Boost your overall physical fitness with Atomic Habits
Boost your overall physical fitness with Atomic Habits
Last week’s summary - we took you through a series of tests to check out your overall physical abilities to find out your strengths and weaknesses.
This week we are going to show you how to make a plan to work on your weaknesses and how to fit these easily into your daily routine.
Remember there are five key areas to work on balance, agility, fitness (cardio), flexibility and strength and these five spell BAFFS,
The goal is to become reasonably proficient in all five of these key areas to ensure that you do well physically as you grow older.
Here’s a couple of examples why it is so crucial to be a good all-rounder.
Although you may be, say really flexible and strong, if you have poor balance and are prone to falls you become seriously at risk, or you can see the problems that would occur if you have good cardio-fitness and lack flexibility and strength.
The plan - The idea here is to come up with a short routine of a few minutes that you can do each day. And you will be able to do this in your lounge at home, or hotel or motel room while you are away.
You can break up this routine into smaller bits using the ‘Atomic Habits’ principle and attach these to some of your regular daily habits.
You will find an example of how to put this together using Atomic Habits at the end of this chapter. Make a note of your choices as you read through this.
This routine should have emphasis on your weaknesses and at the same time include elements of all of the five BAFFS. This routine will supplement all of the other physical activities that you take part in and ensure that all bases are covered.
A few of these exercises and stretches will be the same as those covered in my blog last week.
Once you have been doing this routine daily for a couple of months it will have become a habit and part of your daily routine. Just like brushing your teeth.
Balance
Retaining your ability to easily go up and down stairs and steps, and generally prevent yourself from falling is a crucial part of being able to maintain your independence.
Stand on one leg - The simplest and safest way to improve balance is to practise standing on one leg in a number of different ways.
You can put your other leg out to either side or to the front or back. This has the added benefit of helping to improve other muscle groups. For example, standing on one leg with your other leg out to the side helps to strengthen the adductor muscles in the groin.
Walk heel to toe - The other excellent exercise is to walk heel to toe for a few metres. Hold your arms out to the side to help with balance. Start by putting your heel in front of your other foot so it just touches your big toe and keep repeating this.
These balance exercises help your brain to form new connections and strengthen the coordination between different parts of your body. In recognising these new activities, your joints and muscles will send messages to the brain which will help to rewire it and to improve your balance.
Agility
Agility is really your ability to move your body easily and quickly into a variety of positions. Being more agile will help you to retain your balance should anything potentially dangerous unexpectedly come your way. For example, it could be your dog on a lead pulling you off balance, or avoiding that pesky kid on a skateboard.
Dance, skip, hop - The earlier tests last week will give you a variety of options for agility exercises. Another way to get your feet and body moving naturally is to dance to your favourite piece of music. Whatever it is, daily skipping, hopping or dancing will all help you to become more agile.
Getting down and up off the ground - This is a key skill in being able to retain your independence and well worth practising daily. It is not only your agility that is being tested. Elements of balance, flexibility and strength are also required.
There are free YouTube videos which you can access to get a better picture of different techniques for safely getting down and up from the ground.
If you struggle to get up off the ground, you should practise this technique regularly.
Side shuffles - These two are excellent low-impact and safe exercises if you are just starting out to improve your agility from scratch.
The first one is to stand feet together, step to the right, feet together, step to the right, feet together and reverse back to the starting position.
In the second one, do exactly the same except with each step you put your stepping foot in front of the other one so you are crossing over each time.
Repeat these a few times and perhaps speed up the pace as you improve.
Fitness (cardiovascular)
Once again, use the guidelines in the tests with the general idea being to do short bursts of high-intensity exercise at your own level of fitness.
This may be a combination of, say, twenty-five-star jumps, followed by ten squat-thrusts and fifty air punches while jogging on the spot. Take a minute’s break between each set.
Climbing up and down flights of stairs is an excellent way to get you puffing and with the additional benefit of giving your legs and gluteals a good workout.
