This week’s NGHS Wellbeing Prefect blog is a collaboration between Saujanya and Hannah. It’s all about the important link between exercise and wellbeing. We hope you enjoy it. Perhaps it will inspire you to try some new fitness activities at home. Perhaps it will give you a nudge to keep going with your existing fitness regime. Perhaps it will help you to look after yourselves in a new way in these unique times. We certainly hope it reminds everyone that there is a whole community of friends here at NGHS who care about your wellbeing and are here to support you.

 

 

Exercise and wellbeing  – there is a definitive relationship between these two things. Exercise allows us to maintain health and wellbeing. It also helps us to increase happiness. Exercise is not about changing your body, it’s about strengthening yourself – mind and body.

Endorphins and serotonin are released when you exercise. These help to improve your mood, energy levels, and sleep. They enable you to feel good about yourself. By having a positive mindset, they also allow you to appreciate the good things about yourself and let go of the inner-critic, increasing your self-esteem.

Self – esteem is based on how you feel about yourself and how you perceive your self-worth. By having high self-esteem, it boosts your confidence and increases your ability to cope with challenges. In the future, we will all face challenges. In order to face them, we will have to jump hurdles and overcome obstacles. Confidence, determination and resilience are the stepping stones to overcoming challenges. Exercise and fitness are one of the great tools to get ourselves in the best place to do this.

Energy is also a very powerful thing! As a result of exercise, you will feel more energised. Taking part in physical activities such as HIIT increases your heart rate, as well as releasing those powerful feel-good hormones. A strong heart helps you build stamina which means you can maintain your energy levels for longer.

Achieving fitness goals also gives you a great reason to be motivated and determined to meet your goals. As well as the physical benefits which will build over time, you will feel you have had a positive and productive day. While we’re all in lockdown, this is a great benefit, because our usual sources of satisfaction aren’t necessarily there.

A goal might be to complete 3 pistol squats on each leg, to increase the amount of time you can plank, to be able to run a little further each week or to achieve a yoga pose you’ve previously struggled with. Be aware that if the workout is unrealistic, you could become demotivated and frustrated, which opposes the main aims of the exercise. Make sure you set yourself a goal that is stretching but achievable. The satisfaction come from the efforts and hard work you put in.

Also remember that if you exercise once and enjoy it, you are more likely to do it again. So give it a try, even if you don’t think it’s your thing. Do it in your own way and enjoy yourself. No-one is watching or judging you. This is something you do for yourself!

Sleep is very important for maintaining healthy wellbeing. It allows the brain to relax and consolidate. This means it helps to improve your memory and learning as well as your feelings of being rested and recharged. It has been scientifically proven that exercise improves sleep. However, the correct type of exercise should be done to achieve this. For instance, doing vigorous, strenuous aerobic exercise allows you to become very active and make use of the energy. This will help you feel really tired at the end of the day, ready to go to sleep. Vigorous aerobic fitness workouts may include push-ups, crunches, pistol squats, tuck jumps, jump lunges and many more. Don’t do these too close to bedtime though. A relaxing yoga workout, there are many on YouTube, is a great thing to do in the evening. Meditation is also a great option to try before going to bed. Headspace is a really useful app for this.

As well as some of the aerobic activities mentioned above, you could watch tutorials online, listen to podcasts and use apps for fitness. There are lots of great ones around. These are some of our favourites:

  •  Yoga with Adriene – Youtube
  • Popsugar fitness  – Youtube
  • ‘Beginner: the Guardian guide to running’ – podcast
  • ‘The Inform Fitness podcast’
  • Nike running app – They have guided runs where a coach will teach you how to run. It is also beginner-friendly!
  • Joe Wicks PE – Youtube
  • Just Dance – YouTube
  • Cosmic Kids Yoga – YouTube

Also, you can follow fitness accounts on Instagram to keep you updated and motivated, such as @massy.arias, @popsugarfitness.

 

Massy Arias workouts are fun to do and the videos can also be translated into Spanish. This would be a great workout for all the linguistics out there!

Popsugar offers a range of workouts for all levels which include: pilates workouts, strength, cardio and many more. Their workouts last anywhere between 5 minutes and 1 hour.

Good luck to everyone working on their fitness and wellbeing. We hope some of this information is useful and we can’t wait to hear how you’ve got on when we see you back in school in the not too distant future.