New academic year, new goals. This year’s aim is on wellness and focusing on not just developing as a professional, but as a person also. You may be wondering, how? Well, the plan is to incorporate fitness into my schedule after school.

Yikes!! Teaching and exercise…do those two truly go together and is it something that is actually feasible to sustain throughout the year? During school time (at least in my school) exercising during the school day is impossible. As an adult, one gets hot, smelly and teaching in that state is not good for anyone. So, unless your school or work environment has showers accessible for you and time allocated for you to be able to freshen up, then I would suggest that it’s best to refrain from doing so.

Unsure on how much I actually should be doing and overwhelmed by my choice of classes that I could get to, in a half-zombie-state, I searched to find the optimum time and type of exercise one should be doing.

On their site, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommends:

• 150 mins aerobic exercise per week
• At least twice weekly muscle-strengthening activities that work out all the major muscle groups

Exercising has many benefits, as we all know. Below are just a few of many

• Stress of teaching can make sleeping difficult sometimes and it can be hard to switch your brain off. Personally, I don’t have trouble with this, but I do know many people do.
• It improves sleep, boosts the energy that you need, to take on the physical and cognitive demands of your profession. – It really does
• Regular physical activity supports the production of new neurons and synapses in your brain helping ideas and managing better. – I love this one! It immediately makes me feel smarter.
• Better blood flow to the brain. – I could do with that.
• Increases the growth of blood cells. – I definitely need more of those!

Finding what is right for you is important. Of course I am not a gym specialist and neither do I claim to know it all, I’m just sharing what motivated me to get started. My personal motivation is all the above as well as my supportive partner, who makes me feel guilty when I don’t want to go.

I won’t lie to you, there has not been a single day that I have not literally DRAGGED myself to the gym however, there has not been a single time that I  have been and not felt better for it after. You just need to find a way to get going and those benefits will be so instant that there will be no regrets whatsoever.

Join me for a fitness pact this year to improve our inner and outer selves, inspiring the young generation and influencing others on our way.

Leave a comment below to tell me about your after work regime. I’d love to know what other teachers are doing to keep fit. Hopefully we will be able to motivate each other throughout the year!

Till next time…