Exercise SMARTer not Harder

            At Chiropractic USA we want to guide YOU through the process of creating a SMART exercise routine. It’s always important to make gradual progress toward increasing your strength and improving your cardiovascular fitness. However, even if you are doing SMART exercise injuries can still happen. Chiropractic care helps prevent unexpected injuries by keeping the structure of the body strong; this element can speed up recovery if an injury does occur.

   S.M.A.R.T exercise stands for Senses, Memory, Attention, Repetition and Thinking.

It is very important to trust your sensory nervous system when exercising. The muscles in your body have a memory pattern that only gets stronger and more coordinated with each movement you complete. Focusing your attention on your breathing and the body’s position can increase the effectiveness of every workout. Each repetition leads to more energy created and thus stored in the muscles. Thinking thoroughly and setting goals for why you are truly exercising keeps the process fresh and rewarding.

*Tip: Change your exercise routine every 6-8 weeks to increase your results and keep exercising fun!

Training injuries typically occur when muscles are too tight and there is a lack of flexibility. Regular stretching and chiropractic adjustments help restore flexibility to the joints of your spine thus decreasing the chance of injuries. The reasoning is the spinal column is more freely movable and the process helps to reduce tightness in the numerous muscles groups that attach to the spinal vertebrae. Regular chiropractic care enables us to get the most out of our exercise program and achieve our goals of long-term health and well-being.

We all want to get the most out of the time we spend exercising, and it's natural to think that exercising harder is going to provide a bigger, faster payoff. But exercising harder without adequate preparation often leads to injury. Then of course there is recovery time and even the possible need for rehabilitation… ultimately you're back at the beginning in terms of fitness, strength, and endurance. Injuries are to be avoided, if at all possible. The best way to avoid injury is to exercise smarter. Exercising SMARTER is also the best way to achieve continual, progressive gains in fitness, health, and well-being.

Exercising SMARTer means doing what you're capable of doing, and then doing a little bit more. For example, if you're a runner and typically run three miles a day, three times a week, it wouldn't be smart to do an eight-mile run the next time you go out. The likely outcome would be a strained muscle, shin splints, or worse. If you lift weights and typically bench press 100 pounds, it wouldn't be smart to find out what it feels like to bench press 150 pounds. What it could feel like is a back, neck, or shoulder injury. In either scenario, the price paid for attempting to train "harder" is at least two weeks of down time, possibly much longer, while you recover from your injury.

 

The goal with any type of exercise is to progress gradually over time. For example, if you're 60 years old and haven't exercised for many years, a walking program is a good way to begin. On your first day, walk at a comfortable, steady pace for 10 minutes. That may not feel like much, but you will be increasing your total time over the next four to six weeks. The next day, add a couple of minutes. As long as you're continuing to feel good, add a couple of minutes on every second day or so, building up consistently to a total of 30 minutes per day. At this point, you're walking 30 minutes per day, five times per week. Next, every second day or so, increase your pace by a bit.

Trust your senses! Don't increase your pace if you feel uncomfortable or feel as if you're working too hard. Be in tune with what you're doing. After four to six weeks of gradually increasing your pace, you'll probably be able to walk 30 minutes per day, five days a week, at a nice brisk pace. You may also notice that you've lost some weight, you feel more flexible, you're standing more upright, your skin has a nice, healthy glow, and you're sleeping more soundly and more restfully.

Use the same gradual approach with strength training. Start SMARTer with a weight lighter than you think you can use. With lighter weights, you can build up your strength and coordination over time. With weights that are too heavy, there's always the danger of incurring an injury that will set you back and interfere with your training. Exercising SMARTer leads to consistent gains in strength, muscle mass, ability to do physical work, and overall health.

It's natural to want to exercise harder. But exercising SMARTer is the way to go for long-term benefits without the danger of time-wasting injuries. Start TODAY and set a routine time goal to move your body consistently at least 3-5 times a week. Exercising SMARTer just takes a simple extra step to maximize the value of the investment in your  fitness.