Everyday Systems

Hi All,

I have really been out of the habit of exercising lately. I've been blaming the bad weather for it, but now there's not excuse for it! Actually, there was no excuse before since we have an indoor track!

Anyway, right now all I really want to do is walk. How can I get this habit started again, and not dread doing this. I used to walk 3 miles at a time before. I feel very overwhelmed about walking again. I thought about starting out walking in 10 minute spurts.

Any suggestions of how some of you got yourselves motivated to exercise?

Thanks!

Janie

Oxycise! I started doing it a few years ago when I had some surgery in my abdominal area and basically you can't do much for six weeks. I have slacked on and off throughout this time. when I do it regularly my appetite seems to be decreased and my weight is more stable.

IT FEELS GREAT. It is breathing and stretching,
they have CDS and DVDS? www.oxycise.com,
I think I have bought almost all the Dvds but don't use them anymore once you do it enough you can create your own routine and do it on your own which is what I do ... ANyway did I say it FEELS GREAT?

a little unconventional but if you are really finding it challenging to get back into exercise you might enjoy this. I try to do it as often as possible with my resistance trainging. that is the foundation of my fitness.

Blueskighs

As someone who's stopped and started exercising more times than I can count, I've come to the conclusion is that the most important thing is to just start. Don't worry about how much and what forms of exercise you "should" be doing, or used to do, or want to build up to doing someday, just DO something. Whatever feels good or sounds appealing. Preferably today.

So if taking a 10 minute stroll sounds appealing today, do that. If stretching all the muscles that get tight sitting at your desk sounds appealing, do that. Once the ice is broken and you're not so daunted by the whole prospect of exercising again, you can get into a specific routine/training plan/etc. The most important thing for me in the very beginning, though, is just proving to myself again that it feels good to move. And that's best proved by doing whatever type of movement/exercise will feel good at that time, even if it's not "30 minutes of getting my heart rate into my target zone 5 days a week" or whatever.

To borrow from Nike, Just do it.

Turn off your computer, and go outside.

Stop thinking about wanting to exercise, but go and do it.

And have fun!

Some nice, slow walking seems a good way to start. Or get a stationary bike if you can. I love watching my fav shows while getting my exercise.

I'm feelin' like Ben Franklin what with quoting myself:

http://noelfigart.com/blog/2003/10/15/t ... o-fitness/

I just returned from the local library and noticed posters for various 5k walks and bike rides to raise $ for different charities. You could sign up for an easy 5k walk, for example, and that would motivate you. Other than that, ask yourself what type of exercise you might enjoy. In the town next to mine, there are Saturday morning walk-and-chat groups that meet at different times depending on the theme (SAHMs, politics, books, etc.). I have never done that, but it does look kind of fun.

I guess it depends on how fit you are but here are ideas for "beginners":

* Leslie Sansone Walk Away the Pounds DVDS - these are great - IMO
* Aquarobics/Water Exercise (my favorite)
* Dancing like your a kid again
* My husband and I take 2 mile walks each evening around the neighborhood and each evening we pose a question that both of us answer during the walk. Sometimes the convo gets so "deep" we continue it the next evening. Conversation starters like: "What would you do if you won the lottery?"
* I have a treadmill and I enjoy competing against myself by increasing speed or incline in small increments.
* I've mapped my walks. When I was engaged and waiting for my visa to move to Sweden (husband is Swedish) from New York - I figured out how many miles away I was and walked the distance on my treadmill. Yes, it took a long time but, it gave me a sense of destination when it seemed it would take forever to be with the man I love. I know it's corny but, you get the idea. You can do that with any destination and for any reason. Many people literally mark their daily walk on a map.
* Charity 5k are great. I'm on record as the slowest runner for Seattle's Children's Hospital 5k Let me put it this way - the people who cheer you on were gone by the time I finished! I'm proud of that because I had the culiones to put that ankle bracelet on my leg and finish. Plus, it's a good laugh and if you can't have the fastest title you might as well have the slowest. One day those 5k runners at Magnusson Park will eat my dust - mark my words.

