Exercise

Motivation

Fundamental areas of fitness

Some exercises may hit many of these areas. For instance, swimming is not just aerobic exercise, but also helps with shoulder & ankle mobility (no more shoulder/ankle injuries) a lot and can improve strength of the whole body & VO2 max capacity if faster intervals are added. Similarly, rowing can be an exercise that hits aerobic, VO2 max, strength, and hip mobility all at once. So, swimming/rowing with some weight lifting can hit most of the points.

How much and how often?

Any exercise is better than nothing, start simple and easy. Or you can pick one each day and rotate them. It’s important to plan ahead and schedule exercise time as part of the day. The time doing exercise is not lost, but it gives you more time back as the body feels better. You don’t get tired as much and can focus better as the body functions better.

Where to start?

Maybe start doing one brisk walk per day and build up to 10,000 steps per day, and running/cycling/swimming. Doing something everyday may be easier than doing it every few days. This will build basic lower body mobility, upper body stability, aerobic capacity.

Basic strength training with dumbbells. Start light and increase rep or weight slightly every time. For instance, if you can do 8 reps x 3 sets squat with 5lbs, next time try to do more than 8 reps in each set. If you hit 12 reps per set, increase to the next available weight and do as many reps. These are the most fundamental exercises:

Hang (and pull up eventually), squat, and RDL are the most important foundation especially for spines and back. Once you can do dead hangs for a minute or so, you can progress to active hang reps from dead hang. Once you can do active hangs 12 reps +, you can start doing negative chin ups and pull ups with jumps.

Strength exercise

Guides

Key exercises

7 movement patterns: Squat, lunge, hip hinge, push, pull, twist, gait.

Barbell-based

Often neglected muscles

Whole body workout routines

Core

Lower body

Hip

SI joint