Dr Bradley Elliott, Senior Lecturer in Physiology, wrote an article for The Conversation giving tips to help you better keep exercising if it is your new year’s resolution.
In the article, Dr Elliott wrote about how exercising more is one of the most common new year resolutions people make, yet more than a quarter of people fail to keep their resolutions, and only half maintain some of them.
Giving tips about how to help you better keep exercising as a new year’s resolution, he wrote: “Want to run 2,021km in 2021? Breaking this larger goal down would mean you should plan on running 5.5km a day (every day) or about 8km every day before work if you work Monday-Friday. But also consider what happens if you get an injury – do you have redundancy built into your plan? You should also plan breaks to prevent overtraining.”
He added: “Research shows that by combining ambitious goals with multiple achievable sub-goals, you’re more likely to be successful. Being able to tick off the goals as you go may also give you a positive motivational boost to keep going.”
He also advised only to take up running if you enjoy it, and wrote: “Running is great. Almost anyone can do it, it’s great for the whole body, requires minimal equipment and you can do it almost anywhere. Running also improves cardiovascular health and bone density.
“People often ask what type of exercise they should do, and I typically tell them that the answer depends on what they enjoy doing. This is because you’re much likely to keep doing exercise you enjoy over activities you find yourself dreading.”
Read the full story on The Conversation’s website.
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