“START SLOW AND SET GOALS”
To help you succeed in starting an exercise program after being mostly sedentary, set up short-term goals, like walking 10 minutes a day, 3 days a week. Once you are comfortable, try to do more. Try 15 minutes instead of 10 minutes. Then walk on more days a week while adding more minutes to your walk. You can try different activities too. To add variety, you can do low-impact aerobics or water aerobics for 30 minutes, 2 days a week. Then walk on a treadmill or outdoors for 30 minutes, 1 day a week. Then do yoga or lift weights for 2 days. Tracking your progress by writing down your goals and what you have done each day, including the type of activity and how long you spent doing it also works extremely well. Seeing your progress in black-and-white can help keep you motivated. So believe in yourself and stick to it you will love it!
“LET GO”
Holding on too tightly to the cardio equipment lets you “cheat” and contributes to slouching which puts the back out of allignment and puts you at risk for injuries. It also keeps you from moving your arms, which can boost your heart rate and burn extra calories. If loosening your grip makes you feel insecure, try this technique Instead of gripping, just rest your fingers, from your index finger to the pinkie, on the bars. As you get more comfortable, drop a finger. Eventually, you may have just the index fingers resting there for security. So learn to let go of the grips and your insecurities, and get better grip on your exercises and results.
