Pivotal Motion’s Top 10 Tips and Products for your Summer Workouts

Now that the winter has passed, we can look forward to Summer 2017. While you may be gearing up for the festive season, it is important to stay active and look after your body. Here are Pivotal Motion Physiotherapy’s top 10 tips and products to help keep you fit and healthy this summer!

What are some easy ways to stay healthy and in shape this summer?

1. Watch the weather conditions

Okay, we can’t really control this one. But be aware that the weather may change the outdoor conditions. So, coming into the rainy season, watch out for slippery surfaces after a downpour and watch your footing to avoid falls. As the temperature rises, make sure you stay hydrated to avoid heatstroke and heat exhaustion.

Choose your exercise times carefully. Schedule your workouts early in the morning or later in the evening when the temperature is cooler, and take care when exercising following rain.

2. Protect yourself against harm

Speaking of weather. While it’s great to get our daily dose of Vitamin D, the summer sun can be hazardous. Be smart and take precautions to protect yourself against a nasty sunburn and increased risk of skin cancer when engaging in summer exercise.

Use sunscreen with a high SPF regularly. Wear sunnies and a hat, and seek shade in the hotter hours of the day.

3. Stay hydrated for maximum performance

This is an essential consideration, especially in hot summer conditions. When you lose more than 2% of your body mass in water, this is considered hypohydration, or under-hydrated (Sawka, Cheuvront, & Kenefick, 2016). If you weigh yourself pre and post-exercise, weight lost is due to water lost through sweat (1kg weight lost = 1L water lost through sweat).

Hypohydration can impair exercise performance as well as put your overall health at risk. Also, for every 1°C that your skin temperature is above 27°C, hypohydration impairs aerobic performance by 1%.

But how do we avoid hypohydration? Maintaining a consistent hydration routine (e.g. 2L of water per day) at all times is a good start, but this needs to be increased with increased levels of activity. Hydrate with water and sports drinks during exercise, but beware the sugar content! Make sure you replace your weight or water loss after your session.

4. Try TRX straps 

TRX straps should be one of the first items purchased for home exercise equipment. These will let you perform full body workouts, with a large variety of movements. Ranging from $30-$75, TRX straps are a wise investment for individuals of all levels of fitness and ability.

5. Try exercises with slider pads 

These are another simple piece of equipment to challenge your body. Use slider pads on a smooth flooring surface to improve your core stability and control. Warning: exercises are much harder to perform than they appear!

6. Try powerbands and foam rollers

Both powerbands and foam rollers are perfect training aids. These are great tools pre, during, and post workout.

Tie your powerband around a fixed vertical object e.g. a pole or tree, and wrap around your own body for elasticity support through movements and passive resistance stretching. Use your foam roller for further range through movements, and for myofascial tissue release over sore muscles.

7. Try an interval timer app

There are 2.8 million apps for sale between Apple and Android store. But a MUST for all you aspiring fitness nuts is an interval time app for your phone. This lets you set your work and rest times, sets, and reps for a workout. That means you can focus on technique, breathing, working hard without focusing on the clock. Try this app for weight training, sprint intervals, and hit intensity training (HIT).

8. Choose good shoes

This is a no brainer. Make sure your shoes match the activity you are doing. So no running or bush walking in thongs or high heels.

If you’re in the market for some new shoes, choose comfort over style. Make sure there is good cushioning and support for your specific foot type. And as much as we don’t like it, investing in a more expensive pair of shoes may treat us better than the $5 bargain bin pair. Watch out for some great Black Friday and Boxing Day Sales!

9. Set goals

Give yourself something to aim for! Whether this is a weight you want to lift, a time for running, or even how many days per week you are active. This can make a HUGE difference to your exercise routine.

A good rule for goal setting is to make SMART goals:

• S for specific: make the goal relevant to you and specific to want you want to achieve.
• M for measurable: how can you measure how successful you are? Try number of reps, a weight, or a time.
• A for attainable: will you be able to reach this goal within the time limit?
• R for realistic: can you realistically achieve this goal?
• T for time: when do you want to achieve this goal by?

Try setting short term (days-weeks) and long term goals (months-years). Achieve your shorter term goals to reach your long term goals.

10. Get a workout buddy

Life is better with someone you like, and exercise is no different! Find someone with similar interests, skill levels and goals and team up to smash your summer workouts together. A training buddy will help improve accountability, motivation, and fun!

We hope these 10 points put together by our expert exercise physiologist will help you make the most of the summer. If you have any questions the staff at Pivotal Motion are more than happy to help. Call us today 07 3352 5116 or book the physio Newmarket trusts for their friendly service online via the link below.

References

Sawka, M.N., Cheuvront, S.N., & Kenefick, R.W. (2016). Hydration and aerobic performance: impact of environment. Retrieved November 7, 2017 from http://www.gssiweb.org/en/sports-science-exchange/article/sse-152-hydration-and-aerobic-performance-impact-of-environment