Doing exercise with others or a professional in fitness may often seem like the best way to get the most out of your workout. However, there are occasions you may need to exercise independently; which can be both an exciting and daunting prospect. When we work out on our own, it may be the case that our true potential is not achieved, in that without others to watch us, our efforts may be reduced. Also, when we do exercise independently and do not achieve our true potential, it can impact on the way we personally feel about ourselves; which can negatively impact our mental health. Many who are having spinal cord injury treatment will need to do some amount of exercise on their own. For this reason, we have researched and want to share with you five tips to make sure you achieve the most out of exercising alone:
Make sure you plan before you start:
Just like going to the gym, it is important to plan a list of all the various types of exercises you want to carry out before you begin exercising alone. This is because without planning, we can easily ignore the more difficult and strenuous activities which may be important to aid your spinal cord injury treatment. If you are feeling a little lost with where you can begin, then you can choose five exercises to do each day for thirty days on a calendar; with each day that passes, the amount of each exercise you do increases so that you are constantly benefiting from it.
Prepare a decent playlist of music:
Music is a great influencer of how well we work out; this is because it has a huge impact on the way that we feel. Music can ensure that you stay motivated, active, and ready to go. Sometimes, if you are struggling to carry out an exercise, a more upbeat track from your playlist may just motivate you to complete it and feel satisfied. You can search for summer or workout track lists from the internet, begin compiling them into a playlist, and then you are ready to begin.
Set goals with yourself:
Thinking of and setting small goals for you to achieve may help along the way with your spinal cord injury treatment. Small goals such as: being able to walk for ten minutes, lifting a set of weights a certain number of times, or even doing a few more trunk raises can help to keep you excited about exercising alone, and can also be a good thing to remind yourself of everyday to keep committed to your exercise regimen, or even show-off successes to friends.
Try the outdoors:
Sometimes, staying indoors can cause to feel a bit low or gloomy. Considering a change of environment, specifically, to the outdoors, can prove to be a beneficial way of enhancing your independent exercise. You may not be used to or interested in the idea of walking in a park, or jogging alongside a lake, however, you may just fall in love and prefer this type of exercise; all you need to do is try it out to discover if you like it or not. Another thing you can think about is choosing a beautiful destination to exercise or end your exercise at. You may walk to a beautiful viewing point, jog past a sunset, or take some aerobics beside areas of natural nature.
Stop talking yourself out of it:
The moment that you stop exercising because you feel the urge to blame that you feel bad as the reason, is the moment that you are beginning a line of excuses which cause solo exercise regimens to fail. It is essential that you try to remain positive about your goals and exercise. Try to immediately think of something else more positive about your mission if any negative thoughts start to come to your mind.
We hope that with these five useful tips that we have been able to share with you have left you feeling more confident with starting to exercise on your own. It may be the case that you are thinking of exercising alone as a method of spinal cord injury treatment. If this is so, then you may want to start thinking about combining solo exercise with a new and innovative therapy, known as epidural stimulation. Epidural stimulation involves applying a chip into the protective coating of your spine (the dura). This chip is controlled by the user with a remote control; which alters the frequency and strength of electric currents that pass into the spine. Those currents are able to target weakened neurons, and if combined with exercise, has seen individuals who have paralysed limbs, become able to move them again.
