6 Days of Self Care - Physical

We sat down with Sam Weston from DeakinACTIVE Waurn Ponds to find out ways to help improve your self-care through physical activity.

What’s the best exercise for beginners? What is a good low impact exercise to get start with?

Walking is great way to start your fitness journey. Set aside 30 minutes a day, and simply go for a walk. To increase intensity, head to an area with hills to add some incline. Body weight exercises are another option for beginners. Squats, push ups, lunges, and dips can all be scaled per fitness level. For example, if you are struggling with a normal push up, drop your knees to the ground. If that is still too difficult, start off by doing push ups against a wall.

How long should we exercise per day?

Each person will have different goals which will determine how long they should exercise per day. Generally speaking, aiming for at least 30 minutes of moderate and 15 minutes of vigorous physical activity per day is ideal. Increasing this duration will include added health benefits, but make sure not to overdo it. Rest days are a great way to help the body recover.

What’s the best way to warm up?

Warm-ups can differ on what exercise or activity you are about to undertake so it is important to keep it specific to your training. Dynamic stretching and movements are consistent across pre-training routines as the muscles go through a full range of motion, and stretching helps prepare them to perform, and reduce chance of injury. Some examples are body weight squats, walking lunges, torso rotations, and arm swings.

Should we always cool down and why?

Yes, a cool down is important post physical activity. It helps regulate blood flow and allows a gradual decrease in heart rate. Static stretching should also be included to reduce build-up of lactic acid and to prevent injury

What are the benefits of the different fitness training sessions, i.e. HIIT, Yoga, Low Impact etc?

The fitness training session you choose will be determined by your goal. If you are looking for fat loss, high intensity interval training (HIIT) would be the best option as you are working at a high intensity which keeps your heart rate up. If you are looking at flexibility, Yoga would be preferred. However, it is always a great idea to incorporate different styles into your regime, as a good mix of training sessions allows exercise to be more enjoyable and will lead to more consistency.

What is / Why should we download the Deakin Moves App?

The DeakinMOVES app is a wholistic health and wellness program that is connected to our workouts inside and outside of DeakinACTIVE and is free to download. Our aim is to keep everyone fit and active and to enjoy better outcomes in daily work and life. It offers free online workouts for in the gym or at home, health and wellbeing blogs, physical activity tracking, live group fitness classes, and much more. There are also exercise challenges to join where you can win prizes. DeakinMOVES encourages us all to live a healthier life and is a great place to start your fitness journey.