What do you do to keep the spark in exercising throughout the year?
For me, hiking is my exercise of choice once the weather becomes less humid. Hiking is a 4-season exercise but not recommended on high humidity and high heat days. The ascent and decent is where the challenges lie, and it is a whole-body fitness event.
It is truly wonderful to realize that Mother Nature provides us with the best physical fitness workout and training we will ever need. North, south, east, and west, Mother Nature creates seasonal rotation: Summer brings sunshine and longer daylight days, Autumn brings cooler days and nights and shorter daylight days, Winter brings rest and rejuvenation, and Spring brings awakening, new energy, and whole life back into focus. As seasonal beings we are affected by light, dark, vegetation, and temperature. Moving our bodies according to the seasonal vibrations of the earth gives us a well-rounded fitness regimen. Following seasonal awareness through fitness ensures our exercise will never become stale and not only our bodies will benefit from the diversity of this rhythm.
Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.
SPRING:
Spring is our primer. Calling us to begin awakening and begin blooming through stretching and appreciation for the seasons. In an article written by Andrew Heffernan through Experience Life by Life Time, “the most dramatic seasonal change of the year happens from March to June, as temperatures climb, days lengthen, and birds return. All forms of life come rushing back. The struggle at this time of year is the growth energy that is needed and the willpower to awaken and begin again. The energy of this season is powerful, creative, and determined. Keeping up with this rhythm is essential. Now is the time to create exercise goals and strength training is the ideal spring activity.”
Exercise Options:
Do something in this season to challenge your exercise regimen. Join a group for Yoga, weightlifting or walking or hiking. If you are new to going outside to exercise, this season is the best time to start. Tap into the season’s growth power through cycling or running, building accountability, and exercise confidence.
Places to exercise this season:
In 2 weeks, you will feel it,
In 4 weeks, you will see it,
In 8 weeks, you will hear it.
Summer:
We dream about this season all year; from the time we are in it to the next time summer comes around again. It encourages us to get outside, live outside, socialize outside, and get active. This is the season that has few limits. We can perform all manner of exercise at this time of year. Whether on vacation or going to the park or beach for a staycation, Summer encourages us to do it all outside. Heat, humidity, rain, hurricanes, just to name of few obstacles can be challenging but working out in a shady area at the park or at home or in your local gym, beach or backyard are always year-round options.
Exercise Options:
Fun exercises include cycling, hiking, obstacle courses, swinging, hopscotch for adults, baseball, softball, frisbee, volleyball, handball, pickleball, soccer, gardening, tennis, badminton, swimming, surfing, kayaking, canoeing, paddleboarding, diving, rock climbing, boot camp training courses, trail clearing, outdoor instrument making and playing, hunting for food in nature and then cooking outdoors on a make-shift fire pit. Summer is an ideal time to learn all about how Native Americans were so successful living off the land and making it their home no matter where they went. Tenting, crawling, jumping, climbing all a part of Mother Nature calling us to come and explore the great outdoors.
Places to exercise this season:
No matter how slow you go, you are still lapping everyone sitting on the couch.
Autumn:
The reflective and introspective time of year, Autumn for some people is the ultimate hygge* and a season of cleaning up from summer, settling in and gathering for the winter and making room for family and friends to celebrate the entire end of the year. Keeping in shape is important at this time of year because the end of the year activities can be demanding and draining and more restrictive. Simplicity, strength building, and circuit training are great ways to pare down from summer but stay active by keeping your energy up, lung function primed and your body moving on purpose.
· Hygge is a Scandinavian concept and word meaning quality of coziness and comfortability. Pronounced Hoo-gah, this magical word has created quite a movement here in the U.S. Hygge engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being. It encourages surrounding yourself with the things that make life feel good, friendship, laughter, security, warmth and light.
Exercise Options:
Experiencelife.lifetime.life suggests kettlebell workouts to add discipline and structure to your new season routine. Strength training exercises are diverse. Choose 4-8 strength or power movements that involve both the upper and lower body such as squats, deadlifts, lunges, swings, rows, pushups, overhead presses, jumps, planks, etc. Increments of 3 sets of 12 reps in circuit fashion with minimal rest between each exercise for 30 minutes each day will give you a good, intense workout throughout Autumn. Keeping your lung function high is important during this slowed down time of year. Perform activities that involve deep, intense breathing such as sprints, power walking, cycling, Vinyasa yoga which is exercises intentionally associated with breath work.
At the end of the day, enjoy a beautiful, scented candle after a warm, cozy shower and sit with your feet up, wrapped in a beautiful throw blanket sipping your favorite tea. That is one way to bring Hygge into your home and season.
Places to exercise this season:
Exercise is a celebration of what your body can do, not a punishment for what you ate.
Winter:
Winter represents journaling, introspection, cozy, quiet, hibernation, rest, renewal, and so many more personal transformations. Meditation is a great spiritual exercise to do in the winter months. It helps prepare you to get ready to bloom once spring arrives. Instead of beating ourselves up for not losing the weight we hoped to lose in the last year, be gentle with yourself, humans store fat to help keep warm in the colder months. Try to make your body healthy from a different perspective. Use exercise as your launching pad.
Exercise Options:
Pilates and Barre, which helps improve balance, coordination, flexibility, and mobility. Yoga in all forms such as tai chi, and qigong. Yoga helps with strength and mindfulness and balance. By using the natural flow of reduced activity during the winter months, we have a unique opportunity to receive all that our bodies need to perform as we need it to. Low intensity cardio helps joint health as well as overall mobility. Winter months make us want to slow down and just sit in one spot for days on end. Winter activities call to us anyway through skiing, snowshoeing, ice skating, ice hockey, snowball fights, snowman building, sledding, trail walking/hiking/running, in-door golf, in-door volleyball, etc. Keep the rhythm of low stress and purposeful movement throughout the winter.
If you are struggling to find a way to work out during the lonely winter, join an on-line class or gym, check out Ascend Experience virtual live training classes as well as videos, download fitness apps, check out Pinterest for short video classes specific to what area of your body you want to work on, use a fitness tracker, set up a make shift gym in your home using what you already have as equipment. The key is to move daily, choose your health as often as possible, stay away from processed foods, and set up reachable goals.
Places to exercise this season:
**Always consult your primary care doctor to make sure you are healthy and able to exercise outdoors in any season.
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