How is it November already and what a year we have had, or not had depending on how you want to look at it! So, what do I mean by Walking the Walk….
Well like everyone this has certainly been a year for reflection, whether that be looking at work-life balance, wanting to exercise more, adjusting to a new working routine or maybe all of those combined. I am no different, admittedly lockdown for me was perhaps slightly different in that we welcomed our son Max 3 days before Boris appeared on our screens that memorable Sunday with the strong message of “Stay home, save lives”. Initially, it didn’t seem all bad, I mean it was only 3 weeks right…
Clearly, it lasted a little longer than that, and being in the business we are, remote working wasn’t really an option, which lead to a period of time when we had so much time! Time to be with family, to work on the house, the garden, study and of course our precious 1 hour of exercise a day outside the house. With all this time I was able to exercise more than I had done in months, eat well, relax and all in all returned to work with the best of intentions to continue in that spirit.
But… life gets in the way! Now I am back at work and the dark morning and evenings are closing in, all those habits are fading away. Suddenly, I am making convenient food choices, not exercising as often, and just generally not in the physical condition I should be. I will admit trying to juggle running a business alongside being a dad is taking some getting used to but it is far from impossible and just like all things it simply requires some planning.
Like all good plans, it needs to start with some goals. So here are mine –
- Get into the best physical condition of my life – more on this shortly
- Ensure I have time with my family
- Play golf regularly – with an aim of playing off 18 or less by Spring next year (currently I play sporadically so don’t have a handicap)
Simple! Now the hard part… HOW?!
I am going to start by looking at my time and working out where I can exercise and play golf in a way that has the least impact on my family time whilst also allowing me to work the hours I work.
Training
The obvious time for exercise is before work, so let’s assign 4 x 30-45 minute sessions on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Yes, this means getting up at 6 am but I have a 6-month-old so this shouldn’t be too tricky!
Golf
I am going to aim to practice twice a week.
NEXT UP
I need to know where I am, to begin with in order to know what I need to work on in my sessions and how to gauge my progress. To do this I am going to go through 3 physical screens, to see how I move and how that applies to my first goal.
These screens are a Functional Movement Screen, a Selective Functional Movement Assessment and a TPI Golf Screen, all of which we offer here at THE HEALTH HUB.
Why? Because there is a huge difference between appearing to be physically fit and truly being physically fit. What I mean by this is, how many people do you know that hit the gym regularly, cycle, run, or play sports yet they all train around niggles or physical limitations. For example, when I was playing rugby regularly at a reasonable level, I would gym four to five times a week, train twice a week and play once a week. Was I physically fit, in a manner of speaking yes. But… Could I touch my toes – NO, did I have weaknesses in the gym I ignored it – YES, did I have niggling injuries I played with and never corrected even to this day – YES.
So you see although I was physically fit, I wasn’t functionally fit. This is the difference, and this is what I mean by getting into the best physical condition of my life. I want to be able to touch my toes, correct those weaknesses, fix those old niggles and THEN get fit!
Join me next time to see how I get on with the 3 ASSESSMENTS and what they flag up for me to focus on!
Sam Pargeter – Sports Chiropractor
THE HEALTH HUB