We’re working our way through a simple plan to good health this week, continuing with step 4, the activity plan.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you cannot get healthy without also getting active. Those of you who think it’s all about diet and eating better are wrong. Eating healthy is half the solution, being active is the other half. However, since we’ve covered that topic before at 60 in 3, let’s move on to see how you can actually incorporate physical activity into your life.
Check Your Research
During the research portion of this plan I asked you to put together an activity plan that showed how you spent your time. Now we’re going to use that activity plan to start incorporating exercise into your daily routine. Throughout this entire step, your activity journal is going to tell us where you can devote chunks of time to physical activity. So take a look at it right now and check how many hours you spend on things like TV, surfing the internet, going out drinking, movies and such. This is all time that can be better used for physical activity. For most people, this sort of exercise provides quite a shock. It’s amazing how much of our lives we spend on the couch or in front of the computer.
Gradual
Just like the eating plan, we’re going to add these activities to your life one a time. Each one of the following steps is meant to be eased into over a period of one or even two months. We want to make sure these things become a habit before we move on to the next item.
Mild Workout
The first thing we’re going to do is incorporate a mild workout into your daily routine. Take a look at your activity journal and identify a time of the day where you have 30 minutes to yourself. This can be during work just as long as you don’t need to do active work at this time. All we’re going to be doing at this time is walking. That’s right, we’re going to go and walk for 30 minutes a day. Actually, work is a perfect time for this because this kind of break allows you to better focus on your work when you come back from it. I often find that I do my best thinking while walking around and I like taking a short walk break if I’m stuck on a particularly complex problem.
Morning Workout
Once a daily walk is a part of your life, we’re going to add in a morning workout. Morning workouts are quick, usually around 5 to 10 minutes, so they’re very easy to add into a busy schedule. Once again, the key is going to be adding them into your life until they become a habit. You’re going to want to press that snooze button, but this 5 minute workout is a lot more important that an extra 5 minutes of staying in bed.
The morning workout is really simple and can be done with a minimum of equipment. It consists of 4 sets of exercises:
You can do these with or without weights if you want. If you can’t do the entire movement, you can start out by cheating a bit. For example, while you’re doing your push ups, your knees will remain on the ground. Just try to do 10 of each at a slow and steady pace. Altogether, this shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes of your time.
Life Style Activities
Now we’re going to add physical activity into your lifestyle. Each week, you need to do at least four physically active things. That could mean:
- Sport such as soccer, racquetball, tennis or basketball
- Hiking or biking
- Dancing
Whatever you pick, it needs to get your heart rate moving and last for at least 45 minutes to an hour. That means easy sports like baseball don’t count. Now if you don’t want to do any of these activities, you can move to step 4, cardio. However, if you do decide to add these activities into your life, you can skip the whole gym thing altogether. Yes, you heard me right. For most people, adding the first three steps of this physical activity plan is more than enough. Gym time is only for those really serious about getting in perfect shape or those who don’t wish to spend time on these other activities. Your choice, do you want to spend hours at the gym or do you want to go out with friends and play ball?
Gym Workout
Well, if you’re like me, you may not have a schedule that allows for a lot of outside physical activity, or you may simply prefer a more structured workout plan. For that, we have the gym. By now it’s been about 5 to 6 months since you started all this. You should be walking every day, eating healthier and doing a little morning workout every day. Now it’s time to add in some serious exercise. Take a look at this past series from 60 in 3 called The Four Day Workout. In it, we explore a basic gym routine that you can add to your daily life. It includes weights and cardio and is simple enough to be performed at home with few changes. Start out easy, and slowly increase the difficulty.
By the way, I said that this step and one before it are interchangeable. Well that’s true. You can do one instead of the other if you want. Ideally though, you’re going to do both.
Summary
That’s it, four easy steps to add exercise into your life. Remember, gradual change is the key. Make sure each of these sticks and becomes a part of your life before you move on to the next one.