I think the most important thing to do is find something you love to do. If you love tennis and loathe running, you are more likely to hit the court than run a marathon.

Just do something. If you don't like it, do something else. I find that the biggest barrier to basic exercising is planning instead of doing.

Walking is my only form of exercise as well. I just forces myself to start off with only 20 minutes, which seemed so long a few weeks ago. Now I am up to 30 minutes, and it seems to go by rather quickly.

Push ups. You can do them through out the day. If you can't do standard push ups , try doing them standing against a wall. As you get stronger do them on your knees . Do small sets throughout the day. The more muscle that you add, the more fat that you burn.

I belong to a gym but hardly ever go anymore cuz it gets tiresome. I've decided to try to work my exercise into my daily living as much as possible. I read that the health benefits are they same if you walk 30 mins a day at once or broken down into as little as 5 min segments 6x/day.

So now I park reeeeeeeeeaaaalllly far from wherever I'm going and I use my stopwatch on my iphone to log my mins walked. Yesterday I went to a lot of different places and walked 25 mins total for the day. Also, I'll just do a few 5 min segments during my day at home to break up what I'm doing. I'll set the timer for 5 mins and run up and down the stairs, do jumping jacks, jump on the kids trampoline till my 5 mins are up. It's so fun because it's such a no brainer. I know I can achieve 30 mins of activity this way no problem.

I'm also going to start taking a couple of yoga and pilates classes for strengthing and also because I need to learn how to handle stress better.

Good luck..just remember to make it fun and doable!

Noturningback wrote:* Leslie Sansone Walk Away the Pounds DVDS - these are great - IMO

Yay! Another Leslie fan! I love those, too!

I was also going to suggest the following (in addition to the above suggestion):

- just walk to the end of the driveway and back to start. At least you're out the door, right?

- go for a walk outside with the purpose of discovering something new (the kinds of flowers in bloom, how many trees have budded, etc)

- take along an MP3 player / walkman... listen to tunes that have a good beat! Bound to get ya movin'!

- remember the health benefits of moving -- any kind of movement! As Leslie Sansone would say, "We were made for movement!" ;o)

Jaymiz wrote:

Noturningback wrote:* Leslie Sansone Walk Away the Pounds DVDS - these are great - IMO

Yay! Another Leslie fan! I love those, too!
- remember the health benefits of moving -- any kind of movement! As Leslie Sansone would say, "We were made for movement!"

Leslie's DVD's are also a large part of my exercise program.
I alternate them with walking on my Treadmill and Free Style Gazelle.

Other than using weights with Leslie's WATP, I can't seem to get into strength training.
So recently I ordered a 4 lb Sledgehammer from a link on a No S site
to see if I can incorporate Shovelglove into my exercise plan.

I'm often open to try things with a "We'll see" attitude.
That's how I began a couple of years ago with Leslie,
which turned out to be a great success for me.

I say set your timer for 14 minutes, turn on the music and dance like you just don't care! See how close you get to the 14 and you'll probably go over cuz it's so much fun! You'll feel so good you'll want to do it more often.

BrightAngel wrote:Other than using weights with Leslie's WATP, I can't seem to get into strength training.
So recently I ordered a 4 lb Sledgehammer from a link on a No S site
to see if I can incorporate Shovelglove into my exercise plan.

The weights with WAtP is all the strength-training I've been doing, too. Can't bring myself to do free-style / on my own stuff, yet.

But, I found a DVD I want to try... it's called "Shaping Up with Weights...for Dummies" (part of the "for Dummies" DVD series). I like my "Yoga...for Dummies" DVD, so figured I'd give the weights one a try, too -- but I have to wait to buy it, as I have to save (don't have a ton right now).

As for Rilee's suggestion to dance for 14 minutes, I do that, too, sometimes (though I've never set the timer). I just put on some dance-worthy tunes and go for it! I used to dance to music in my room all the time when I was a teenager. I think that's part of what kept my metabolism running so well! LOL.

Jaymiz wrote:I found a DVD I want to try... it's called "Shaping Up with Weights...for Dummies" (part of the "for Dummies" DVD series). I like my "Yoga...for Dummies" DVD, so figured I'd give the weights one a try, too -- but I have to wait to buy it, as I have to save (don't have a ton right now).

