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Thinking about exercise is enough to put shivers down a lot of people's spine. If you can move on from these qualms and realise the benefits, it may be enough to get you off that sofa.
There are so many benefits from simple exercise including:
I have many patients coming to surgery complaining of all sorts of problems from high blood pressure to painful joints. It is so important to get these people on board over their need to change their lifestyle. Even arthritic patients with painful joints often need to improve their mobility and reduce their weight. However trying to get these patients to appreciate the benefits of exercise is jolly difficult and many consultations are taken in trying to motivate these patients.
Such motivation includes:
I would advise that when beginning to exercise, that a slow build up from 10 minutes per session would prevent any injury. Often patients come in with pulled muscles or back pain saying that exercise is harmful and not for them. Finding out the true story can be very illuminating as too enthusiastic exercise can lead to all sorts of injuries especially for the previous 'couch potato.' The aim is to exercise for at least 30 minutes on 5 days a week but this will take time and motivation to achieve. This is difficult for people new to exercise and I have a lot of patients who are very demotivated about the whole concept of exercise.
It is important to involve people in their exercise plan to be able to fit into their lifestyle. Lots of people think that exercise equates to the gym but there are many other ways including:
Beginning to exercise can be very daunting and difficult. It is important to overcome the many hurdles that restrict people's ability to be active. I always recommend my patients to become more active but I realise that they will have make a major change to their lifestyle. When you get it right, the results are there for all see. However it is often an uphill struggle to give the confidence to patients to get them to begin to exercise and reap the far greater rewards than medication can offer alone.
