Exercise More – Get Outdoors

Today is National Fitness Day. September is a great time to redress the balance after summer holidays and make a new exercise plan.  Time to get out and get moving!

Regular exercise has many benefits – a healthier heart, increased well-being, and a better quality of life. Research shows that if you exercise with friends, you are more likely to continue to keep fit, as the social environment encourages positive associations with the activity.

Exercising outdoors can contribute to this feeling of wellbeing. Organised outdoor exercise groups have grown in popularity recently, with a wide range of community-based activities across the country. A few of the more popular outdoor exercise activities are detailed here:

Park Run – Over 1 million Britons have taken part in Park Run – the Saturday morning 5k run in local parks across the country.

Project Awesome –  A free community exercise group based in London, Bristol and Edinburgh, Project Awesome is based on high-energy, early morning exercise classes designed to kick-start your day.

Good Gym –  For those who’d like to combine voluntary work with exercise, Good Gym enables you to meet like-minded people to run and work together on community projects in your local area.

British Military Fitness – Operating in parks across the UK,  British military fitness classes are run by serving or former members of the armed forces with recognised fitness training qualifications. Classes are graded by ability group and are for members of the public. They are designed for all abilities, from those just starting to exercise who want to lose weight, to the already very fit.

Open Air Swimming – If you’re a keen swimmer, have you ever tried swimming outdoors? There are many reported benefits to open-air swimming, which can be enjoyed all year round even in the UK, with or without wetsuits. Check Wild Swim for your nearest open-air swimming site.

Getting Fit with Fleet Street Clinic

Our podiatrists can offer advice on appropriate footwear for exercise and our dietician and osteopath can work with you to support your exercise regime, ensuring a holistic approach to achieving a long-term, healthier you.

So you’re back to work and the tree’s on its way back to the loft. Time to come through on all the New Year’s resolution bravado. Here are a few tips about how to do just that.

Create a plan

Decide what it is you’re wanting to achieve and tailor your program towards it. Do you want to lose weight? Get fitter? Tone up? All three? Don’t just choose the new fitness regime trend, think what you enjoy to do and go with that! You stand much more chance of continuing if you do. Identify times of day when you can exercise and which days you will do it. It’s much harder to stick to a regime that is just squeezed in when and if you have the time (not to mention inclination!)

Determine your readiness

Make sure you are mentally and physically ready to start, and more importantly ready to stick to, a regime. Check with your GP if you have any concerns about your health before you start. A good proportion of my new patients come from people who have caused injuries in the first few weeks, or even days sometimes, of starting a new regime. If you have any niggles, get them treated, and get advice on how to prevent them from recurring.

Be realistic

Set goals that are achievable and realistic. To lose a stone or be able to run 10k by Easter are realistic. To decide you are going to the gym every day before breakfast probably won’t last long. Fitness needs to be built gradually with a good base. Get advice on what exercise you need to do. Just running will help cardiovascular fitness somewhat, but needs to be part of a balanced all-around program if you want to be healthier generally. To maintain it, alone, running will also soon start to cause musculoskeletal problems.

Talk a friend into joining you

There will probably be no shortage of people thinking along the same lines as you. Teaming up hugely increases the chances of you both sticking to a program and makes it much more fun and less painful than trying alone. Even just planning together and talking about what you’re doing, (even if diaries don’t allow actually exercising together), is really encouraging.

Think long-term

Don’t look at this as a quick fix just to drop a few pounds. Take it easy and don’t rush. Tailor your plan around becoming more fit and healthy permanently. If you do it will help with so many other things, from energy levels to less aching joints or back, to stress relief and better sleep.

By Andrew Doody | Osteopath

Andrew is available for pre-exercise assessment, advice on exercise/regime planning, and diagnosis/treatment of outstanding or new issues, as well as advice on injury prevention. You can book an osteopathy appointment online. 

5 excellent ways the Fleet St, Clinic’s occupational health services can benefit employee health and well being:

• Recruiting a new employee? Arrange a pre-placement assessment.
  Why?  The OH nurse or doctor can check whether the employee is fit to undertake the role.  If any health concerns are identified, s/he can make recommendations, where appropriate, to promote the employee’s well being and health at work.
• Staff reporting back problems?  Arrange an ergonomic assessment.
  Why?  It could be that your employee’s workplace arrangement is causing or contributing to the problem.  Our ergonomics consultant can assess their workplace in relation to the problem(s) reported/diagnosed and provide advice and recommendations on how to reduce symptoms.
• A staff member returning to work after illness?  Arrange a Fitness Assessment.
  Why? Employees and employers can benefit from advice and recommendations on how best for the employee to enter back into work to minimise risk of relapse and aid a successful and healthy return to work.
• Assigning one of your employees to a project abroad?  Arrange a pre-deployment medical.
  Why?  Depending on the assignment and location, working abroad can increase stresses on the individual and often with limited access to medical care.  A pre-deployment medical can assess whether the employee is fit to undertake the post, provide advice and recommendations to promote their health while away and advise on any travel precautions to prevent illness.

You can find out more about our occupational health services here.

Alternatively, fill out the form below and we’ll propose suitable services for your consideration.