Mental Health Benefits of Exercising

  Mental Health can be extremely difficult to battle with from time to time. It is within all of our best interests to keep on top of our mental health and attempt to improve, and make the most of, our daily routines in order to lower levels of depression within our minds. Exercising is an extremely effective way to overcome and take control of our mental health and will allow us to use it to our own advantage rather than it become a regular disadvantage. This post will highlight various benefits of how exercising can improve your mental health altogether!

Benefit 1: Higher Self Esteem

  

  Through exercising it is highly likely that your personal opinion on yourself will improve significantly. This can be in relation to appearance as you will begin to see physical progress to your body as a result of well disciplined training, this may come as increased muscles mass, more defined muscles or various amount
s of weight loss. A higher self esteem is not brought on solely through physical appearance however, it can be possible to feel better about yourself through seeing an improvement on performance whilst training, this may come in the form of improved technique of a sport or an increase in weight of a personal best repetition at the gym. 

Benefit 2: Better Sleep

  One issue that will contribute to the having a poor grasp on your mental health is through having an inefficient sleep pattern. Having an inefficient sleep pattern will result in a person not being fully motivated throughout the day and will likely leave them with negative thoughts and feelings also. One way in which you can improve your sleep pattern is by training at any point in the day. It is recommended to do this after work so that you are still able to perform to your upmost ability in this essential area of your life. Therefore, training near the end of the day will leave you more fatigued and tired and will ensure that you take advantage of your sleeping hours more effectively throughout the night. 

Benefit 3: Help Manage Stress & Anxiety

  Stress can be a useful tool that can bring out the best in our performance throughout the day, however too much stress can be extremely dangerous for our mental health and can bring on a sense of anxiety. Regular Physical training will allow for you to focus on something else for the time being and give your mind time to rest from any issues or problems you are facing. Allowing for your mind to have a rest from any problems you are facing will allow you to come back to them at another time and potentially another angle/view which can help massively with your problem solving skills.

4 Tips for those Beginning their Fitness Journey

The beginning of every journey can be scary when you are starting from scratch, fitness is no exception. Here are a few tips to help make things easier if you are beginning your fitness journey.

Tip 1: Change up your Training!

When you begin your journey into fitness you may have an exciting idea in your head, the image of you in the gym or going out for a run. This may seem exciting at first but you may find that this idea becomes less EXCITING and more UNAPPEALING. Suddenly the idea of going out to train becomes dull and tiring. This is why it is important that you attempt to change up your training in any way that you can. This can be a small change such as changing the destination of your workout, trying out another gym or finding a new park to run in will do the trick. Changing your environment will give you a new boost of inspiration to train and will allow you to rediscover that initial reason you had to embark on your journey. Alternatively, a bigger change is what you may need in order to properly find your motivation. Tired of doing the same activities week in and week out, CHANGE IT UP! Instead of going to the gym, get some friends together for a game of football. Instead of going for that dreaded run each week, join a fitness class or local sports club. There is an ongoing list of different ways you can train or different sports you can take up, you'll never know how you feel about them until you give them a go!

Tip 2: Consistency over Intensity!

    One issue that you may find when you begin exercising regularly is implementing it into your daily routine. A lot of the time when you exercise it is when you have the time to do so and are free from your priorities. Working out should BECOME one of your priorities. You should not be aiming to try and make time for your training, your training should aim to get to the point where it is just as much of a priority as brushing your teeth in the morning, it should be a NECESSITY. If you find yourself in the scenario where, for example, you cant make time for the gym as you have to go out with a friend, this is not implementing it into your routine, you should have explained to your friend that you'll be unable to make it as you have to go to the gym to train, THIS is the correct attitude to have in order to make your training as consistent as possible. Another way to achieve this would be to shorten your training times and increase the number of sessions. For example, instead of going to the gym 3 times a week for an hour each, go 5 or 6 times for 30 mins at a time. This will allow you to incorporate your training into your daily routine at a more consistent rate.

Tip 3: Try new exercises you aren't familiar with!

    One fear that you may have when beginning the gym is not having a wide knowledge of exercises to do when training. If you are faced with this scenario just remember EVERYONE has been here. No one walks into the gym on their first day and knows what exercises are suited to each muscle group and how many reps and sets they should be doing. The gym can be scary when you are unaware like this. Just remember that you aren't alone, take inspiration from people who look like they know what they're doing, research different exercises and take into account any do's and dont's while performing them. Once you have found a new exercise to try, remember, start lifting LIGHT in order to correct your form and technique. This is always the safest and most effective option as you should never increase the weight when your technique is not correct, unless you are looking to injure yourself... 

Tip 4: Find Someone you can Train with!

     This tip WILL help you in terms of motivation, however, it is NOT a necessity, training by yourself can be beneficial and also more relaxing too. Given this, training with a friend or fellow gym goer will give you another reason to go to training. If you're not feeling up to it you may feel pressured to not let your partner down or disappoint them, REMEMBER you'll always feel worse not going to the gym knowing you could have went and felt fulfilled and satisfied at the end. As well as this, partnering up in the gym can help improve your technique when training or you can trade teaching points with each other. This goes for all sports or activities, communication with each other will always be beneficial to both parties. 

     

Introduction to my Blog

 Hi everyone, my name is Stephen Ferris and I am currently studying my second year of Marketing at Ulster University Jordanstown. For my digital Marketing and Analytics module I have been tasked to create a blog and promotional page on Instagram about any topic that I feel passionate about/am interested in. For me, this was a no brainer, I chose to go down the fitness route. I did this because for years I have been focussing on my fitness and am still currently looking to improve it. This is a topic that I believe that I can provide detailed and useful information on whilst genuinely being motivated and excited to post.

 My fitness Journey began when i was 10 when I began boxing. This choice is one of the best I have ever made as it gave me a reason to concentrate on my fitness and also have a long term goal to work towards. It also provided me with numerous opportunities over the years, most recently I boxed for and represented my University in the 2019 Intervarsity championships in Dublin. Due to the current pandemic of Covid-19, multiple competitions have been cancelled and therefore I have decided to focus my fitness regime more towards the gym and other various activities, such as running and swimming, in order to try and achieve my ideal body shape and size.

  Currently on my Instagram page I am posting on various topics including: Strength training, Cardio, Home training, Sports, Fitness events and general tips and tricks. I aim my page mostly at people who are unfamiliar to the fitness world or are looking to change their current training routine.

Give my Instagram a follow if you wish to keep up to date with my posts and updates: all.around_fitness

Also feel free to connect with me on my Linkedin: Stephen Ferris