Welcome back to this week’s edition of 2-Minute Tuesdays where we are talking about one exercise topic for two minutes and giving you three reasons why you should follow our advice. Now this week, we are talking to those of you who are transitioning from exercising for sports to exercising on your own. What things do you need to keep in mind with your workouts to make sure your exercise promotes your health in the ways that sports do not?
1) Change Your Mindset
Exercise Tip Number One If You Are Transitioning From Playing Sports: Change your mindset from exercising to win or for competition to exercising to improve and benefit your body. When you exercise for your health, you want to be thinking about, “How can I exercise to improve the state of my body, such as making it stronger, more mobile, or improving my endurance?” Make sure you are not compromising your body’s health in order to “win” during your workouts.
Action Step: The exercise that will improve your health most effectively is what we call Foundational Exercise. We talk all about Foundational Exercise in detail in this podcast episode. Give it a listen!
Related: The Three Most Common Bad Exercise Habits I See
2) Learn To Listen To Your Body
Exercise Tip Number Two If You Are Transitioning From Playing Sports: Learn to listen to your body. This is not a “I need to workout at all costs no matter what” kind of situation. You have to learn to listen to the signals your body is telling you so you can decide whether it is a good day to workout harder, back off your workout, or keep it going steady.
Action Step: One convenient tool that can tell you how well your body is doing is tracking your Heart Rate Variability (HRV). Start measuring your HRV every morning to see how ready your body is for the day ahead!
Related: The Most Commonly Skipped Form of Exercise
3) Keep Your Workouts Balanced
Exercise Tip Number Three If You Are Transitioning From Playing Sports: Keep your workouts balanced. Now that you are going to be working out to keep your body healthy, you have to keep all of your muscle tissue working well and all of your joints healthy. Make sure you keep your workouts varied and balanced so that all of your joints and muscles are being taken care of as well as possible.
Action Step: Interested in learning how to keep your workouts balanced? Start by downloading our FREE 5-Minute Mobility Check guidebook here!
