All posts by andreaexerciseblog

Andrea is an fitness instructor, registered physiotherapist, a blogger and vlogger with a goal of motivating everyone to be physically active in their daily life.
Exercise & physical activity options

Exercise alternatives: Get Outside of the Box!

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For the next several weeks I will be exploring exercise alternatives to get you “outside of the box”. These options may not be your usual considerations (or just forgotten ones) but they will get you “outside of the box” and outside of your house! Low cost or no cost! Utilizing space, time, and other elements that we find, we will reveal what “outside of the box” could look like for you and me! 

I have posted 5 so far and there is more to come! I will keep updating this page as the weeks progress. Stick around and check back because there might be a great option waiting for you!

Finding variety takes a little bit of effort, but once you get the ball rolling, the ideas keep coming.

For example, when I started my 12 week video series, I actually did not have 12 ideas in mind. I still don’t know exactly what I will do. Watch as they roll out! There may be some surprises! 

Here is the You Tube playlist of the videos or you can watch them individually (see below). If you like the raw and extended replays of my streams please checkout my Facebook page.

Exercise alternatives

  1. Circuit training in the park
  2. Community centre: free programming @ City of Toronto Parks & Recreation
  3. Trails & Boardwalks: @ The Beach
  4. Track walk: @ Regent Park
  5. Stairwell & sidewalk circuit
  6. Stepping up the stroll with sightseeing “exercise stations”
  7. Beach walk: Cherry Beach
  8. Parks & paths: @ Corktown Common
  9. Hills and flats: @ Broadview Park
  10. Field workout: Esplanade/ladder drills
  11. Block walk
  12. ???

If you are not sure if you should be exercising, check in with your health care professional, exercise professional or try completing an activity readiness questionnaire (found at the bottom of the Essentrics with Andrea page) to see where you are at.

I am aiming for 50 You Tube subscribers so I can start streaming from my mobile. If you like the videos, please subscribe!

Got any other great ideas? Leave a comment!

Exercise goals & benefits, Support, TIps

Never fall off track: making fitness a part of your lifestyle

How to never fall off track again? Read on to discover why we fall off the exercise wagon and how to never fall off again.  

There are many reasons why we stop, fall off track or ‘take a pause’ from exercising. Here are some examples:

After injury

After illness

After surgery

After significant life event

After a significant change in daily occupation or behaviors

After trips

After holidays

After anything….

All of these things may have affected our ability and desire to exercise at any given time in our lives.

If you have ever tried an exercise program after a long time away from it, you will probably wonder, why am I doing this? Or maybe why did I stop pause? Exercise is one of those things that, for many of us, has ebbs and flows. If you are on an exercise program just for yourself, by yourself, it’s sometimes hard to feel like you are really making difference. 

So what is there to do about it? How do you stay in the exercise sphere, not fall off track and know that you are making a difference?

  • Accept that fitness is a process, that never ends and constantly evolves.
  • Know that the intentional movement you do with a goal of improving your health may occur anywhere (at home, in the gym, in the park, at the office, on the street) and potentially at any time.
  • Identify as an “exerciser‘ and don’t be shy. There is no shame. 

More tips for staying on track

  • Picking up where you left off may not always be a good idea but modifying what you used to do may at least get you started (you used to do a 30 minute full body workout? Now start with 5) 
  • Doing parts and “parcels” of exercise throughout the week still counts. ”Exercise snacking” is encouraged (and no, this does not usually involve food)
  • The volume of what you can do will grow as you increase your repertoire (through increasing the number and or types of exercise that you do over a prescribed period of time, maybe a week or two week cycle). The volume will also increase as your fitness for a specific activity improves, for example swimming.
  • Everyone wants to know, what is the minimum I need to do to get any results? Well, that depends on what you goals are. For example, if your goal is to climb Kilimanjaro, walking 5 minutes a day for the next year isn’t going to cut it. But if you are planning to exercise to reduce your blood pressure, then 5 minutes may be a great start when starting from zero. Talk to an exercise professional to help you define and refine your goals that best suit you.

In summary

  • The ideal exercise is the one that gets done. This is where location, cost, time, equipment, etc may streamline your options. Work within your options! Expand them if you can! The more options, the merrier!
  • If you have not exercised lately, and if you are not sure if you should exercise, talk to your health care professional or certified fitness professional. Complete an activity readiness questionnaire (links at the bottom of my Essentrics with Andrea page or check out my Facebook page for a video with more info). 

The best is yet to come!

The more you know what it is you want to do, accomplish, and the reasons why, being as specific as you can, will help you to discover and uncover the intricacies of the process and make your path clearer and more motivating to do!  

More movement equals more fitness. It is as simple as that. Be specific and ask questions if you do not know what is best for you!

