Whatever you are, be a good one.

March 2008, Brett

Try New Things

Mother always said it is important to try new things. In addition to eating your broccoli, it is a good idea to try new activities as well. In fact, if you don’t change your type of activity, you may be short changing yourself in many ways. 

First, humans adapt.  Actually, we are quite good at it.  When you first start an exercise program, you may feel uncoordinated, clumsy, or just plain exhausted from what seems like a simple movement.  After a month or so, you feel much more confident, coordinated, and the activity becomes second nature to you.  This increased coordination results in less calorie expenditure, and if you do that same activity for a long time, a plateau where you stop making progress.  These adaptation calories you burn can be enough to push you out of the weight loss rut in which you may be stuck. 

Second, not every exercise works every muscle group.  Very few exercises are that thorough and without the addition of other activities can lead to muscle imbalances which could potentially lead to injury.  If you change up your activity on a regular basis, these imbalances tend to even out, resulting in a much healthier, balanced body.  Finally, the benefits don’t just lean to the physical.  If you do the same activity every day, you will eventually get bored.  Perhaps you have run the same route every day, or have put enough miles on your exercise bike to travel halfway around the world.  The human mind needs stimulation, and a change of venue or even a complete overhaul of your workout will keep you fresh and motivated to stay active.

It takes only a little change to shake up your workout.  If you like to walk, wonderful!  However, to change things up, see if you can walk a different route with more or less hills.  If you like a little more variety, switch from jogging to swimming for a month or two.  Ideally, a change of activity every 6 weeks will prevent the problems of boredom or lack of progress that can occur.  Whether you change a little or a lot, change will do you good. 

If you are looking for some new ideas for activity, try our new Health Challenge Follow the Flame.  We will be following the torch as it winds its way around the world toward the Beijing Olympics.  Along the way we will explore new (or in some cases very old) ways of being active in cultures around the world.  Just log in to your myHealthyUtah account at www.HealthyUtah.org/myhu to begin Following the Flame! 

If you have questions on this or any other fitness topic, contact Brett McIff, MSPH, CSCS at bmciff@utah.gov.  Keep Moving!