Exercise: The Second Foundation of Resilience
Building your Resilience through Exercise
If you read my previous post on resilience, you will know that resilience expert, Sandy Davis, identifies aerobic exercise as one of the three foundations of resilience.
Some of the examples of aerobic exercise that Sandy lists are:
- Brisk walking or running
- Cycling
- Swimming
- Using continuous exercise machines
- Climbing stairs
The is more and more research evidence to show that regular aerobic exercise benefits not only our bodies, but also our brains. If asked, most of us will agree that exercise is good for us. Nevertheless many of us do not exercise regularly.
Recognizing the Need
Do you need to create new habits that will allow you to take advantage of the health advantages of regular exercise? A recent international congress is one example of greater recognition that many of us need help to change our behavior when it comes to exercise.
Tools to Help
If you’d like help getting started or keeping up your practice, The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) have some helpful free tools available on their website.
The resources include a pre-exercise health assessment and a way of examining any barriers to exercise that may be relevant to you personally.
See below for other tools from ACSM to help you to develop the habits you need to integrate exercise into your everyday life.
- How to Find Time
- How to Set your Goals and Make a Plan
- Advice on Creating Rituals to Support your Practice
Share your Experience
If regular aerobic exercise is already an established part of your daily life, congratulations. You are doing something important for your health and well-being. Feel free to help others by sharing your tips below.
If not, what step can you take to get started or resume previous exercise routines? If you decide to try one of the tools referenced here, share your experiences below.
Taking steps to increase your resilience is an important part of dealing with the ups and downs of your career and work life. To receive additional work life tools and resources (monthly free newsletter): Sign up for Career & Work Life Matters
Next Time …
The next post will focus on creative practices as the third foundation of developing resilience.
