I want to work on my fitness – please help me get started

Re-writing the fitness industry is something we’ve been doing at 09 Thrive for the past 11 years.

Why?! You’re not the only one who has tried over and over again to set and carry out your fitness goals. Here’s to re-writing blame and shame into understanding and commitment.

09 Thrive was founded over 10 years ago by Krista Sandford-Hill, a woman who walked out of the health industry (cancer treatment) into the fitness industry. A person who wanted to prioritise care.

‘Thriving Bodies and Strong Minds’ – A space and methodology to build yourself ‘Bulletproof’. Bulletproof looks different to every single one of us.

Some of us would love to get out of bed without using our hands.
Some of us would love to not fear falling to the floor because we’re unsure we could get ourselves up.
Some of us would love to be able to lift our leg, while still standing to put our shoes on.
Some of us would love to be able to get to the letterbox and still have our breath, so we can chat with our neighbour vs feeling out of breath.

Let’s start getting you Fit and Strong!

There are TWO things we must promise ourselves:

1. We must BOOK this in DAILY – 3 minutes is all it takes, and it needs to be prioritised. If left to chance, it’s not going to happen, because life is life.
2. We must start SMALL and learn to listen to our bodies – Turns out they know quite a lot! The general idea is to move MORE, more than you are now.

Step One – When are you going to book this into your day? And how much time are you willing to give?

11 years and 1000s of people later has taught me that 3 minutes is a GREAT place to start, we’re talking a DAILY commitment.

Step Two – How are you going to know you are making progress?

Most of what we’re doing here in the first stages is setting up a habit, one of the BEST ways to super boost the desire to do something is to SEE that there is progress!

What do you look for in the other parts of your life? Here are some ideas:

• Feeling more energised
• You willingly AND consistently show up for yourself
• Sticker charts! For those of us who thrived with these as kids, you may find you’re going to love it now just as much

Step Three – The ‘Just Start’ mentality

• Motivation, a bucket that starts the day full, and depletes as life happens… sometimes life empties the bucket and we haven’t left the house yet! Motivation isn’t something we want to rely on for this one.
• ‘Just Start’. This quite simply means that we are going to COMMIT to JUST STARTING our 3mins, no matter how we feel on that day, and if we do 60sec of the 3. Congratulations! That’s a WIN!

Step Four – Where can you ‘Move and Groove’ more for FREE?

• Moving and grooving MORE is our goal, intentionally and unintentionally, so where can you look for opportunities to do this? I just stood up, shook my arms, and sat back down, nice!
• Parking a little further away
• Walking to the letterbox
• Walking around the block
• Standing up every time you look at your phone
• Drinking 2L of Water before 2pm, is an AWESOME health super boost and a movement bonus of getting up to go to the bathroom more.
• Walking outside the house every hour to get more light

Now what to spend our INTENTIONAL 3 minutes a Day doing?!

• Pick between one to three of the Exercises
• Do as many repetitions of each movement (less than 10) that FEEL GOOD across that 3 minutes
• Repeat rounds of the movements e.g. 10 of Each Movement, one after the other, 3 times around

Here are a few movements that are known to build your strength and ‘Bulletproof’ your system.

1. Squats to a Chair: Standing feet about shoulder width apart; pushing knees out toward the walls of the room; sitting down and kissing the chair with our bottom; standing up again.
2. Plank Shoulder Taps: In a plank position (this can elevated as high as you desire e.g. kitchen bench or dining table); hands directly under shoulders; feet wider than shoulder width; keeping the hips still, raise hand and touch opposite shoulder; pause for 2 seconds and then switch arms.
3. Leg Stands: Standing on one leg for 30 seconds (it’s harder than you think!); superhuman level is closing eyes at the same time (WARNING wobble central); brushing your teeth while standing on one leg is another GREAT one.
4. Getting Up from the Floor: It’s one of the most demanding exercises for our bodies, so it’s no wonder we become scared of it; take your time, only go as far as you feel confident and comfortable initially; gently increase the distance as your confidence grows.
5. Getting Out of Bed Without Your Hands aka Sit Up: Start to reduce use of your arms; how soon will it be until you can get up hands free!

A daily program of some of these movements could look like this:

5 Squats to the Chair
10 Plank Shoulder Taps
1 Get Up from the Floor
30 sec Standing on One Leg

1-3 Rounds

You’ve noticed I didn’t include getting out of bed without your hands. Well that one you can add in for FREE every morning you wake up! Get the whole family in on it!

Here’s to YOU! You’re doing this, and by just being here you are showing your commitment to this journey, outstanding!

 

Krista Sandford-Hill
Breaking Through Barriers
Founder of 09 Thrive
https://09thrive.co.nz/