids.
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