Stay tuned. Details on being an “exerciser” and how I can help you coming soon in the new year! Follow my blog. Subscribe!

Exercise goals & benefits, other

How should exercise feel?

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This may sound like a strange question, how should exercise feel, but for the newly turned exerciser, sometimes you might not know what you are supposed to feel.

If you don’t know what you should feel with exercise, start with an activity readiness questionnaire to help determine if it is safe for you to exercise, especially if you have any medical conditions. Questionnaire links can be found at the bottom of my Essentrics with Andrea page.  

Start here

There are some things that you may feel during exercise.

There are some things you may feel after exercising.

And it is possible you may feel something a day or more after exercise. 

During exercise:

  • energized/elevated
  • stiff
  • warmer
  • looser
  • light
  • alert
  • toned
  • tuned in
  • aware
  • agile/spry
  • happy

After exercise:

  • energized/elevated/active
  • less tired
  • stiff
  • warmer
  • looser
  • light
  • alert
  • toned
  • tuned in
  • aware
  • agile/spry
  • invigorated
  • fatigued
  • happy

Next day or later:

  • energized/elevated/activated
  • stiff
  • looser
  • tight
  • toned
  • tuned in
  • agile/spry
  • fatigued
  • happy
  • sore: there are occasions that you may feel DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness)  possibly 1-3 days post exercise.

Bonus: 

There are a few things you may only feel once you have become consistent with exercise

  • Energetic
  • Less tired
  • Less stiff
  • Predictably looser
  • Less tight
  • Enlightened over time
  • Toned
  • Connected
  • Aware
  • Lighter
  • Agile
  • Spry
  • Stronger
  • Healthy
  • Empowered

Goals

Depending on your goals, it may help define further what you should expect to feel with exercise. For more info on what your exercise goals might be, check out this video Exercise Goals on You Tube. In any case, if you don’t like the feeling, ask for some guidance from someone who should know.

Modifications and seeking guidance

Work with a personal trainer or exercise instructor for feedback on what you may be feeling at different points in your routine. Keep a journal for later reference (on your own or with an exercise professional). You can always stop, re-evaluate, and try again (change what you are doing, when you are doing it and/or do it differently, i.e. slower, smaller, with less intensity, shorter durations).  Using an activity readiness questionnaire (see above for links) will help you discern if you need to seek guidance from your healthcare professional or a qualified exercise professional before exercising.

For more information on exercise, and exercise design, check out my Facebook page or You Tube Channel. Click the icons at the bottom of the page!

Exercise & physical activity options, Exercise program design

Exercise design: starting point

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Self-made exercise design? Can you design an effective and relevant program on your own, for yourself?

Wouldn’t it be great if all the parameters for exercise design were outlined and you could just fill in the blanks? Or if there was some AI/algorithm that takes all of your info and pops out some great options?

Hmmm…..Let start with options: can you list all of your exercise options? Is there any activity that you think you could maintain for 10 minutes at a time at a moderate intensity.? If you don’t know what is moderate intensity check out this post.

How about 5 minutes? I have talked a lot about exercise snacks. See my playlist on You Tube for details.

If not moderate, how about light intensity? What’s light? Anything that isn’t sedentary (not moving).

I have been doing primarily light intensity for the past 2 months now. Getting my heart rate up and generate some heat has mostly been precluded by my injury. If you want the details, watch my You Tube video called Falling Off Track. Then come right back!

Think of activities that you sustain for the express purpose of improving health and fitness. There has to be some intention in there.

You could take an every day task and make it more purposeful, by focusing on posture and energy exertion. Think physical engagement for a prescribed period of time.

Start here

List all of your options.

Beside each option, write down where they would normally occur(gym, outdoors, home, work, other facility).

Now indicate if they require any preparation and how much planning is required (do they need to be scheduled or can they be done off the cuff?).

Put down your list. While it is resting ask those closest to you for options that you are likely to undertake. Emphasize the “you” and not them (unless they are going to do it with you!). You may get a few more ideas.

Now rate all the activities from easiest to most difficult to accomplish.

List all of the activities in order of most likely to do to least likely to do.

Now asterisk the ones that are most important for your current health and fitness.

OK. What have you got? Lots of options for your exercise design!! If you are just getting back to fitness, pick the easiest option and the one that you are most likely to do. You can use that as your base as you build up some consistency for the stuff that is maybe more important later. And if you don’t know what is important to you, there are a lot of layers to that but you can check out Exercise specificity.

Hey, it’s a start, and that is all you need. More detail will flow in as you get into a new groove. You can do it! Tune in to my future blogs for the next steps!! Sign up today so you don’t miss out!

P.S. Not sure if you should be exercising? Try completing an activity readiness questionnaire. I have a video on Facebook explaining activity readiness questionnaires or see the bottom of my Essentrics page for links!

