Do you know the difference between exercise and activity?
And after working with thousands of people over many years, we know that people do get them confused or assume they are the same.
The lifestyle most of us live today is very different from a few decades ago. It’s fast paced and busy, but the irony is that we are more sedentary than ever.
Consequently, we get bombarded with information about “being active”, to compensate for all the inactivity. Walking the dog, taking the kids to the park, walking anywhere as opposed to driving etc., are great activities…but they are not exercise!
So, what is exercise?
Exercise is a structured program you do, that will challenge your body to get fitter, stronger, mobile, flexible, increase function and maintain healthy joints.
Activities are part of your daily routine or lifestyle but don’t necessarily increase your movement capability or fitness.
Ultimately, being active and fit will give you the best opportunity to have the health and fitness you want and need for a high quality of life…for your lifetime!
The type of exercise you do comes down to personal preference, the level of fitness you are attempting to achieve and the level of function you want in your body.
Of course, we believe that pilates should be the foundation of any exercise program! It develops postural integrity and keeps all the joints of the body in an optimal state.
An exercise program should be well rounded and cover ALL aspects of what constitutes fitness.
If you use walking as an exercise activity, that’s great! But do you challenge yourself and get your heart rate up, walking different paces and distances, walking up hills and stairs? Have you got a strength program in place, do you stretch and mobilise your spine?
Your body gets very used to doing the same activity and needs challenge to be continuously progressing and developing fitness.
And if you aren’t progressing with your fitness, you’re either maintaining or going backwards!
If maintaining is your goal, you need to take one thing into consideration. As your body ages, and yes this happens to all of us, your fitness decreases, purely because of the ageing process.
So to maintain, you actually need to work just a little bit harder each year.
Here are some tips on how to create a successful exercise program:
Find an activity that you love doing, not one that you think you should do.
Make sure it challenges your body to develop muscle tone, increase cardio fitness, increase flexibility, and joint mobility and health.
Really, really, really look after your spine and educate yourself on how to maintain a healthy spine.
If you want to be capable of getting out of a chair when you are older, start working on your core strength now.
Don’t over exercise. This can be just as detrimental to your fitness, health and well-being as not exercising.
Seek out experts. Yes, you can google your day away watching all sorts of info on exercise, but that does not replace the value you will get from having an expert working with you specifically.
Review and update your exercise program regularly to avoid losing motivation and to develop lots of different movement skills.
Remember…
What you do today will create the health, fitness and well being of your future.
Start now!
Don’t stop!
And experience more from life!
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