Category: mental health

8 Quick Strategies to Overcome Procrastination when it comes to Exercising:

by Fitness Excel, posted in "life coach", adventure education, camino, fitness walking, flow, health, mental health, outdoors learning, Performance, Pilates, Resilience

1. Break it down into smaller, more manageable tasks: Instead of thinking of exercise as one large and daunting task, break it down into smaller, more achievable steps. This could include setting aside time for stretching, going for a short walk, or doing a quick workout video.

2. Make a plan and schedule it: Set a specific time and date for exercise and stick to it. Schedule it into your daily routine so it becomes a habit.

3. Find an accountability partner: Enlist the help of a friend or family member to hold you accountable for your exercise routine. This could include checking in with them regularly or even exercising together.

4. Create an enjoyable experience: Find ways to make exercise more enjoyable, such as combining your exercise in a different environment such as the outdoors, whilst appreciating nature.

5. Reward yourself: Create a reward system for when you complete your exercise routine. This could be anything from treating yourself to a favourite snack or activity to buying a new workout outfit.

6. Use positive self-talk: Use positive self-talk to motivate yourself and overcome negative thought patterns. Focus on the benefits of exercise and remind yourself that it’s a form of self-care that will improve your overall health and well-being.

7. Start small and build up: If you’re just starting out, don’t feel like you have to jump into intense workouts right away. Start small with a few minutes of exercise each day and gradually build up over time.

8. Remember, it’s normal to struggle with procrastination when it comes to exercise, but with some dedication and the right strategies, you can overcome it and make exercise a regular part of your routine.

6 Reasons to Attend a Wellbeing Retreat

by Fitness Excel, posted in "life coach", adventure education, fitness walking, flow, health, mental health, outdoors learning, Pilates
Health & wellbeing in an outdoor environment, connecting both body-mind.

The definition of a retreat is that you travel for a purpose of promoting health and wellbeing through physical, psychological and/or spiritual places where you are able to get away from the stress of daily life to unwind, recharge and relax, this is usually a location by the sea, park, forest surrounded by nature and nice landscapes and can range between 1 day to 1 week or more.  The idea is to improve your health and wellbeing through connection, exercise, take stock and pause, whilst facilitating peace and calm.

Wellbeing retreats have developed over decades, the aim is to help people live a more harmonious life, a typical day of an exercise retreat may involve a group of people taking a walk, incorporating some Pilates, Yoga and breathing, engaging in meaningful conversation and eating healthy.

You don’t have to travel to exotic destinations and undertake 2 weeks, just 1 day in a local environment will allow disconnection from routine, technology and the on-line world, it allows a shift of your perspective and can boost your energy and revitalise you, an exercise retreat is aimed both at addressing both body and mind, the physical and psychological.  You take away the stress of normal life allowing a more mindful, balanced and connected life.

6 Reasons to undertake a Wellbeing Day

  1. Reconnect, bring zest back into your life.
  2. Get outdoors into the fresh air.
  3. Connect with nature, become curious and explore new landscapes and geography.
  4. Switch off from life’s busyness.
  5. Get expert advice from the leaders on the wellbeing day.
  6. Take away and implement strategies learnt and incorporate them into your everyday living.

Key Benefits of Forest Bathing

by Fitness Excel, posted in "life coach", enrichment, fitness instruction, fitness walking, flow, health, mental health, outdoors learning, Pilates, well-being

Forests are an incredible resource. They produce oxygen, purify our water and cleanse the air we breathe; the forest is a truly remarkable resource. In Japan two thirds of the country is forest, it is one of the greenest in the world with a rich diversity of tress and is sometimes referred to as the green archipelago.

Forest bathing known as (Shinrin-Yoku) was first created in Japan, 1982 and refers to the healing techniques which restore both the physical and psychological health of the human body, and when especially exposed to a forest environment which activates the senses smell, vision, touch, taste and hearing. 

Our modern lifestyle is busier than ever with increasing levels of stress which can lead to low mood and poor sleep.  Good quality sleep is essential for our health, well-being and for the functioning of our immune system and forest bathing may be a solution.  Li, (2018) research on participants sleep patterns after spending up to 2 hours walking in a forest environment shows an increase in sleep activity, in addition participants were significantly less anxious.

Further, Wen, et al (2019) studies on Asian adult populations and the health effects, used the forest for physical activity to include interventions such as walking, Pilates, yoga and sight-seeing. The data reveals a significant reduction in blood pressure.  The present research on emotional states such as depression, fatigue and tension anxiety also showed a decrease in negative emotions and an increase in positive emotions when walking in a forest environment.

