It’s Spring! The air is warmer, the weather is improving, the birds are singing and getting ready to nest and our thoughts turn to activities that involve the great out doors! Or maybe booking that holiday that you’ve had to postpone for the last 3 years! Whatever it is, it probably requires strength, energy and motivation.
Where do strength, energy and motivation come from? You’ve probably guessed it … exercise!
Strength
Let’s talk about strength. What do we mean by this? Ultimately, I think this is assessed depending on what you want to achieve. If you are aiming to compete in the world weight-lifting championship, then you are talking about being strong enough to lift a barbell weighing more than 100kg from the ground to over your head. I suspect, though, you’re not in that category!
For the most part, we want to be strong enough to do our daily activities with ease. From lifting cement or soil bags for a labourer/gardener to running around with the kids for a 30+ Mum to long walks and climbing the stairs easily for a retired 65-plus.
Where does strength come from? Our joints perform the movement and the bones in our body have to be strong enough to sustain the movement, but it’s the muscles that should take the real strain. If the muscles are not strong enough, the joints and bones take too much stress, which ultimately causes arthritis, osteoporosis and injury.
How do we keep our muscles strong, then? It’s called strength-training, or resistance training. Basically, we have to put our muscles under a bit of resistance with weight of some kind, over a certain period, then stretch them out and let them repair. The muscles repair stronger and longer if we’ve done it correctly. We keep doing this and gradually increase the resistance over time – et voila – strong muscles!
Energy
Our body’s need energy: thermal energy helps us to maintain a constant body temperature, mechanical energy helps us to move, and electrical energy sends nerve impulses and fires signals to and from our brains. Energy is stored in foods and in the body as chemical energy.
How to maintain adequate stores of energy? It goes without saying that a healthy diet is essential because ultimately that is the source of the energy that fuels our machine. However, how can you make sure your body is a good custodian and dispenser of that energy? Wait for it…. Exercise!
Sleep
Exercise almost guarantees that you’ll sleep more soundly. It also gives your cells more energy to burn and circulates oxygen. And exercising can lead to higher brain dopamine levels, which helps elevate mood. When exercising, pick up the pace periodically to get extra health benefits.Â
Heart and Lungs
Your heart and lungs work all the time to take in oxygen and circulate it round the body, along with all the nutrients, to keep those cells alive and healthy. How do you make sure your heart and lungs are the best they can be? Exercise again, but specifically Cardio exercise.
Cardio exercise can be performed by aerobic exercise, like dancing, swimming, running, cycling, brisk walking, or anything that raises the breathing rate and heart rate – continuous muscle pumping, as in strength training, will also do it.
The heart is a muscle, and, like putting resistance on muscles to make them stronger, by making the heart work harder, it has to pump faster. If you do that regularly – like 3 times a week regularly – your heart will be able to sustain faster pumping for longer periods of time, without tiring. When you perform cardio exercise regularly, your body will have the energy to tackle whatever you throw at it. Also, increasing your breathing rate boosts endorphins – see next section.
Motivation
In order to get any of the above done, you need the get-up-and-go to get up and do it! You need to DOSE yourself! DOSE – Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin and Endorphin— in your brain are known as the “happiness hormones”. These can also be called your “success hormones” because, apart from a happy mood, they give you optimism, energy, connect with people and higher focus and thus elevate your drive, leadership and confidence. Though you cannot control everything, the good news is that you can take actions to trigger the right hormones and be on top of every situation.
Dopamine is the motivation molecule that drives you to seek rewards in achieving goals and enables you to take the effort it requires to be successful. So, make exercise a goal, break down to smaller goals, then reward yourself for every achievement.
Oxytocin is your attachment molecule. Apart from inter-personal bonding, oxytocin reduces stress levels and boosts security and contentment. To increase your oxytocin, take out time to help, encourage, mentor or compliment people that you come in contact with. A single minute of positive social interaction is enough to trigger a short burst of oxytocin. You probably know what I’m going to say next! Exercise with others to kill 2 birds with the one hormone-stone.
Serotonin boosts will power, self-esteem, inner satisfaction, confidence and a sense of purpose. Simultaneously it battles cortisol or your stress hormone – hence the reason why people always say exercise reduces stress. To boost serotonin, get out in the natural sunlight to exercise – or walk to work or the gym or during your lunch break.
Next, saying “Thank you” boosts your serotonin levels, so express gratitude to people who help, serve and support you.
Endorphin is your determination and bliss hormone. It elevates mood and reduces physical pain and emotional stress. It increases your cognition too. You know I’m going to say exercise increases endorphins – but so does fun activities! Choose to laugh often to trigger an instant endorphin release. Similarly, listening to music through earphones while doing other activities also increases endorphin levels. Go for a walk with a friend outside and the combination of exercise, good company and sunlight all contribute to higher endorphin levels.
Dark chocolate also triggers dopamine and serotonin – but I’m probably not supposed to tell you that!
Finally!
So, whatever you want to do this Spring, we can help you now with increased strength, energy and motivation to get into action. Our Workout is only 30 minutes but it will get your heart pumping; get your muscles strong; give you that get up and go to do more; and get you ready for action this Spring!
Call us now on 02392 520025 to get started.