Change of season doesn’t mean a change in training. As summer is coming to an end here in the Southern Hemisphere and the days become shorter, and the temperature begins to cool so many people start to find more and more excuses not to train. The darkness that greet us as we head home, the rain, the cooler mornings and the general lack of motivation seem to be the go to reasons to reduce our training levels or to give up all together.
This is the biggest mistake that most people make when it comes to their health and fitness. Your exercise routine is not for 12 weeks or just for over the summer months. It should be integrated into your everyday life. This does not mean that you have to become a gym junkie and be training all the time. Simply make exercise a normal part of your life. Schedule it into your day and week and before long you won’t know what you did before it.
Giving up because the seasons change is a ridiculous thing to do. All the hard work you have put in during the summer months will be undone and you’ll find yourself before too long started the long road back as we head into another summer period. It may seem like a long way away when you’re in the depths of winter but I can guarantee you it will be here again before you know and along with the usual panic about your health and fitness you don’t want to be adding fuel to the fire because you have done nothing over the colder months.
Here in Australia we really don’t have much of a winter. Yes the days are shorter and cooler but our climate tends to not get the adverse winter conditions that others around the globe get. Often I hear from clients that they have let themselves go over the winter months as it was easier to stay at home on those cold nights. We tend to eat heavier meals during winter too and don’t start me on the over consumption of desserts. Now I am all for enjoying food but when I see some of those sugar laden desserts it makes my heart shudder with all those toxic things flooding our bodies.
If you make your fitness a normal part of your life you won’t find yourself caught on the usual spring panic of trying to remove all the weight you have put on over the cooler months. Its so easy to stay at home all tucked up and warm, eating all those heavier and calorie rich foods. But I guarantee you as soon as the warmer months roll around again you’ll wish you hadn’t!
One of the most undervalued benefits from regular exercise is the boost we get to our immune systems.
Light or moderate exercise boosts our body’s natural immune system by circulating protective cells through the body faster, to attack and eliminate bacteria, viruses and fungi. Infection fighters, such as Natural Killer Cells, macrophages, immunoglobins, white blood cells, and other antibodies, are produced in the bone marrow, lungs, and spleen, and have a clean up effect on foreign invaders.
Another theory holds that the increase in body temperature when we exercise may inhibit the growth of bacteria, thus reducing its foothold in the body. Some exercise scientists believe that regular exercise helps rid the lungs of airborne bacteria and viruses that cause URTI, while others believe exercise causes the loss of carcinogens through increased sweat and urine loss.
Interestingly, active people also experience lower rates of colon cancer and breast cancer. Researchers believe that moderate exercise boosts the body’s immune system, attacking malignancies that have viral origin. In addition, the faster passage of food through people who exercise reduces the time carcinogens are in the digestive tract. And fit people are less likely to be overweight and have lower body fat, which can cause cancers.
There is a down side to exercise too. If you over exercise you can suppress normal immune function, so getting the right balance of frequency, intensity and duration of fitness workouts is critical. You can go from being vibrantly healthy and energetic to toppling over the abyss by picking up any virus and infections going around, if you overdo things.
So my advice is if you’re currently exercising and want to continue to have a healthy mind and body, continue what you’re doing. If you need to bring about some change because you’re getting bored join a Group Personal Training class or find yourself a one on one personal trainer. If you’re looking for some variety in your training maybe look to our online personal training where we can send all your workouts to our app on your phone and you can work out when and where you can make time to do it. This is a great idea for those who are travelling a lot for work. I know i wish that I had this option some 12 years ago when I was struggling with my weight. If you’d like to read more about my story click here <MY STORY> If you are looking to start exercising and are looking towards next summer to be in the best shape of your life start right now. Take a look at my post about starting and some of the tips to make it a success for you.