• Muscles become stiff

When you do not move your muscles and body for a period of time they will become stiff. This is because your muscles need to be worked in order to keep their mobility and range of movement. Just 10 minutes of stretching a day can improve or maintain your muscles flexibility and mobility and reduce stiffness. If you do find your muscles are becoming stiff it is important to stretch them and keep them moving. We have some flexibility and mobility routines on our instagram page that will show you how to stretch your full body.

• Less output of energy and less calories burnt

Energy balance is the key part of losing or maintaining weight. Energy balance is the sum of calories consumed and calories burnt. If you are someone who wants to lose weight your energy balance must be in a negative or deficit. This means that you are burning more calories than you are eating. Due to inactivity the total amount of calories that you burn will significantly decrease. Calories are burnt during exercise but also during non exercise activities throughout the day. This includes walking, using the stairs, fidgeting etc… When we become inactive we burn less calories and then it becomes much easier to put on weight. To combat this we need to try keep our activity up or reduce our food intake.

• Less and less motivation to start

Motivation is fantastic when you have loads of energy and are in the habit of doing an activity. However when you lose routine or habit it can be challenging to restart the fire of motivation. Often when we get out of routine we find it harder to start again. This results in longer periods without the activity and in turn results to less and less motivation to restart. A tip for this is to reduce your activity a small bit if you must but do not give it up completely. This will keep your habit there and will be much easier to build on rather than start all over again.

• Reduction in fitness levels

If you suddenly stop all or any exercise that you were taking part in, your fitness levels will decrease. This will not happen over night but in the long run will have a negative impact on your fitness levels. With anything you need to keep practicing or you will not be as good as you once were. Try to maintain a routine and keep track of where you are at. We have lots of live and pre recorded fitness classes that you can avail of on our social media. They will be sure to keep you motivated.

• Increase of stress

Exercise and physical activity is one of the best ways to reduce stress and feelings of anxiety. Activity is a great way to clear your head and boost your mood. During exercise your body releases good endorphins into our system and promotes us to feel good. Exercise is also a great release for you to not have to think about anything except the workout- a great escape!!

• Poorer choices of food and snacks made which will result in weight gain.

As mentioned previously energy balance is key for weight loss or maintenance, when we have bouts of inactivity, our consumption of poor foods increases. This is due to a number of reasons, we have less energy, less motivation to pick the better food etc..

• More likely to get injured after bouts of inactivity

Lack of activity will result in muscles not being used like they used to be and therefore when they are used again you may over exert them and an injury may occur. Be sure to have a slow return to exercise if you do take a break and allow your muscles to get used to the moves again. Always stretch and warm up before sessions and stretch afterwards too.

Aisling Hehir

Aura Grove Island