How To Start Making Time For Exercise

The longest day of the year has now gone and summer is therefore well and truly upon us. I don't know about you, but around this time - the gym seems to get that little bit more busy? and the morning joggers tend to be more obvious and basically everyone starts thinking - "WOAH, I have a holiday coming up I need to crash diet and do some exercise!"

This is all very well in theory, but in reality - just exercising around summer season isn't a long term fix and actually, integrating exercise into your lifestyle makes it easy to keep it up all year round and for it to become part of your routine.

"But where do I start?!" I hear you cry! Find below some simple questions to assist you in starting to make time for exercise - your way!:

6 TOP TIPS FOR MAKING TIME FOR EXERCISE

1) Preferred Environment? - Do you prefer indoors (at home, the gym etc.) or the outdoors (the park, neighbourhood, natural beauty spots etc.)

2) Alone or in a group? - Do you want to use this time to concentrate on you and your goals (the gym, home, running etc.) or do you feel more motivated exercising with people (gym classes, sports, running groups etc.)

3) Time of day? - Get into a habit of exercising at a time of day that fits into your routine (e.g. the morning before work, during the day when the kids are at school, in the evening because you're not awake enough in the morning...)

4) Realistic Frequency? - Don't set yourself up to fail! This will only make you feel guilty and become less inclined to continue exercising. Be realistic about how many times a week you can dedicate to exercising. TIP: Make yourself a sample timetable of your typical week and what you commit to throughout your week. Then look for what gaps you have and fill half of those gaps with exercise slots. The other half - save that time for yourself. Being too busy can cause burnout, and that's not what exercise should encourage.

5) Practicality? - Think about that whatever choice of exercise suits you, that you consider it's affect on others? will this have a cost implication? do you need support from friends and family? Having your exercise of choice be practical, means you are more likely to stick to it!

6) Pacing yourself? - Start slowly! Don't rush into an unrealistic exercise routine that you will only keep to for about a week. Instead, start off with allocating less time to exercise, then build it up to a practical, realistic and routinely programme of exercising throughout your week.

MY PERSONAL EXAMPLE

I prefer exercising alone, so I can concentrate on my specific personalised goals. I find British weather too unreliable so I exercise indoors in the gym. I find that I exercise best in the morning before work, because I enjoy having my evening's free to relax. I exercise a little more than most people would expect, at about 5 times a week, and this works for me as I generally have no commitments in the morning. My exercise routine has a cost implication of the gym membership fee which I have budgeted into my finances. And as a result of all this I have adopted this exercise routine for the past couple of years!

Happy Exercising!

Ruth xxx