Exercise tips and hacks
Here are some ideas on how to get an exercise plan working for you, as movement has been shown to have a positive effect on dopamine levels, and improve our executive functioning. Many will admit that regular exercise is an essential tool in their ADHD management.
A good approach to maintaining an exercise program and stick with it is to switch your activities up. Having ADHD we tend to get bored easily and our brains are always on the lookout for what’s novel. So in that case, I think it is also important to really enjoy your activity of choice. If you don’t like biking, try swimming. If baseball isn’t really doing it for you, then switch it up for basketball. You get the idea.
Keep trying things until you find a handful of activities that you can cycle through. I recently heard in a podcast how effective running is for many of us, we tend to feel the effects of a runner's high even more so than neurotypicals do. You can call a friend, or use a personal trainer which gets you using the buddy system to help keep you motivated and accountable. Alternatively, some people have found a lot of success in joining team sports, so if you are curious, join that soccer or baseball team!
Over a period of time, you will have formed a habit and a healthy one which will bring you nothing but benefits for days, weeks, months and years to come. Feel free to share in the comments what has worked for you in maintaining your exercise program.
@aCalmOasis This is such an insightful post and I completely agree. Switching one's activities and also enjoying what you're doing are a great tips to give when looking for an exercise plan that works for you.
I especially liked the part where you said to keep trying things until you have a handful of activities that you can cycle through. 💓
@GentleHealingInitiative
Thanks for the encouraging feedback! I found that I used pigeon hole myself into doing one single activity, it had to be..the..thing! But once it stopped being interesting I stopped doing it and would get discouraged. We tend to have all or nothing attitudes towards things. Once I gave myself variety and spread my focus out over several activities it kept things novel and me interested. So that was the hack that worked best for me.
@aCalmOasis
I needed this about now as I am about to take a workout challenge this week. this post is encouraging - thank you!
My brother have ADHD and when we haven't exercise for like 2 months (because of the change of house), he got crazy. Now he does a lot of exercise and he likes it a lot.
And one of my friends have ADHD too, so she do exercise in school (a little), then she go to volleyball classes, and plays violin, and she likes it very much.
