The ‘Just move somehow’ program will mean different things for different people. This is what mine has been like so far for those who want an idea of what I mean. I have a shoulder injury so I need to watch that with bodyweight exercises and I need to strengthen my hips and knees.
July 2024 update—The program I began with (below) in April 2022. I am very pleased to announce that in June/July this year (2024), I walked close to 200km in 30 days. I can now push it. But without these baby steps, I would not have been able to get to this point of consistent pain-free fitness.
What I have learnt… walk. Start as small as you need, but do it every day. It is the biggest, cheapest, and most available option. Below is what I did as a broken person with hypermobile and heart issues.
What would I change about the below? I would look at diet sooner, because getting the kilos off helped me to move easier and you can’t exercise you way out of a bad diet.
Per Day
Weeks 1 – 3:
Establish stability and core through your body. Something small everyday
(10 – 15 mins)
do more if you’re fitter
Weeks 4- 6:
Continue with stability, Increase activities and variety
(15 – 30min)
Week 7 onward:
You’re feeling fitter, and your habit is established. Time to get creative with your exercise and increase how long you exercise for.
(25min + per day)
First week:
gently moving joints, build stability and strength
- Every day working on my tight, hips, groin and knees with resistance band extensions – gentle work over 5-10 minutes
- Wii Fit balance exercises for stability for my core – about 5 minutes
- Wii fit beginner aerobic activities (beginner steps and hula hoops) – just 5 minutes or so.
Week 2:
continue to build stability
- All of the above but a little more of the balance and aerobic activities. The focus was still on getting function of my core muscles and attachments back on track.
Week 3:
Add in some core muscle work which can come from pilates or yoga. Do some more cardio
- Resistance band and add in harder strap for bridge exercises
- Online core videos – I’m trying alomoves with success so far though there are probably some good free options. I started with one video that I did almost daily that took just 6 minutes.
– Free 30 day trial of alomoves here: https://www.talkable.com/x/INSAfz - Outdoor activities where available but watch your problem areas and consider optimum movement over pumping it- walking, gardening. This week I did an hour walk up and down hills in nature and it almost broke me.
- Wii fit – add in some muscle workouts – particularly ones that use balance/stability.
Week 4:
This week I started to feel much fitter
- All of the above but you can likely push things a lot more now that you have a stronger core. Vary your exercise.
- I’m doing a little more yoga also as my core is working much better now and can handle some of the hyper extension traps. I even did a 40 minute yoga workout. Thought it would be break me the next day but it didn’t.
Week 5:
Stability is feeling established, time to go longer and a little harder
- I’ve been building up my cardio in a minor way due to the above activities but now I feel I can go for longer or slightly harder cardio.
- Still continuing with wii fit weight check-in and more activities. I bought the wii fit plus disc (2nd hand for $7) so that I would have more options and not get bored with the stability work.
Week 6:
Test your limits a little
- All of the above
- Plus now I can go for my block walk (it has hills) without struggling from the outset. It’s pretty exciting.
- Tried the Formulaic series – Not right for me. I’ll blog about it another time.
Week 7:
More cardio and strength
- All of the above plus now doing the 6 min Alo moves core exercise every day
- Team Body Project – I found these guys a few weeks back and did half a workout (15 min). In week 7 I can do the whole work out – blog post coming soon.
- The wii is still a critical part of my habit, and I aim to beat my old scores and increase reps.
- Stability with a balance board
- Here I’m starting to consider my diet, what do I feel comfortable changing.
