Working at Glass Mill Leisure Centre has taught fitness instructor Craig a thing or two about health and wellness, so he shared his top tips for maintaining your wellbeing and making your fitness regime as effective as possible.
Firstly, make sure that you have the right goal in mind. Your main motivation may be as simple as ‘I want to lose weight’ but in reality this is not specific enough to get you to your goal. You need to have a precise end in sight, such as losing 10lbs in 10 weeks. Moreover, you should have at least three goals that you can break down using short-term, medium, long-term SMART criteria; are they
Specific?
Measurable?
Agreeable with instructor?
Realistic?
Timely?
Write down these goals, including how long you will take to achieve them, how you will measure them etc. Then, record your progress so you can see how far away you are from reaching your goals, as well as seeing how far you’ve come.
Next, you should include the right mix of exercises in your workout plan. Strength training should be one of your primary concerns as exercises such as squats and dead lifts can help you to develop coordination, agility and balance. Plus, strength training can ultimately increase your overall health and fitness, as it builds your muscle density. However, this doesn’t mean that you should only concentrate on this type of activity, as variety is a key component in fitness success. The “muscle confusion” that a variety of activities brings will help to avoid injuries, progress plateaus and workout boredom.
When planning your workouts, make sure you also make room for your essential wellbeing practises; warm-ups, cool-downs and recovery time. In every workout, you should do a five- to 15-minute warm-up to increase your body temperature and heart rate, and end with a cool-down to stretch your body, increase your flexibility and decrease your muscle soreness. Moreover, you need to allow your body sufficient time to recover between intense workouts or you could end up doing more harm than good. This means getting plenty of sleep to relieve your stress levels, as stress depletes your energy, strength and desire to workout. You should also take a week or two off between intense workouts and instead turning to less strenuous activities such as walking or dancing.
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