With Christmas and the New Year behind us, now is a great time to re-evaluate your fitness goals.
Friendlies Physiotherapy Service head physiotherapist Matt Churchill has shared his tips to getting your health and fitness on track for the year.

Post-Christmas weight and lethargy is changed best with exercise that burns calories and uses large muscle groups.

It is recommended to start slowly and build up intensity and repetitions, so the risk of injury is less.

Below are some exercises for different needs:

For people with joint issues:

If you have joint issues, low-impact exercise is best. For example, go walking in a pool or try some hydrotherapy exercise. You can even try the beach, such as The Basin at Bargara, for instance.

Bike riding and cross trainer machines are also low impact and better for decreasing joint loads.

If you would like to try running:

Running is great for fitness, weight loss and strengthening the lower limbs but is a higher risk activity.

Try the walk-run technique to give yourself the benefits of running small bursts without the overloading of joints.

Walk for 1 minute and run quickly for 30 seconds and repeat for as many cycles as you can.

Strength and Tone:

If we are looking to improve our strength and tone up those muscles step-ups, squats and lunges are good, just start slowly and build up, otherwise, the dreaded muscle pains will become a problem.

Sets of 10 to 20 repeated throughout the day are best but if you are time-poor, alternating exercises to allow the muscles to rest and recover is a good way to do more in a short space of time.

For the upper limbs, bench or wall push-ups are good for the chest and shoulders.

Some form of pulling back is great for the back muscles to balance the front of the shoulders so we don’t develop an imbalance, chin-ups, rowing machine or simple weight lifting while leaning over a bench is good.

Stretch:

Always finish with a low-intensity activity and stretches.

If you experience any issues exercising or would like help getting your fitness on track, book in to see one of our physiotherapists on 4331 1888. The Friendlies Physiotherapy Service is the only Bupa Preferred service in Bundaberg.