Are you the type of person when the word exercise comes up, your head begins to battle itself?

It starts with ‘I am tired. Do I have to?’ Then a little voice on your shoulder goes, “No, no, it is good I need to do it. It is great for my body. I am going to benefit later on.”

‘But it is hard to do it.’ The voice goes again, “No, no, you are going to feel it in the following 20, 30 years and remainder of your life. So look after your body now.”

If you are constantly going from not wanting and then to “I should be exercising”. Maybe you need take a step back and think of what do I need to do? Here is what we think are just a couple of items that you need to do daily for a well-functioning & heathy body.

Heart Rate

Stimulating our heart rate produces a body that is capable of handling the everyday stresses in our life. There are many situations where our bodies need to move, need to battle sickness, need to handle the daily household chores, the tasks at work and even any emotional strain that is currently going in your life at this point in time. Take this example. Think of your body as a car and your heart as the engine. The role of the engine is to push everything around our system, our body. So it is able to function and deal with our everyday stresses in our life.

Move your body

Much like increasing our heart rate, our bodies require us to be moving. Without a stimulus or a way to challenge our bodies, our muscles will begin to shrink and the function of our muscles and movements will not be as re-active when our body is needing to be moved quickly. Over time, this is going to reflect on other parts of our body. Meaning our tendons, our ligaments, our joints will not move as efficient as if they were constantly in movement.

To change this, keep it really simple. Be active every day. It does not have to be working out five or six days a week with exercise. All it needs to be, is you go out for a stroll with your family in the afternoons or you walk to work or cycle into the train station. By making those intentional activities through the day, you will find the benefit throughout the day when it is required to move quickly.

Have a ‘Sharp’ mind

Strive to discover ways that require our brain to work hard in completing set tasks. In that search of finding tasks and in completing those tasks, our brain is getting more efficient and effective. It is done by firing synapses and electronic cues in our mind. Which tells our body to do things, like to solve a problem in front of you.

By optimizing our mind, we think “clearly” when any situations arise that demand more from our thoughts in our brain. Some of these ways could include completing puzzles, crosswords, word sleuths and learning new skills. Anything that requires us to use a more brain power is a great way to keep our minds ‘sharp’ for years to come.

Other ways to challenge our mind can be done in a different way. Things like singing, dancing, drawing, acting. These are all creative. Generally, these creative tasks are like doing repetitions of squats in the gym for our legs. Instead, it is for our mind. By continuing to stimulate our mind, we are able to keep a clearer pathway for the rest of the day. Then any extra daily tasks or demanding stresses that appear, we are able to handle them with a clearer mind.

It only takes a little bit of movement and problems to solve to keep our mind and body ready for any daily activities.