Simple Fitness Routine for a Healthy and Active Body
Affordable Fitness and Active Lifestyle
Achieving a fit and active lifestyle does not need to cost a lot of money, nor do you need expensive memberships at gyms to do this. Since so many of us live in such busy times today, we tend to not have time for physical activity; however, the fact remains that even engaging in an easy daily routine will provide many health benefits.
The focus of this article is on realistic fitness habits you can adopt into your daily schedule. Doing low-intensity activities, such as walking, stretching or using your body weight to perform simple exercises, are very effective forms of exercise compared to high-intensity resistance training and will provide the same overall health benefits as those high-intensity activities do when done on a regular basis.
Building Consistency Through Simple Routines
Simple fitness routines build discipline into a person’s daily life and establish the habit of regularly exercising for years. No fitness expert, including personal trainers such as Joe Wicks, recommend doing long workouts that do not provide an effective workout to help you develop consistency in finding ways to maintain an active.
Sample Daily Workouts
Here’s a quick start to a simple daily workout routine: Walking and/or checking mail for 5 minutes – Brisk walk or slowly jog (up to you!) Or work in some bodyweight/moving exercise (5 mins each student 2 times).
Basic Exercise Examples
Ex: 5 pushups, squats, wall pushups (can do 2 sets) Planks (5 minutes total, 2 sets, all ages). Different stretches before starting activity can help to improve flexibility.
- Doesn’t require any special equipment – your body will be your sole piece of equipment – isn’t that great?
- Beginner (2 sets) = Start slow and build intensity and speed as a beginner
- Intermediate (4 sets) = Add additional sets of each exercise also add weights for additional resistance
Importance of Warm-Up and Stretching
Many people don’t spend very much time warming up/stretching before exercise, and yet both warm-up and stretch are very crucial parts of your quality of life. When you properly warm/loosen up your entire body by increasing blood circulation to your muscles, you are actually decreasing your chances of injury and increasing your overall athletic performance when doing exercise.
Many people have started an activity such as lifting weights and/or working out hard without even considering warming up, which has left their muscles/joints in an incredible deal of stress.
Rest and Recovery
Failing to rest your muscles could diminish your energy, either by leading to fatigue or by causing an injury through overuse. Many people feel that by exercising everyday without rest, they will obtain faster results but that is not correct.
The Sleep Foundation has recommended an adequate amount of sleep supports healthy muscle recovery, health and wellness. The better rested you are, the better your performance and more mental alertness during the course of the day.
How Important Are Rest Days
Having rest days is important because they allow time for your body to completely recover and reduce the chances of burning out. In addition, rest days minimize the chance of developing an injury due to overuse and/or strain.
Even a day or two of rest each week can have significant positive effects on your health and fitness.
Active Recovery Techniques
The idea behind active recovery is to perform low-intensity exercises that will promote the healing of your body while allowing minimal strain on your body. Yoga, slow cycling or stretching are some examples of low-intensity activities that can aid in active recovery.
Participating in these types of activities will promote blood flow, relieve stiffness and promote relaxation of the muscles. As active recovery continues to be performed on a regular basis, you will start to notice that when you complete your next workout you will have less.
Common Fitness Mistakes
Unattainable Goals
One of the first mistakes you will probably make will be creating an unattainable goal for yourself. Losing weight is great, but if you are trying to lose it fast, you may be disappointed and may even burn out before you achieve that weight loss goal.
Fitness is something you will do over time through hard work and commitment.
Poor Form
Your body needs to fuel itself in order to perform all of its functions and recover properly.
Summary
The most powerful way to change your overall lifestyle (to a more positive or healthy one) is to develop a simple but consistent workout routine with some degree of balance within your healthy living practices.