Move and Groove
Quick tips to start a workout routine during these times.
These are stressful times, especially for our community.
The constraint of time is what I often hear from people who really want to get started on exercise, but cannot find the time. My name is Jonathan, an online strength and nutritional coach, born and raised in the Bronx. Many of us put ourselves last because of the responsibilities of children, bills, and other pressing problems to manage. Doing too much will overwhelm your wellbeing, as we are already in a stressful state during this pandemic.
How to get started.
Start by understanding that your body's capacity for stress is like a cup and has only so much space for stress.
If you are overly stressed, imagine you pouring too much liquid in a cup, What happens? It overflows! We tend to do this with our bodies. What happens when we are constantly overflowing our bodies with stress?
This Stress Cup worksheet walks you through what your cup might be like.
When our stress cup is overflowing, our health deteriorates and this is when we can fall to illness and disease. You also need to understand that chronic is long term. This means that it is happening consistently for a very long time. The term acute is short term. Many of us are living in a chronically stressed state. This means that we are damaging our bodies every day, but since it is not at the onset of lets say a bruise after a fall, we overlook it.
Here is a list of common stressors that may take up space in your cup.
Lack of sleep
Lack of water
Too many fried foods and sugar
No exercise
Rumination (worrying)
Relationships and personal problems
How can a little movement help you?
If you are filling your cup every day with so much stress that it is overflowing, how about we upgrade your cup to make it larger?
Exercise can increase your capacity for stress, which allows you to deal with more stress. If you can manage. Get reacquainted with the floor. Why? Your bones and body need ground contact to stimulate bone resilience and also keep you able to get up and down from the floor.
Here is a way to get started: Pick two exercises. Do them for the time allotted. You can pick a different pair of two everyday for up to 5 days. If not, stick to the first two and get really good at them.
Let’s get it going!
Set a 10 minute timer. Pick 2-3 exercises and do them in a circuit. Complete each exercise for the prescribed repetitions, That is one round. Complete as many rounds as you can within the set time. Break as needed, but push yourself :)
If you follow this for a full month, you will be surprised at how much stronger and conditioned you feel. It takes only a little to get started. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or need some extra assistance. Visit www.trainwithjon.com or email me at jonathan@trainwithjon.com