You can do these as part of your daily routine and also after you have had a prolonged time sitting down. If I’ve been playing bridge for a couple of hours, I will always do a short cardio routine and perhaps some strength exercises as well.
These short daily bursts are a great addition to any other physical activities that you are involved in.
Flexibility
One area which often misses out is that of flexibility, which is primarily gained by passive stretching. This is where particular stretches are held in one position for a short period of time. Yoga and Pilates are good examples of this.
Regular stretching is a non-negotiable discipline. You absolutely do not want to lose flexibility in key areas like the neck, shoulders and hips. Once this happens, your tendons, ligaments and cartilage become brittle and weakened, and your ability to perform simple daily tasks can be severely compromised.
Just as you brush your teeth, ideally stretching should become a daily activity.
The following are basic stretches which I use and will cover most of the key muscle groups and joints of the body.
Neck, triceps, shoulder and upper back stretch - This is in four movements. With one arm straight and above your head, drop your hand back till it touches your shoulder. Take your other hand and hold your elbow. With this hand pull your elbow directly backwards and hold for a few seconds. Repeat this movement with the other arm. Hold each one for about ten seconds.
Roll both your shoulders back and around in a circular movement four times.
Turn your chin as far round towards your right shoulder as you can and repeat with the movement towards the left shoulder. Hold for about ten seconds in each direction.
Gently rotate your head around your neck in a circular movement one way then the other
Repeat the sequence of these four movements at least three times.
This set of four stretches will help to stretch and keep supple all of the muscles and other soft tissues in your head, neck, shoulders and upper back.
Spine, lower back, hips, hamstrings and calf stretch - This is another good all-rounder.
Feet wide apart and legs straight, arms folded. Drop your folded arms slowly down towards the floor and hold for three to four breaths.
This is a powerful stretch for all of the muscle groups and areas mentioned above.
Child’s Pose - Kneel on the floor with your knees apart and sit back on your heels. Lean forward so your stomach touches your thighs, and rest your forehead on the floor. You can extend your arms out in front of you with your palms down, or place them by your sides or under your forehead.
This is a good all-rounder for stretching shoulders, lower back and hips.
Lower back and hips - Lie on your back with your legs straight, grasp your right knee in both hands and pull up as far as you can towards your chest and hold for ten to fifteen seconds. Repeat using the other leg.
Downward Dog - This is simply one of the best stretches for multiple parts of the body including shoulders, spine, hips, hamstrings and calves.
On hands and knees, raise your buttocks and at the same time straighten your legs while keeping your heels flat on the ground. Push your buttocks up as high as possible and hold for fifteen to twenty seconds. Your head should stay in line between your arms.
At first you may not be able to keep your heels flat on the ground. In time, as you become more flexible, you may be able to achieve this.
Calf and Achilles tendon stretch - You can perform this by placing both hands against a wall or bench at about kitchen bench height. With straight legs and feet together, walk your feet back until your heels are off the ground.
Push your heels back to touch the ground and hold for ten to fifteen seconds. Increase the intensity of the stretch by pushing your hips towards the ground.
You can also do this with one leg back at a time. Repeat all of the above stretches two to three times.
Windscreen Wipers - Lie on your back with your arms fully extended out to the side with the backs of your hands on the floor. Bring both knees up together towards your chest. With the backs of your hands still on the floor, rotate your knees to one side or the other as far as you can towards the ground then repeat on the other side. Repeat ten times.
You may find it easier to do this same exercise keeping your feet on the ground.
This is a great all-round core exercise engaging your spine, abdominals, hip flexors and gluteals.
Strength
As I mentioned, your arms and legs tend to get a reasonable workout with the normal daily demands of your life. Sometimes the core and upper core (your trunk) miss out. Regular specific strength exercises can prevent deterioration of this all-important core of your body.
If you can retain a strong core as you age, this will help to prevent osteoporosis, muscle weakening and deterioration of other soft tissues.
