More Exercise: Your New Years Resolution!

More Exercise: Your New Year’s Resolution!

• More exercise: Your New Year’s Resolution!
• Defining your New Year’s Resolution
• Initiating an active lifestyle in 2010
• The range of exercise benefits
  • Exercising to combat stress, depression and anxiety
  • Exercise for toning and body image
  • Exercise for building muscle
  • Exercise for fitness
  • Exercise for weight loss

psychology and neurology.

A regular exercise regime is essential for a healthy and happy lifestyle. Physical activity helps maintain a healthy weight range, improves body strength and fitness, and has positive psychological effects. People who exercise regularly generally live happier lives and are less stressed than those who do not. So as we approach a brand new year why not make your resolution this year to start an exercise regime or to enhance the regime you already maintain!

psychomotor skills. After the celebrations of New Year’s Eve it may be very difficult to motivate yourself to engage in physical activity so it is important to define and set your resolutions before this time.

Be specific when defining your resolution. Set clear and specific goals to give you something to focus on and motivate yourself. You should have a general idea of what you want to gain from your exercise regime. You may be exercising to improve your fitness or body image, you could want to improve the way you handle stress or depression or all of the above! Whatever your goals, there is a range of different activities that will help you achieve them, once you can identify what you want from your exercise regime it will be clear what you need to do in the New Year. This is of course not to say that all physical activity should be put on hold until the New Year! Refraining from exercise during the holiday period will only make it more difficult to begin your new exercise regime.

heat illness. Make sure you discuss these with your doctor and avoid exercise in the middle of the day when the heat is most intense.
Whether you are just beginning a healthy exercise regime or you are already fit and active, there are some important steps that we all need to follow before, during and after exercising to protect ourselves from sports related injuries and other physical distress.

For information on these important steps see Preparing for Exercise.

depression – it increases self esteem, improves social skills and can be a lot of fun. Along with the “antidepressant” qualities of exercise it has been shown to significantly decrease stress and anxiety and combat the harmful consequences of stress on emotions, physical and mental health.

More information on physical activity and mental health.

resistance training.

resistance training exercises.

heart, muscles, lungs and mental health. Focus on increasing the intensity, duration and frequency of physical activity. Continuously and gradually increasing distance, speeds or weights, will improve fitness.

More information on fitness.

weight loss.

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The formula for calculating how many Calories you burn while exercising is:
Calories = 0.0175 * weight (kg) * MET * duration (minutes)

For example:
A man who weighs 85 kilograms and swam for 30 minutes would burn:
Calories = 0.0175 * 85 * 7 * 30
Calories = 0.0175 * 85 * 210
Calories = 0.0175 * 17850
Calories = 312.375

Table of MET values

This information will be collected for educational purposes, however it will remain anonymous.

More information

 For more information on staying healthy in the New Year, including tips on diet, partying, exercise and general health, see Health in the New Year. 

Reference

1. Suija K, Pechter U, Kalda R, Tahepold H, Maaroos J, Maroos HI. Physical activity of depressed patients and their motivation to exercise: Nordic Walking in family practice. Int J Rehab Res. 2009; 32: 132-8.
2. El-Sayed MS, Ali N, El-Sayed Ali Z. Interaction between alcohol and exercise: Physiological and haematological implications. Sports Med. 2005; 35(3): 257-69.
3. Brukner P, Khan K [eds]. Clinical Sports Medicine. 3rd ed. North Ryde: McGraw-Hill; 2006.
4. Hoffman J. Physiological Aspects of Sport Training and Endurance. New Jersey: Human Kinetics; 2002.
5. Salmon P. Effects of physical exercise on anxiety, depression, and sensitivity to stress: a unifying theory. Clinical Psychology Review. 2001; 21(1): 33-61.
6. Baker RC, Kirschenbaum DS. Weight control during the holidays: highly consistent self-monitoring as a potentially useful coping mechanism. Health Psychology. 1998; 17(4):367-70.
7. McArdle WD, Katch FI, Katch VL. Exercise Physiology: Energy, Nutrition, and Human Performance. 5th ed. Baltimore: Lippincott Williams Wilkins; 2001.

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Article Dates:

Modified: 3/6/2010

Created: 15/12/2009

More Exercise: Your New Years Resolution!