I've had the "Shaping up with weights for Dummies" with Tracey York for a couple of years now.
I think it's pretty good, and I've used it quite a lot,
but have a lot of "inner resistence" to using it.
Strength training seems to take such a very long time to do so very little.
and also makes me so very tired.
I think what I really hate about Strength training is spending an hour doing 15 minutes of tiring and boring repetitive exercises.

Doing cardio I can listen to music or watch DVD movies.
Strength training is just focus on exercise.

An hour and fifteen minutes? Dear GOD, professional bodybuilders don't train for THAT long at a single session! What peabrain is telling you that you need to train for that long? (I cannot bring myself to soften the peabrain bit because weight training is among some of the most efficient workouts you can do when done correctly).

For that matter, take a gander at some of Reinhard's pics. He works out fifteen minutes a day. You can't say it's not been effective for him.

This is my present routine, doing three sets of ten reps and weights in pounds. I weight train three times a week, swim three times a week and enjoy walks whenever I can get them:

Calf raises 90
Romanian deadlifts 90
Squats 90
Bench Press 70
Arnold Press 12
Seated Row 90
Inverted situps Body


It takes me less than forty minutes and I've added thirty pounds to my squat since the beginning of 2008.

Now I LIKE weight training and don't find it boring, so I'm motivated to go pretty hard. I'm not saying everyone has to love weights. But no-one in their right mind is gonna train for over an hour strength training. You'd HURT yourself.

you don't need motivation, you need to start walking. when you go to work, park your car far away and walk the rest, you'll have to walk it back after work too. walk to the shops. walk wherever you can. walking is NOT an exercise, it is a way how to get from "A" to "B". so all the motivation you need is the fact that you need to go someplace. that you need to get to that "B" from wherever you are

NoelFigart wrote:An hour and fifteen minutes?
Dear GOD, professional bodybuilders don't train for THAT long at a single session!
But no-one in their right mind is gonna train for over an hour strength training.
You'd HURT yourself.

Noel,
The "Dummies" DVD to which I referred takes about an hour to run,
as it works through each exercise.
(although the back cover says 45 minutes)
The movements are very slow,
as it appears to be the case in all strength training,
with "active exercise time" about 1/4 of the Hour (15 min).
The DVD gives 12 "key exercises", and each one has 2 sets of 12 reps.
with stretches in between.
It seems like a good plan for beginners.....
I learned a lot;
and it does make my muscles tired;
But my real objection is that it takes a long time, and
I find doing slow and concentrated exercises really, really boring.

BrightAngel wrote: The "Dummies" DVD to which I referred takes about an hour to run,
as it works through each exercise.
(although the back cover says 45 minutes)
The movements are very slow,
as it appears to be the case in all strength training,
with "active exercise time" about 1/4 of the Hour (15 min).
The DVD gives 12 "key exercises", and each one has 2 sets of 12 reps.
with stretches in between.
It seems like a good plan for beginners.....

Thanks for your "review" of this DVD, BrightAngel! Always good to know someone who's tried something, before you go out and buy it. I still think I will get this DVD, though -- 'cause I need some help in doing strength-training with weights, and books just don't cut it for me in that regard.

BrightAngel wrote: The movements are very slow,
as it appears to be the case in all strength training,

It depends on your strength training. It's perfectly possible to undertake highly vigorous strength training exercises and build just as much strength. As a general guide, slow builds mass/size and fast builds explosive power.

ThomsonsPier wrote:

BrightAngel wrote: The movements are very slow,
as it appears to be the case in all strength training,

It depends on your strength training. It's perfectly possible to undertake highly vigorous strength training exercises and build just as much strength. As a general guide, slow builds mass/size and fast builds explosive power.

I've got a long handled 4 lb sledgehammer ordered and on the way.
Maybe the Shovelglove method will be more fun.

My advice is focus on carving out a regular time more than the particular kind of exercise.

More here:

http://www.everydaysystems.com/podcast/ ... .php?id=31

Good luck!

Reinhard