It is recommended to incorporate more green exercise into our daily lives, even short bouts of outdoor exercise can have a big impact on our mood, feel less tired and tend to have a longer-lasting energy boost.  A brisk walk outdoors is easier than going to the gym or working out on a treadmill, it is both rewarding and more enjoyable.

References

Li, Q. (2018) Shinrin-Yohu; The art and science of forest-bathing, how trees can help you find health and happiness.

Wen, Y. Yan, D, Pan, Y, Gu, X & Liu, Y (2019) Medical empirical research on forest bathing (Shinrin-Yoku): A systematic Review

7 Coaching Tips for Exercise Adherence

by Fitness Excel, posted in "life coach", fitness walking, flow, health, mental health, outdoors learning, Performance, Pilates, Resilience, well-being

How do you motivate yourself for exercise? Below are some 7 quick tips to get started.

1.Make a regular schedule of you daily routine, work, social engagements, appointments, family or managing a home.  Identify where you spend your time.

2. keep a diary and write down exactly when and how you are going to exercise, whether it’s an early morning run or an exercise class, could you fit in a session between work or study and meeting friends in the evening. It is also useful to plan and book ahead your fitness routine that you are going to attend that week, most gyms and leisure centres now have online booking apps.  By scheduling exercise in advance you commit yourself to your exercise programme.

3.It is important to have variety in your exercise routine, for example, change your walking, running programmes by adding different routes, speeds, challenges, incorporate Pilates, Yoga, Tai Chi or strength training into the programme.

4.Focus on doing rather than thinking, there are many times we can use excuses to skip an exercise session.  Excuses can range from ‘its too cold’, I’m ‘too busy’ or ‘too tired.  Recognise the inner dialogue which goes on and change this to a positive state. 

5.You can also use visualisation technique of recalling when you felt great after a previous exercise session, anchor and recapture those feelings and thoughts and use the visualisation to imagine yourself feeling energised and fit. 

6.Use a fitness App for tracking your progress, these can be useful for monitoring the amount of steps you walk or miles you run and act as a motivational tool.

7.Use goal setting to determine what you want to achieve, this will help, encourage and motivate you when times get tough. Create new goals regularly to ensure you are on track.

Health Benefits of Walking & Pilates

by Fitness Excel, posted in bone health, camino, fitness walking, health, mental health, outdoors learning, Pilates, pilgrim walk, posture - the neck, strength training

Both walking and Pilates are low impact activities which reap many health benefits to include improve balance, co-ordination, deep muscular activation, posture and mindfulness.

Walking address the cardiorespiratory fitness and resistance training from Pilates addresses improved muscular strength, studies undertaken by Takeshima, et al (2013) have demonstrated that the combined programs, either undertaking both activities on the same day or alternate dayes, walking one day and strength training the following day has significant improvements in endurance, functional strength, agility, flexibility, serum lipids and blood pressure over a 12 week period.

In regard to coronary heart disease, Maestroni et al (2020) found that progressive resistance training provides an improvement in cardiorespiratory function comparable to aerobic training alone, when combined they offer more substantiated improvements in both fitness and strength as well as systolic and diastolic blood pressure which may be significantly lowered by resistance training.

Those suffering from anxiety also benefit. In Australian studies on women in their 50’s and 60’s, Ripton (2015) state that women with depression who walked 200 miles a week had more energy and those with anxiety may benefit as cortisol, a hormone that provokes a stress response is lower in those who walk compared to those who are sedentary.

Both walking and Pilates can also be challenged by adding nordic poles for walking to increase the instensity of the walk which can burn more calories, poles also encourage you to stand tall, tighten the abdominals, act as an aid for balance, whilst resistance bands, tubing, circles can be incorporated into Pilates programs to increase strength and intensity.

References

Maestroni, L. Read, P. Bishop, C., Papadopoulos, K., Suchomel, T. J. Comfort, P. & Turner, A. (2020). The benefits of strength training on musculoskeletal system health: Practical applications for interdisciplinary care. Sports Medicine, 50(8), 1431-1450. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-020-01309-5

Ripton, N. (2015) The surprising health benefits of walking

Takeshima, N, Islam MM, Rogers, ME, Rogers, N.L. Sengoku, N, Koizumi, D, Kitabayashi, Y, Imai, A, Naruse, A. (2013) Effects of nordic walking compared to conventional walking and band-based resistance exercise on fitness in older adults. J Sports Sci Med, Sep 1:12 (3): 422-30.

Breathing Efficiently

by Fitness Excel, posted in flow, health, mental health, well-being

Breathing is easy, it’s natural, you just do it don’t you? But wait a minute, a new book by James Nestor entitled “Breath” points out that it’s not quite so simple!

