Week 1 – Establishing a beginning

This week is all about setting up goals and making a start. Take note of your current measurements, take your waist/hip ratio and your weight. If you wish you can also calculate your BMI using a BMI calculator online. Set yourself some SMART goals:

• Specific - Your goals have to be specific! Define them, be as specific as you can, write them down! What, where, when and why are good questions to ask yourself when establishing the specificity of your goals.
• Measurable - Establish concrete ways of measuring your progress towards your goal. When you measure your progress towards your goal it aids in staying on track and evaluating your progress.
• Attainable - Be realistic in your goal setting, a goal must represent an objective towards which you are willing and able to work. A goal can be both high and realistic. Be prepared to set multiple small goals to achieve your end goal.
• Relevant -  Identify goals that are important to you, not goals that are important to others. When you set goals you want to achieve you will find yourself in situations where you take the path that will help you achieve your goal.
• Time bound - A goal should be grounded within a time frame. With no time frame excuses are easy to come by and there is no sense of urgency to motivate you to achieve your goals.

Make a start! Go for a walk or ride. Attend the gym if you have a membership, exercise 2-3 days this week, even if you can only fit in a 10 minute walk!

Week 2 – Increasing the load

Build on your beginning. Remember how much exercise you did last week and look for areas where you can increase it. Walk a little bit longer, swim a little further or incorporate another day of exercise within your week. There is no need to make drastic changes to how much exercise you do. Progress is made with a series of small changes to your program as your body adapts to the exercise. Take note of how your body responds to the increase in exercise and always remember that a little bit of post exercise muscle soreness and fatigue is normal, especially if prior to beginning you didn’t exercise much. However if you find yourself very sore, to the point of it being limiting try to tail back your progressions a little.

Week 3 - Introducing new stimulus

Before beginning your exercise for the week try to think of a few new exercises to add into your program. Aim to add in one new thing per day of exercise. Some simple suggestions are walking up and down a flight of stairs 3 times during your walk, this will provide strength benefits in your lower body. Sitting to standing for 30 seconds, do as many repetitions as you can until the time runs out. Do some push ups against the bench while cooking dinner.

Week 4 – Marking your progress

Remember those measures you took all the way back in week 1? Take them again! Compare them to your results from back then and see if you have made any progress. Remember, even if you don’t make any progress on those measures DOES NOT MEAN you haven’t made progress at all. Look back and think about how you felt beginning that exercise program, look at the increases you have made in such short a time. Try to implement dietary changes into your daily routine as well to help provide maximum benefit. Continue to increase the amount of exercise you are doing until you get to a minimum of 30 minutes a day 5 days a week, ideally 7 days.

If you feel you need support in implementing and maintaining an exercise program to help you achieve your overall health goals book an appointment with the Tyack Health Exercise Physiologist. An Exercise Physiologist can provide a structured program for you to support and motivate you to achieve your goals for your Health and Wellness!