7 Steps to an Effective Exercise Strategy
Before we get into our 7-step strategy
Here's a quick summary on what you've already learnt fin this series. We need to change our mindset around exercise, more effort does not mean better results. The harder we push the more inflammation and oxidative stress we cause in the body, our individual health, genetics and circumstances can determine just how much damage this can do. By understanding the balance between our Rest & Digest (PSNS) and Fight or Flight (SNS) nervous systems we gain an effective tool to define how we can go about exercising for our health rather than for more superficial reasons such as appearance/weight management. As a side note, when you balance your nervous system and improve your overall health it is amazing how easy weight management becomes. That's a whole different topic I will bring in the future.
Before we get started on the 7 steps, so you can be fully informed on your options I need to give you an overview on yoga, real yoga, I don't mean the type that gives you a nice easy stretch, or the type that has you trying to look like a contorsionist. The yoga I'm talking about uses specific techniques to connect you with your PSNS while you move. These techniques are 1000's of years old. It astounds me that we are only now starting to correlate studies that show the power of balancing our nervous systems, when yoga has been doing it for this long, it's food for thought.
Change your life!
Yoga can be an absolute life changer, it is such a different approach from our modern exercise era hustle. That's why it works, we get to take a step back and see things for what they are. Included in my Yoga Time Warrior online yoga platform I offer a 12-week program with a Money Back Guarantee, it's geared for success, what you do have to lose?
Strength training while promoting PSNS
Yoga has the unique ability to help us to connect with our parasympathetic nervous system by integrating the breath while moving your body, this isn't just breathing slowly, there are some very specific movement and breath techniques used. By undertaking a yoga practice that is specifically designed to promote the PSNS we bring more balance to the PSNS & SNS, and we can do that even while actively working to strengthen the body, to improve our physical capability. One thing that is so important to be aware of though, not all yoga achieves this, because not all instructors understand it either. If yoga is fast and pushes for rapid breath cycles and significant burn in the muscles, it is not connecting with the PSNS.
Yoga that focuses on lengthening the breath cycle, with specific stages of movement per inhale and per exhale, stopping just short of muscle burn will be optimizing your connection with the PSNS. Even a power yoga class designed in this way can achieve this, but of course most power yoga is not designed this way. If you see a yoga class called a "Yoga Workout", it generally will not be connecting with the PSNS, those types of classes are just a slightly different version of other exercise methods but due to the challenging and faster types of movements have more risk of injury and stress to the body. Even some forms of yoga that are very slow with deep stretching can aggravate the body, muscles and tendons that are inflamed don't actually like deep stretching. I have experienced this personally, and it's why many have tried yoga but decided it wasn't for them.
Also super important to know is that some yoga is specifically designed to develop spinal stability and improve posture with every single breath, many sufferers of chronic illness suffer back pain, improving structure & stability in the spine is soooo important.
Finding a yoga practice that does this is how you can build strength in the body with yoga even if you suffer a chronic health condition, by maximizing that connection to the PSNS, reducing the body's inflammatory response while still increasing muscle capability using both our larger muscle groups, and our stabilizing structures also, the best of both worlds. It perfectly compliments other types of exercise such as walking, biking, running, dancing, well... any sports or physical activity really. It's an amazing injury prevention tool if you do have other activities you engage in.
I've Experienced This First Hand
Last year I designed Yoga Time Warrior out of frustration with other online yoga platforms, to be a super-efficient practice to get around the physical/health limitations I was experiencing, while still allowing me to feel like I was advancing my strength and physical capabilities. I knew I had been successful as I know my strength levels are way better than they were even in my athletic 20's, but I didn't realize just how much Yoga Time Warrior was doing for me until I flared my condition up with wakeboarding which I hadn't done since the prior summer, along with many other exercise methods (when I was struggling through with really bad symptoms). With yoga I had found my way back, I'd been managing a serious condition that without proper management could have seriously disrupted my quality of life. The recent flare up has led to my confirmed diagnosis for chronic fatigue syndrome, this is an extremely challenging condition to manage, because the body responds differently to exercise than for most people, it can cause significant symptom flare ups. My yoga practice has been an absolutely invaluable tool for symptom management. Whatever physical challenges you might face yourself, don't worry, you've got this to!
7 Steps to an Effective Exercise Strategy
1. Consider any health conditions you have
Your doctor should be able to give you advice on specific types of activity not suitable to you and what you need to be careful of. But you've already learnt about the PSNS and the SNS, learning to operate within this should see you through exercising with any condition.
2. Consider any pain that you suffer
Understanding where you feel pain, how often you feel it and if certain types of movements aggravate it, is really important. If you pay attention to it and learn to understand it, you can learn to protect it and control it. Yoga is amazing for that, but remember even deep stretching, which is supposedly good for anyone can severely aggravate inflamed tendons.
3. Do you have poor posture
Don't underestimate the effect poor posture can have on EVERYTHING. This is an area so misunderstood and poorly managed by most. We can improve poor posture with the right type of exercise and I don't mean lifting heavy weights to build the big back muscles, you have to work on the deep spinal muscles. Many of the "stretches" people do that relieve back pain actually work against resolution of the problem. I talk to a lot of people that are disappointed that their daily stretches relieve symptoms only to have them return the next day.
4. Consider the time of day you are most likely to exercise
Have an ideal time to exercise, but have a backup plan, and another backup plan, realistically.... just be flexible. You're the only one setting rules for yourself, it doesn't matter if one day you exercise in the morning, one day it's in the afternoon, another in the evening, doing it is what matters.
5. Consider what you would LIKE to do
I'm sure you'll have an idea of what you would like, so go for it, don't overthink it. But keep an open mind and be prepared to change. Take exercise wherever you can get it. It might be a lunchtime walk and then you eat at your desk at work. Remember it's about moderate intensity, so you don't need to be all hot & sweaty all the time. You might want to commit to an exercise goal, but be careful and understand your goal and why you are doing it. It may go against my theory of moderate intensity, but you can balance this out with something else, like yoga a couple of days a week to stabilize the joints and release tension. Yoga (not all types though) will also teach you how to utilize breathwork techniques (without movement) to draw your body back to a PSNS state quickly, so could be a great option to calm your nervous system down after a run, or a bike ride, or whatever else you may choose to do as exercise. Above all, use the guidelines I've given you to listen to your body, your nervous system will tell you if it's not happy by making you feel tired, sore, or throwing out other random health symptoms, it just might not be right for you.
6. Where do you want to exercise
You might not need a gym membership, there are a lot of free online workout options you can do at home, personally I did not find online free yoga classes that helpful, it's too hard to find what you need for a regular balanced practice at your level. Try not to make equipment or clothing a prerequisite, you just need to be healthy, if you don't have your health you don't have much, it is the priority. Find a local park, walk the block, take the stairs, there are loads of ways you can integrate exercise into your life without getting too complicated.
7. Consider an exercise friend
Many like companionship when they exercise, if that's you, great. But don't be reliant on someone else, don't make it your prerequisite, otherwise their life will just add to your excuses for why you can't exercise at times. This is all about you and your needs.
Change Your Life
Yoga Time Warrior is a versatile take anywhere practice to integrate into any exercise routine, because it perfectly complements other forms of exercise. It means those other forms can be casual and fun. Your yoga practice will give you all the strength training you need and restore the body and the mind.