Anatomy, physiology and aging, Exercise goals & benefits

Exercise and feelings

So I have wanted to write about this for awhile. It’s about exercise but it is also about feelings. Exercise and feelings. What kind of feelings?

Well for me, the feelings start with physical movement. When I start to move, I look for and try to sense different things in my body including my muscle tone, my skin and the different shapes I make with my body and how it relates to the air and space around me, including the floor or ground.

There is term called “proprioception” which it my world is joint sense or knowing where your limb is in space and whether a joint is bent or straight for example. This doesn’t cover it all but it is a big part of what I feel. What about kinesthesia? What the heck is that and why is it so hard to find any satisfactory definition?

I could be wrong but I will use the term kinesthesia to include the following sensations in my body as they relate to movement: muscle tension (the good stuff), muscle tone (firmness), how my body occupies space, and the relative shape and position of one body part to another. I remember the first time I did an Essentrics® class, my hips and pelvis felt energized and toned, and I felt elevated both physically and emotionally.

OK. So maybe there were some endorphins or other natural body chemistry involved. I am not ashamed to say that I like the chemistry and prefer a type of exercise that induces their release.

So back to exercise and feeling. There are so many reasons to exercise (better health in a multitude of areas) but it is still a hard sell. So I’ve decided that I am just going to focus on what I want to feel, which is to feel more and feel better. Exercise is the best way I know how to do it. And it is literally, all up to me.

So if you want to feel more and feel better, try exercise. It doesn’t have to be complicated. It may be difficult at first, but if you start slowly and try to do it “right”, you can minimize the possibility of overdoing it. Finding the balance may be an ongoing process.

It is also fun to challenge yourself and look forward to better fitness. Relative fitness varies, in so many ways. Having goals and a variety of options will help you become a consistent exerciser. Finding some new approaches or tapping into some older approaches familiar to you may provide the challenge and evolution needed to keep you moving.

It’s spring in Canada, so being outside is a good idea when you can. Cover some distance. Get your heart rate up. Get warm. Check with your health or fitness professional if you are not sure where to start or have any concerns. Just move, more than you normally do. Your body will thank you (by giving back) and you will feel more and better.

Exercise and feeling: proprioception, kinesthesia, endorphins

Essentrics with Andrea Wednesdays @ 7pm and Sundays @ 10:30am

Andrea Nunn Exercise livestream Wednesdays @ 9am on Facebook

Videos and shorts on Youtube

Anatomy, physiology and aging, Cardio and VO2, Exercise goals & benefits

Increasing energy with exercise

Increasing energy with exercise:  How does exercise increase our energy?

VO2

Improving the fitness of the heart and lungs through cardiovascular/aerobic exercise increases our VO2.  The higher our VO2 the more efficient we become at creating energy for ourselves by combining oxygen with glucose to make ATP.

Heart

Increasing fitness will increase the strength of heart. The heart can work more efficiently, expelling more blood with each beat.  More blood = more oxygen which means fewer beats required for any activity that increases the heart rate.

Strength

When we improve the strength of our muscles we do not need to max out our muscular effort.  If we could only lift 10 lbs of groceries, and now we have increased our strength to be able to lift 15 lbs of groceries, the 10 lbs will seem easy, with less effort required.  Therefore, more “energy” will be left over for other activities. 

Endurance

The same goes for endurance of a muscle.  I had a colleague that was used to treating shoulder problems. She decided to help out on the post-operative floor getting patients out of bed.  Half way through the morning, her back was sore and she needed a break.  The endurance of her back muscles was not sufficient for the task at hand.  Her back muscles were out of gas before the morning was over.  

Flexibility and range of motion

Having the flexibility and range of motion needed for a task will help conserve our energy bank.  For example, if you sit a lot, and have tight hip flexors (quad/psoas), every time you try to stand straight, there will be some relative resistance to standing straight.  This ultimately results in an increased use of our extensors(back and hips) and may make standing straight more effortful.

Endorphins

Endorphins are released during exercise and can make us feel lighter and brighter on a physical and cognitive level . Endorphins can also decrease the experience of pain. This may result in a reduced level of stress, leaving more energy for other tasks.

Summary and support!

Exercise will increase your energy levels.

For more information, please visit my Facebook page with my (soon-to-be) exercise support group!!

Essentrics Online Group classes:

UPDATE! Wed @ 7pm (30 min Essentrics)

Sunday @ 10:30 (60 min Essentrics).

Sign up page here.

Until then, onward and upward!