You will notice that many people as they grow older become more stooped, with shoulders slumping forward and their head and neck tending to also bend forward. This is often the result of a loss of core strength. It is really difficult to hold your head up nice and straight if your upper spine and neck muscles are weak.
Crunches - Lie on your back with your knees bent and anchored under a couch, bed or bench. Cross your arms across your chest and gently roll your shoulders up off the ground and down again.
For a start I would just do a few of these, otherwise you might end up with rather sore abdominals.
Gradually build up to whatever you are comfortable with. Three sets of ten with a rest in between would be sufficient.
Press-ups - For press-ups you must have a straight back. Each press-up goes from having straight arms down to your nose almost touching the floor and back to straight arms.
If you cannot manage a press-up, do them with your knees on the ground. They will still benefit the same muscle groups. You may be able to work your way up to the full press-up version.
They strengthen the lower back and other parts of the core, triceps, pectorals and shoulders. Press-ups are another great all-round strength exercise. Do three sets of five and work up from there.
Planking - Lie on your front, with body straight and supported on your elbows and lower arms and toes.
You can have your fingers lightly interlaced and your hands and elbows forming a triangle shape.
If you cannot manage a full plank, support yourself on your knees.
For a start, only hold the position for as long as you are comfortable. Ten to thirty seconds would be about right. You can progress from there if you feel the need.
Planking helps to stabilise the lumbar spine and pelvis. And it strengthens the abdominal and gluteal (buttocks) muscles.
Bridges - A bridge is a simple exercise with a number of benefits.
Lie on your back with your knees bent. Raise your buttocks off the ground for a few seconds.
Repeat at least five times.
Bridging engages core muscles, particularly gluteals, and also your quadriceps (thigh) muscles.
Opposite arm and leg raise - From on all fours, raise your right hand and left leg off the ground at the same time. Do this movement slowly and extend both your arm and leg as much as possible if your balance allows this.
Repeat using opposite hand and leg. Hold each movement for a few seconds and repeat ten times.
This is a great all-round core exercise and helps to strengthen your abdomen, lower back, hip flexors, and spine. And it has an excellent balance factor.
Arms and legs
Triceps – Located at the back of your upper arm. Your biceps get most of the action in lifting anything, and triceps by comparison are left relatively unemployed.
Dips have already been mentioned and will help to strengthen this important muscle group.
If you are not strong enough to do dips, you can use a stretchy band or a dumbbell. The action is to hold the dumbbell above your head and lower down towards the back of your shoulder and up again.
With a stretchy band, hold one end in each hand above your head and the band under your shoulders. Lower both hands down towards the back of your shoulder and up again.
Biceps - You can also use the dumbbells or the stretchy bands for biceps or wrist curls.
Legs - If you feel that your leg muscles need strengthening, squats are excellent for this. They work on your large thigh muscles (quadriceps). Use calf-raises for strengthening your lower leg.
With all of the above exercises start with light weight and do five repetitions and repeat three times. Gradually build up from there.
If you are walking regularly and active in other ways, your legs are getting daily workouts which should keep muscle, joint and soft tissues in good shape as you grow older.
Summary – Use your notes to put together a plan of your day and when and where you are going to fit in your exercises and stretches similar to these examples below. Atomic habits are tiny habits which you attach to your everyday habits so you do not have to change your daily routine.
Attaching Atomic (tiny) Habits to your everyday habits
Wake up - Do knees to chest stretches in bed
Get dressed - Stand on one leg to put trousers and socks on
Breakfast - Head and neck stretch while microwaving oats,
Brush teeth - Stand on one leg
Walk to work - Add in a hill, walk on lines, do heel to toe balance
AM work - Do strength exercises to break up sitting periods
Lunch - Do some chair stand squats
PM work - As in morning do active sitting routine every 40 mins
TV - Do remaining stretches and 2-minute skip with rope
Note: – You can use this same format to set up your own routine.
Finally – Have fun and don’t forget to keep in touch and let me know how you are going.