Starting a New Exercise Program by Michael Harris, PhD

Many of our customers after taking our Genostim product (www.genostim.com) discover in addition to feeling better, that they have a desire to begin moving around more and EVEN (gasp!) begin exercising. I applaud that desire and support it fully.

Beginning a new exercise program can be complicated as well as sometimes painful to those not used to the feeling of muscles being stiff or sore and the additional stress of unknown conditions of the body. It is always a good idea to get a full checkup from your primary physician before starting any new exercise regimen.

Here are a few Tips for starting and succeeding in your new exercise regimen:

Tip #1 Start Slow and Gently
If you are significantly out-of-shape, overweight and even if you aren’t, make sure that your exercise routine is in the 30-40% of your maximum effort and keeping the exercise duration to 30 minutes max ONLY for the first 6-12 weeks.

The primary reason would be that people who are severely out-of-shape and/or overweight are working out ALL THE TIME and carrying those extra pounds requires the body to work harder even in activities of daily living. Starting slower and being more gentle with yourself until the pounds begin to drop is a much more ecological way to approach this activity.

You can always increase intensity later when your muscles and, particularly, the connective tissue has grown used to the new activity levels. The average time for muscles to get in shape (conditioned) is 6-18 weeks and connective tissue can take up to a year or longer to become used to your new activities. Exercise is a strategy for a lifetime so you have a lifetime to get good at it so take it easy.

Tip #2 Shoes
There is almost nothing that is more important in the realm of exercise than the good pair of well-fitting shoes. Have your exercise shoes fitted by a professional at real running store; you will thank me later. I’m 6 foot one and weigh about 235 lbs. I kind of look like an ex-football player although I don’t lift weights (anymore) and I do yoga on average 4-5 times per week.

If you look at the insurance charts you can see what your weight and height is supposed to be, but don’t believe them. I've always been 50 plus pounds overweight according to those ANTIQUATED 1950’s charts. So for me, having the best fitting shoes possible is going to be the best all-around for not only my feet but my knees, hips and lower back.

The other thing you need to know about shoes is replace them often. The average exercise shoe is designed for the average person so this translates into replacement about once every 3-4 months. That is if you only wear your exercise shoes when you exercise.

I’m lucky that I work in an office where you can wear just about whatever you want. So I come here straight from my morning yoga class. Most of the year, I’m wearing flip-flops but during the winter and early spring it’s colder so I put my running shoes on to go to class and then I wear them the rest of the day. This translates into replacing my shoes about once every two months because my sheer weight crushes the inside of the shoe before the outsides of the shoes even looks worn.

It’s also recommended to rotate your shoes but I haven’t done this as yet. Good shoes are over $100 so I’ll just get one pair at a time.
(source - http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/tipsandtricks/a/replaceshoes.htm)

Tip #3 Get Professional Help
I used to own a personal training facility and I can say that I have helped lots of people who are still exercising today and are injury free. When I sold my gym and took up yoga and hypnosis, I followed my own advice and got private lessons to go with the group yoga classes that I was taking.

My yoga instructor was very insightful in helping me adjust the asanas (yoga postures) to fit my current level of fitness and my individual physiological short-comings. After a while, I was able to do the postures the way they were designed to look and feel but you have to GO SLOW particularly if you are beginning above the age of 45-50. If you have existing physical issues or injuries, lengthening your timeline to 2 years may be necessary.
(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asana)

Tip #4 Stay the Course
One thing I have heard from more people than any other comment is as they begin an exercise regimen that it “hurts”. Or more accurately their body hurts after exercising and they are wondering when they are going to get to “FEELING GOOD” part that everyone else seems to be experiencing. I think that an explanation might help.

When I’ve seen people professionally in a therapeutic environment for anger management, grief resolution, etc.; one of the things I’ve noticed is the client generally wants to make a quantum leap from one emotional state to another. Like from really bad to really good. Although this is sometimes possible, it generally requires some smaller steps in-between. The process would be more along the line of really bad, to kind of bad, to neutral, to kind of good to really good.

Using this process in your exercise program would also work well. By setting an expectation that some days will be really bad in the beginning and then through process, becoming first neutral and then finally good to really good, may be a more manageable method to get through those first few days or weeks when your body is adapting to the change in activity.

Remember muscles are like teenagers, they don’t want to do anything unless it involves sleeping, eating or being away from your watchful eyes.