By Exercising every day helps you lead a healthy and active life
Doctors may not know a lot about nutrition, but most of them will encourage you to exercise for your health’s sake. I do believe that any form of exercise is better than doing nothing. But if you find something you enjoy, it will never be hard to get yourself motivated and out the door. As a gym fanatic, I will focus my tips on a training perspective, aligning my 15+ years of experience. However, these tips are for anyone, no matter what training you choose. A workout must contain several criteria for weight loss, muscle building, and general health.
Six simple strategies that guarantee success in achieving your workout goals.
One: Diet
Diet is a vital part of a healthy workout strategy. As I always point out, we cannot out-train a bad diet. Perhaps you had a slight chance as a teenager, but not as an adult — forget it. Eating well isn’t just for aesthetic purposes; it’s also a requirement for health and longevity. Continually eating processed and artificial foods will not serve your long term health goals. By the way, it makes you feel like utter rubbish anyway. Cut out these nutrient-void foods, focusing instead on whole foods such as high-grade sources of protein and vegetables. Your meals should primarily consist of vegetables with moderate amounts of protein, fat and small amounts of carbohydrates.
Two: Hydration
Many people get excited when starting their workout and healthy eating plan, forgetting how important hydration is for fat loss and energy levels. Drinking fluids is necessary for replacing anything lost during sweating. Dehydration decreases performance & hinders our brain function. This makes it easier to injure ourselves -setting us back from achieving our exercise goals. I use one trick for optimal workout performance. Before a workout, I drink 1 litre of water, then another throughout my session. This helps recover any lost fluids from sweating and maintains my energy through the training session. The chances of developing headaches and muscular aches from dehydration is now a thing of the past. Instead, try to disperse your fluid intake during the day and see the difference it makes.
Three: Quality of Sleep
If you don’t allocate enough quality sleep, you leave yourself susceptible to injury when training. Excessive exercise can bring on the same symptoms as sleep deprivation, leading to anger, tension, stress, depression and confusion. Sleep deprivation also leaves us susceptible to making negative food choices. It makes our healthy eating plan more challenging than it should be. We need a good amount of sleep for recovery and rejuvenation. Unfortunately, many of us stay up late at night, watching too much TV or scrolling through our devices. One hour can quickly become 3, and the morning has shown itself before you know it! Allow yourself the gift of sleep, and discover how it can change your quality of life.
Four: Getting right into the workout zone by ignoring everything
Structure your workout at a convenient time for you, your goals and your life. Have this time — either 30 minutes or an hour, just for you to zone out of your everyday life and focus on training — being present in that space. If you block out distractions during your workout, your weight loss goals will most certainly become a lot easier and faster to achieve. Working out is also stress relief, or as I deem “therapy”, and it’s a significant priority in my life. What potential does a training session have on your mental and physical wellbeing? I’d say it’s imperative — especially since we’ve all had a tough two years of constant lockdowns. So I most certainly am grateful for our gym opening and hope they stay open for a long time! Find out what is essential for your own physical and mental well being, then tap into that as a motivating factor, pushing you further towards achieving your goals.
Five: Always have great music on hand
I don’t know about your gym, but mine has a dreadful playlist that’s on repeat! I find that my favourite music motivates and energises me to push on a little bit more. Pick a playlist that resonates with you. It should be uplifting and help you forget the world around you for a short amount of time. Music can help you push above and beyond your boundaries when lifting weights or give your body that one last ounce of effort while circuit training. Have your headphones and music ready before you hit the gym. I can’t ever train without mine.
Six: Strength training
I have saved the best till last! Strength training is above and beyond essential in building strength, enhancing your metabolisms capacity, and increasing your bone density. Your body shape will change when you learn to lift weights. Lift weights regularly, and the changes will magnify and help you sustain weight loss for life. Not only do you change physically, but you will also learn to push past your current limitations and boundaries. Build confidence in yourself by regularly lifting weights. These are the six principles I live by daily and have for the past 15 years. Of course, it’s been a long and bumpy road that changes as I age. But what’s certain is that proper nutrition and exercise will surpass any age-related setbacks. Please don’t allow them to take over your life and run you through an endless list of reasons why you can’t. You can, and you will do it. Start today, and never look back. If you would like to read more articles like this or start writing your own, please sign up via my link. I’d love to see you on the other side.Sign up here for your medium subscription