Regular exercise is an essential part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, especially when it comes to the health of your heart, spine, joints, and bones. Exercising on a weekly basis keeps your heart strong, your muscles flexible, and your mind healthy. This active lifestyle can involve anything from jogging once or twice a week to playing a sport with friends on the weekend. Many studies show that this level of exercise cuts the risk of cancer and improves your mental health. Our Chiropractor in West Vancouver can help you get into a regular exercise program if you are just starting out.
However, anyone who exercises regularly can tell you that there is sometimes a limit on how often and how hard you should exercise. Our Chiropractor in West Vancouver often talks to patients who are looking for a consistent and healthy exercise plan which won’t push their body too hard.
Just Getting Started
Life can get in the way of regular exercise. Whether you’re returning to working out after a long break or you’re getting started for the first time, there are a few things to remember when you first start exercising again. Chiropractors are trained to look closely at bone, joint, and spine health, and we often notice when a patient is exercising properly or exercising poorly.
Take it Easy
Your first return to exercise should be doing something easy. A light walk or even a brisk and short jog. These sorts of activities won’t cause pain or damage to your joints. An intense sprint, hitting the gym to lift weights, or working out longer than you should, could all cause some more significant problems down the line. Your Chiropractor in West Vancouver will be able to assist in planning an exercise regime that keeps your body and mind healthy without the risk of overworking your joints, bones, and musculoskeletal health.
Are you not noticing any Changes After Exercising?
One of the most common complaints that we hear from our patients here at Ambleside Chiropractic in West Vancouver is that people are upset that they aren’t noticing a significant change to their body, even after regular exercise. This lack of improvement causes them to exercise even more vigorously. If you are no longer noticing changes to your body, it could be because your workout regime isn’t varied enough. Changing up those long stints of cardio with a session of weights keeps your body flexible and keeps those calories burning at an even higher rate.
Working Out Too Much?
Although the health benefits of working out on a regular basis overrides a sedentary lifestyle, there is also such a thing as overworking your body. The initial symptoms you’ll spot include mood swings and soreness throughout your body. These can manifest as feeling tired, depressed, having trouble sleeping, and contracting overuse injuries such as shin splints or sore arms and tendonitis.
Getting the Rest You Need
The symptoms of over-exercising can usually be resolved with a rest period, with anywhere between 1-2 weeks being the optimum time to get your body back to feeling normal. You don’t have to stop exercising altogether, but if you are noticing some of the symptoms above, it’s a good idea to cut back or take a well-needed break. Once the rest period is over, you should feel back to normal: if you still feel some of the symptoms, it’s a good idea to raise the issue with your Chiropractor in West Vancouver or healthcare professional, as there could be underlying reasons that are yet to be diagnosed.
How to avoid overworking yourself
Making sure your exercise regime is healthy is more important than doing the exercise itself. You need to maintain a healthy life balance while you exercise, making sure you get enough calories to match the amount you are working out. Drinking enough water is also crucially important, especially if you’re undertaking intense workouts. A good sleeping pattern with the recommended 8 hours of sleep a night will go a long way towards your wellbeing. You also shouldn’t work out in the extreme heat or cold, and should always cut back when you start to feel ill effects of over-exercise.
Learning to love exercise
Working out too much is usually a symptom of those who exercise compulsively. It’s a real condition that affects those who might have problems with their body image or issues with eating. If you do notice yourself becoming lethargic, exhausted and dreading your next work out, it’s time to rethink your strategy. Here at Ambleside Chiropractic in West Vancouver, we spend hours working closely with people who want to improve their lifestyle and exercise healthily. No two cases are the same, and if you want personalized advice, a visit to our Chiropractor in West Vancouver is recommended.
