Make exercise a part of your weekly routine.

Exercising matters all the more now especially in times like these times that we are experiencing. Having more time at home and perhaps facing the four walls may have us brimming with cabin fever or even too much energy left uncheck. Looking on the bright side, with more time also means we actually have more time for simple exercises too. If you’re looking for exercises you can do at home, take a look here.

At August Berg,  we strongly believe you can live mindfully and make the best use of your present time. Have you ever wanted to start a healthy lifestyle and begin working out for a long time now? But somewhat and some way or another you just can’t find yourself to do it with endless distractions in your way:

• Perhaps you wanted to start exercising but a sudden realization that there is other work undone drags you off course.
• Planning for a workout seems okay, but you just couldn’t find the time nor motivation for it.
• After a long day, binging on entertainment and comfort food seems like a better alternative.

Sounds familiar? Here, we hope that today’s article would help you to change your mind about how you look at exercise. Here are some reasons why you should begin exercising! Exercising is never complicated, you can always start small and start now. 

1. Exercise is more than just physical changes (it’s also mental)

In addition to the many health benefits exercise brings to our plate physically that we may or may not be aware of, it actually has a big improvement on the mental state of our well being as well. With much that has been going on, stress, anxiety and depression can be very real to us today, let me share with you that antidepressant medications are not the only way to cope with them. 

Rather, an exercise in itself can be an effective coping mechanism for stress and the prevention of depression as well. A study has also shown that inactive respondents have a 44% increased chance of depression when compared to their counterparts who had their regular weekly exercise fix for an hour or two. Also, there are plenty of benefits exercising brings, from producing endorphins in your brain - a chemical that is an all-natural pain killer and boost to pleasure, it also allows you to have better sleep. Furthermore, exercising as an outlet has shown to help us with an even better quality of life. Simple exercises like walking can also result in enhancing creativity. 

1. Simple daily exercises can add “years to your life”

The main challenge of exercising usually begins at the starting point. For most of us, having grown accustomed to sedentary lifestyles and many commitments, more often than not we find it hard to start exercising. With movies like Rocky and visualising Olympic athletes alike, perhaps we have imagined exercising to be synonymous with words and phrases like high commitment, intense and high efforts training. So much so that we think if we want to be healthy, exercising would be utterly painful for the average joe. 

What if exercising is not about starting big and being absolutely intense, but you just need to start small and stay consistent? In fact, research has shown that in simple exercises just like brisk walking itself can add up to seven years of your life. Interestingly moderate exercise is found to actually increase our life spans (it slows down the ageing process), it also adds to our cognitive function and acts as a natural antidepressant to prevent depression as previously mentioned.

Small lifestyle changes can have significant mental health benefits in our lives, most of which can be realised within the first week of exercising. Simple and regular exercises like walking, jogging, yoga or simple home exercises are sufficient to help you and me to kick off the journey to have positive mental well being for great quality of life. 

For the life that you desire, how can you make time and what exactly can be that one small exercise you can begin to do for an hour or two that can add to your life? Exercising can start at any age and any time, the earlier you do so, the more benefit you will have! To make it easy for you, here are some simple pointers which you can refer to on how to begin:

• Break up your schedule to make time for exercise

• Pick something you enjoy

• Consider exercising with friends online
  
  
• Make it a simple everyday activity

• Exercise today and do it your way 

You can start small, but most importantly start now! If you’re into home work out, here is a list of simple exercises that you and I can do even without any equipment at home! Carve out your time and future, it all starts with that very first step.  “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” - Lao Tzu