Exercising during the back-to-school frenzy

Many of us find it difficult to maintain our exercise commitments during the back-to-school frenzy. Below are a few pointers to help you maintain your exercise programme during the stressful back-to-school time.

Exercise at a regular time each day. Hold your exercise hour sacred and put it at a priority level equal to the most important school and business activity of the day. Where time poses a challenge, you can do mini-sessions such as three 10-minute sessions at convenient times in the day instead of 30 minutes in one session.

The earlier in the day you can exercise the better, because there is less chance of other things interfering with your workout.

Do activities that you enjoy and don't be afraid to try new ones. New activities are crucial to making exercise sessions novel and interesting. Where possible, exercise at different venues so that you benefit from a variety of facilities, equipment and environment. This will provide you with the opportunity to combine different activities and prevent the monotony of repeating the same activities each time you exercise.

Exercising with a friend or a group has many advantages. The social interaction makes the experience more fulfilling and it will be harder for you to skip sessions when others are relying on your support.

Set yourself realistic goals that are not too easy or too difficult to achieve and keep a record of your performance to help you monitor your progress. Reward yourself when you achieve your goals. However, do not get carried away and become a chronic exerciser. Stop or slow down if you experience pain or unusual discomforts, as these could be indicators of potential injury. If you sustain an injury, avoid activities that could aggravate the injury. You can crosstrain or continue to do other activities that do not aggravate the injury.

Learn to listen to your body so that you can avoid chronic fatigue and injuries that could discourage you from exercising.

The right outfit is critical to the level of exercising satisfaction. A poor pair of footwear could make you very uncomfortable and injury prone, and tight clothing made of the wrong material could make you hot and irritable.

You can make your exercise sessions more enjoyable by having background music. This is also an excellent way to regulate the tempo of the session and to exercise more vigorously for a longer time.

Dr Kenneth Gardner is an exercise physiologist at Holiday Hills Research Center; email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com.