It turns out that there is more to breathing than just letting it happen and the consequences can be damaging. We all know that if someone gets into a panic, they can start what’s called, hyperventilating, where they breathe deeply and rapidly- with the result that they can feel faint.  And sometimes just thinking about a scary or highly stressful incident can induce the same reaction.

In both cases we breathe through our mouths and that we calm down by slowing the breathing down it will reduce the stressful sensations we go back to breathing through our noses-or do we?

Quite often, if the stress is low level and near continuous, we end up mouth breathing more than is healthy. But what’s wrong with breathing through the mouth you ask? Well according to James Nestor, breathing experts point out that nose breathing is the optimum way to breathe, except when undergoing physical exertion.

Why? Because amongst other benefits the nose is our own in-built air filtration and air conditioning system. Catching all the dust, dirt and germs floating around in the atmosphere. Which would otherwise be drawn deeply into the lungs when we breathe with our mouths. Also the air coming in via the nose is warmed and humidified, whereas it isn’t when coming in via the mouth.

Benefits such as these and many others are explained in his book, which whilst fascinating and is highly recommending reading, it doesn’t give any details of practices you can do to alleviate the situation. It appears that nearly all the techniques Nestor mentions are similar to a Yoga teachers handbook of Pranayama together with some of the physical exercises/practices utilised are also taught in a Pilates class. In view of this check out our short and entertaining theory and practical workshop on breathing efficiently for interested people to come and learn more about how the body breathes, how you can improve your breathing via some simple exercises from Yoga and Pilates and understanding what benefits you can gain.

References:

Nestor, J (2021) Breath, The New Science of a Lost Art.

Psychology of Marathon Running

by Fitness Excel, posted in bone health, Endurance, fitness instruction, flow, health, Marathon Training, mental health, outdoors learning, Performance, Pilates, Resilience, running, strength training, Uncategorized

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Participants competing in long endurance events such as the Marathon has steadily risen over the years.  Data taken of both demographic and socio-economic groups from various studies has seen a rise in running becoming a popular sport.

The Marathon runner embarks on this challenge for many reasons and they must adapt their lifestyle and training far beyond the recreational exerciser to include high levels of demanding physiological and psychological adaptations to push beyond their current capabilities.  Furthermore, the rewards and positive benefits of this training will outweigh the negatives of marathon running.

The London Marathon is my third marathon, as a veteran runner I have improved with age, both on personal performance together with a faster post marathon recovery rate.  Training for a Marathon demands a consistent, disciplined, structured routine which will manifest into other areas of the runners life to include; personal goal achievement, better life management, psychological and emotional strategies for coping and better vitality and health.

Camino & Resilience

by Fitness Excel, posted in adventure education, camino, fitness for the camino, fitness walking, health, mental health, outdoors learning, pilgrim walk, Resilience, santiago, well-being

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The route continued to Palas De Rei. After leaving Portomarin, crossing the River Mino we continued uphill steadily through woodland, the rain continued and got heavier and heavier. Continuing through small hamlets, passing the Hospital de la Cruz. Arriving at Vendas de Naron to get a ‘pilgrim stamp’ the old Romanesque Chapel, then continuing along the paved path, arriving at Sierra de Ligonde which offered fantastic views over the valleys. Particular parts of the route were isolated and quiet, apart from a rather large dog. The fog was dense and we were soaked through.

Approaching A Calzada the weather was so bad, we took shelter under a tree. There were other walkers, one an Australian man, we had met further back in other towns.  After discussing the weather, our blisters, stories of one walker getting frostbite back in the Pyrenees, our conversation compared the weather to life and the Camino, there are good and bad times, but we must press forwards.

The Camino de Santiago builds resilience, both emotionally and physically, it enables us to develop a positive mind and can-do-attitude.  We can integrate resilience into our lives on a daily basis, by being more active, getting more sleep and eating well, forgiving ourselves and resolving conflict. These small steps can help us improve our mental health and to face everyday challenges.

Camino & Mindfulness

by Fitness Excel, posted in camino, fitness for the camino, fitness walking, health, mental health, outdoors learning, pilgrim walk, posture - the neck, santiago, well-being

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Camino de Santiago is an excellent reason to take time out and integrate some walking mindfulness into your Camino.  Be aware of the sounds of nature, the wind, sun, rain and other people.  How can we become mindful of our experience of walking? Start with a natural relaxed walking rhythm, keep your attention in the soles of your feet, being aware of the alternating patterns of contact with your foot as it makes contact with the ground, then focus on sensations in your muscles and joints, expanding that awareness into your posture and breathing.