Exercise evolution updates, Goal & activity/exercise matching

Exercise resolutions 2023

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Not sure where to start with your exercise resolutions 2023? No pressure. I will go first:

First, my exercise evolution update

With the exception of the last 7 days, my routine has been pretty consistent and I look forward to resuming and evolving my program in the new year. In short, I will be continuing with lunchtime cycling, after work stretch and strengthening (machine, body weight and theraband, primarily legs), twice weekly Essentrics® class(teach), teaching a new mini class Wednesday am, weekly HIIT online class with my exercise peeps, and walks to and from work (get the snowpants out!)

I have some more specific goals that are exercise related:

A) I want to retest my VO2 max with a step test (Modified Canadian Aerobic Fitness Test (mCAFT)). Not sure what VO2 is? Check this post.

B) I want to retest my heartrate level during my fitness classes to see if my past calculations on time spent in a moderate intensity zone is accurate.

C) And I am strongly considering the dabble. This involves an in person or perhaps online ballet class. It will be very interesting to see how the class feels as it has probably been about 12 years since I have stepped into a dance studio. In person would be ideal as well as my biggest challenge. I will keep you posted.

Now for you.

If you don’t have any ideas, check out some of my past posts:

Q: Would you like to find out where you are on the exercise and activity spectrum? If you know where you are, you might be able to envision where you want to go.

Q: What do you want, what do you need? Check out Exercise Specificity.

Q: Do you need a story to get the ideas flowing? I’ve got a couple: The evolution of a group exerciser and Keeping it real.

I am going to open up the comments so if you wish to post your exercise resolutions or activity plans for the 2023 please do. It can be simple or with some detail.

If you don’t have any resolutions, don’t worry. The beauty of exercise and physical activity is that you can start anytime you want. Whenever you are ready. Exercise is one of those things that for many of us has its ebbs and flows. No guilt required.

And if you need help, find some help. Follow up with your favorite health practitioner or fitness professional. Complete an activity readiness questionnaire if you have any concerns. I plan to provide you with more structure and support, so feel free to join my email list for further updates very soon!

Are you ready? Then get set! Let’s GO!!

Essentrics with Andrea

Activity readiness questionnaires;

Get Active Questionnaire

PAR-Q Online

Exercise program design

Exercise program design ABC’s

Exercise program design

Let’s talk about exercise program design! When you have decided to exercise, what next? Need a little structure? Check out the following ABC’s of exercise design. Use your current movement repertoire to fill in the blanks.

wArm up

Body of workout/main goal/target area/target activity

Cool down or release

Part A

Warm up:

Start with easy, repeated or rhythmic movements that are gentle and suitable to your current fitness level. To see where you stand on the exercise and activity spectrum, see post Are you evolving as an exerciser?

Your warm up may include using cardio equipment like like a stationary bike or treadmill. Your warm-up could also be components of your main workout done slower in a smaller, gentler range to start.

Use your warm up to transition your mind and begin directing your focus to your body and how it relates to the physical space around you. “Let go” of the tasks that you were recently involved in or one’s that you need to do later.

Vary the intensity, by changing the speed slightly or use progressively larger movements.

These are all options. You can do what works for you. If you are not sure, consult someone who should know how to help you find and narrow down your options.

Part B

“Body” of workout/target areas/target activity:

This part of your workout may be where your goals come in to play:

Do you want to get stronger, more flexible, less stiff, have more endurance, better posture, better cardiovascular fitness, or improved balance? Is increasing the amount of movement at a particular joint important to you? Do you need to relieve stress? Check out Exercise specificity: what do you need?

You could focus on a part of your body (upper body vs lower body, back body versus front, arms and legs, spine and core)

You can also look at specific workouts already out there that meet your needs (Pilates, Yoga, Barre, Zumba, HIIT, TRX, Spinning, Interval training, circuit training, Essentrics®, weights).

If you are not sure, talk to someone who should know (family doctor, chiropractor, trainer, physiotherapist, massage therapist, kinesiologist, naturopath, or other health care or fitness professional).

Part C

Cool down or release:

This could be a progressively slower version or less intense version of what you were just doing (you were jogging and now you will walk). Kind of like your warm-up but in reverse.

Often cool downs will include stretches of the muscles that were used in the workout, which could be static or dynamic stretches. A cool down allows the temperature of your body to decrease slowly and if you got your heart rate up, to slow it down gradually and allow the muscles to return to a normal level of circulation.

It may also be the time where you feel the most relaxed and released and if that is the case, go with the flow and stay focused on the here and now.

To stay in the moment, something like diaphragmatic breathing (belly breathing) can be used to center yourself and release even further.

The ABC’s of exercise program design!

For more information, join me Wednesday mornings at 9:00 on Facebook for an interactive livestream on all topics exercise. If you are interested in trying an Essentrics class, please see my sign-up page. And finally, watch for my fun “shorts” on You Tube!

Are you ready? Get set. Let’s move!