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October-Make exercise part of your day

October is the perfect time to start a new health kick. A few weeks ago I found myself on a Matt Roberts training day for added motivation to my regime and it was truly inspirational. Since then I have added running up hills into my normal 5k run to get some HIIT (High Intensive Interval training). Walking and running do not have to take hours- the important thing is just to make it part of your day. This week i took a few days off and went up to Northumberland for those fantastic big skies and of course hills! (See photo)If you run regularly then some 30 second sprints up hills will push you into this HIIT zone. On the days that I did not run I made sure that I had a walk before breakfast known as cardio fast, (exercising before eating). The hilly bit gets your heart rate up and pushes you harder so that you end up burning fat for longer. The key thing is just to start slowly and to make walking part of your day and then slowly increase the time and/ or the hill. If you pace yourself and increase your load or distance 10% each week then the body should adapt slowly to this gradual increase in loading. The important thing is to give yourself time to recover at the top of the hill before starting off again. This allows your heart to come back down to near its normal resting pulse. This article is for advice only and if you have any concerns or a history of heart issues then discuss with your GP before starting any new exercise regime. Stop if you feel too breathless, lightheaded or dizzy.