Starting A New Exercise Program? 3 Tips To Make Long Term Gains.

Summer is on its way, and with it will be a tidal wave of people looking to get active…… which is great! But on the flip side, it’s also a time when we see a lot of injuries due to simple training mistakes…  Today we’re going to talk through how you can make progress and do it safely at the same time.  Hello everybody and welcome, welcome, welcome to the health and sport show! My name’s Tom Butterfield and today we’re going to talk about how to structure those first couple months of training after an extended lay off. We’re going to assume it’s been lifestyle that’s put the brakes on your exercise and activity rather than injury, that would of course be a different situation altogether. In those cases you follow your rehab plan and talk it through with your therapist or clinician.  Can you check over my workout plan? Sure, I said.  I’ve got it here…… I took a look So….. you’re running every week day morning? Yep… Then gym on Monday, Wednesday and Friday lunchtimes? Is that right? Yep… that’s right. And what’s this here? That’s cycling…..i’m going to do that on the weekends… a bit of a change up. And what’s your training background? Oh, no…. I’m just starting up…. Just looking forward to getting out there and start the sessions. Now, if there’s anyone out there who has a training programme like this….. And you’re a relative exercise novice, then you especially want to keep listening…. But there’s plenty of value in here for you more seasoned athletes too.  I’m going to go through why this is a risky program for a beginner.  When we’re looking to improve our health and well-being we should be looking at it long term, looking waaaaaaaay into the distance…… 10, 20, 40 years into the future!  Not 28 day detox, 8 week wellness programs…. They’re a positive start, but they also conjur a picture of a finish line……. There’s only one finish line, and we all cross it one day.  Short term targets and long term goals are absolutely fine, and when you’re starting up a new exercise program please take these factors into account;  1) How does our body react to exercise (load)? When we increase either the frequency, duration or intensity of our exercise or activity the tissues of the body need time to adapt and get used to that load. Therefore, if we increase any or all of these factors too quickly then we run the risk of overloading our body….. The body cannot adapt fast enough and we will eventually get injuries that will slow or halt progress altogether.    In our story the person has got way too much frequency and duration in their training plan, it needs to start from a very low level and slowly increase over a relatively long period of time (8 weeks perhaps) in order to set a foundation to work from. You’ll still improve, and you won’t end up in a world of trouble! 2) What Types of Exercise Load? Different exercises and activities will put different strains on the body. Walking puts 1.0 to 1.5 times bodyweight through the system……. Jogging perhaps 2.0-2.5……. And as we get faster the loads through our low back, pelvis and lower limbs will increase up to as much as 6.0 times bodyweight! That’s a lot of force to absorb and generate. Therefore, it might be useful to switch up an impact activity like running with cycling and swimming in order to reduce the impact but still get a good workout.  Of course if we have little to no weight bearing activity then that can cause a problem all of its own. We need load to maintain bone density and muscle strength. Our case study had a good variation….. And we can certainly recommend this as a good part of the program.   3) Strengthening Is Important For ALL Athletes Going back to the previous point…. If we’re putting loads of way above body weight through our bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments then we need to make sure we keep them strong. Muscles are natural shock absorbers for joints, so by keeping the muscles strong it protects the joints and lowers the risk of damaging them.  A lot of people ONLY do cardiovascular training such as running, cycling, swimming….. And they don’t pay attention to the other aspects of physical health.  I’d like you to watch our video presentations on youtube that talk through ‘The General Adaptation Response’. This will give you more understanding on how to safely start an exercise program.    So in summary, we have to be smart and set our expectations low at the start. Exercise or be active little and often in order to allow your body time to adapt to the new loads otherwise we increase our risk of injury. Vary the types of exercise to avoid too much impact, or too little impact in order for the body to stay robust and healthy.  Then make time to do some strength work - you don’t have to do this at a gym, you can do this at home using your body weight as resistance if needed…… but make time for it as it will help your body deal with the stresses and strains we put it through on a day to day basis.      Well thanks for listening, we hope you enjoyed the show. Remember to subscribe, comment, like or review…… or maybe just do all of them! We always appreciate them, and like it when our listeners and viewers contact us with ideas for future content, and questions they’d like answered.    Thanks again, and we’ll see you in the next episode. Bye now!   https://youtube.com/channel/UCQXAka99a6MdZexeEJaMZbA https://m.facebook.com/elevatehealthuk https://www.elevatehealthuk.com/ https://instagram.com/elevate_healthuk?utm_medium=copy_link   ABOUT THE HOST TOM BUTTERFIELD I have always been interested in sports, unfortunately injuries and poor training decisions curtailed my dream of becoming a professional football player. I have always been very passionate about helping people and I get a real kick out of seeing people improve and make progress towards a chosen goal or aspiration. I have been actively learning and implementing knowledge for over 20 years with the aim of improving the level of service I can offer to my clients. This has included formal qualifications such as: BSc (Hons) in Sports Sciences Masters in chiropractic PGDip in Diagnostic Medical (Musculoskeletal) Ultrasonography 14 years clinical experience helping tens of thousands of members of the public to improve their health and wellbeing. Unofficially I have digested countless information in the form of audiobooks, books, videos, seminars, and countless conversations with experts within the health and wellbeing niche. I aim for at least one hour a day. The day I stop learning is the day I pack up my stuff and go home.   CONTACT METHOD https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-butterfield-801ba515/ https://www.elevatehealthuk.com/ [email protected] omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.