There's much more to being "fit" than being able to bench press your body weight or run a 4 minutes mile. To truly have a "fit" body and a "fit" life, you need to incorporate these five components into your daily life.
- Increased Metabolic Rate: Strength training increases the body's metabolic rate, causing the body to burn more calories throughout the day.
- Increasing and Restoring Bone Density: Inactivity and aging can lead to a decrease in bone density and brittleness. Studies have clearly proven that consistent strength training can increase bone density and prevent Osteoporosis.
- Increased Lean Muscle Mass and Muscle Strength, Power, and Endurance: Everyone can benefit from being stronger. We can work harder, we can play more, we can workout longer, and we can be more alive.
- Injury Prevention: A wide variety of sports-related or life-related injuries can be prevented by strengthening muscles and joints.
- Improved Balance, Flexibility, Mobility and Stability: Stronger and more resilient muscles improves our balance, which means more comfortable living & fewer falls or accidents.
- Decreased Risk of Coronary Disease: Participation in a consistent strength-training program has a wide variety of affiliated health benefits including decreasing cholesterol and lowering your blood pressure.
- Aids Rehabilitation and Recovery: One of the best ways to heal many types of injuries is to strengthen muscles surrounding the injured area. The stronger your muscles, the quicker the healing process.
- Enhanced Performance in Sports or Exercise: No matter what your favorite sport or physical activity, with the proper strength training program, your performance can unquestionably be improved, and in some cases dramatically so.
- Aging Gracefully: There is no more important reason to making a strength training a consistent part of your life, than to ensure you age gracefully. Physical activity keeps us alive and vibrant. Strength training ensures we are strong enough to participate in aerobic activities, outdoor recreation, and sports. Strong seniors fall down less. If they do fall down, their stronger bodies are more resilient, are injured less by the fall, and are able to heal more quickly after an injury.
- Feeling Better and Looking Better: As painful as strength training can sometimes feel, there is nothing more satisfying than the feeling after a good solid work-out. Stronger muscles and joints can have a dramatic impact on posture and leaner toned muscles tend to make everyone feel better about their appearance. This all leads to improved self-esteem and increased self-confidence.
Cardio workouts: Cardiovascular exercise consists of a variety of exercises, which increase the demand of oxygen by the body after 20-30 minutes with the maintenance of the heart rate at 55-85% of the estimated maximum heart rate.
Some of the benefits of cardiovascular exercising are:
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When planning a cardiovascular training plan, keep the FIT guidelines in mind.
| F.I.T. Guidelines for cardio workouts | Low | Average | High | |
| F | Frequency (sessions/week) | 3 | 3-4 | 5+ |
| I | Intensity (% of maximum heart rate) | 50-60% | 60-75% | 75-85% |
| T | Time (minutes/session) | 20-30' | 30-45' | 45-60'+ |
Flexibility exercises: Flexibility is a joint's ability to move through a full range of motion. Flexibility training (stretching) helps balance muscle groups that might be overused during exercise or physical activity or as a result of bad posture. It's important to clearly understand the many benefits that result from a good flexibility program.
- Improved Physical Performance and Decreased Risk of Injury: First, a safe and effective flexibility training program increases physical performance. A flexible joint has the ability to move through a greater range of motion and requires less energy to do so, while greatly decreasing your risk of injury. Most professionals agree that stretching decreases resistance in tissue structures; you are, therefore, less likely to become injured by exceeding tissue extensibility (maximum range of tissues) during activity.
- Reduced Muscle Soreness and Improved Posture: Recent studies show that slow, static stretching helps reduce muscle soreness after exercise. Static stretching involves a slow, gradual and controlled elongation of the muscle through the full range of motion and held for 15-30 seconds in the furthest comfortable position (without pain). Stretching also improves muscular balance and posture. Many people's soft-tissue structures has adapted poorly to either the effects of gravity or poor postural habits. Stretching can help realign soft tissue structures, thus reducing the effort it takes to achieve and maintain good posture in the activities of daily living.
- Reduced Risk of Low Back Pain: A key benefit, and one I wish more people would realize, is that stretching reduces the risk of low back pain. Stretching promotes muscular relaxation. A muscle in constant contraction requires more energy to accomplish activities. Flexibility in the hamstrings, hip flexors, quadriceps, and other muscles attaching to the pelvis reduces stress to the low back. Stretching causes muscular relaxation, which encourages healthy nutrition directly to muscles; the resulting reduction in accumulated toxins reduces the potential for muscle shortening or tightening and thus reduces fatigue.
- Increased Blood and Nutrients to Tissues: Another great benefit is that stretching increases blood supply and nutrients to joint structures. Stretching increases tissue temperature, which in turn increases circulation and nutrient transport. This allows greater elasticity of surrounding tissues and increases performance. Stretching also increases joint synovial fluid, which is a lubricating fluid that promotes the transport of more nutrients to the joints' articular cartilage. This allows a greater range of motion and reduces joint degeneration.
- Improved Muscle Coordination: Another little-known benefit is increased neuromuscular coordination. Studies show that nerve-impulse velocity (the time it takes an impulse to travel to the brain and back) is improved with stretching. This helps opposing muscle groups work in a more synergistic, coordinated fashion.
- Enhanced Enjoyment of Physical Activities: Flexibility training also means enhanced enjoyment, and a fitness program should be fun if you want to stick with it. Not only does stretching decrease muscle soreness and increase performance, it also helps relax both mind and body and brings a heightened sense of well-being and personal gratification during exercise.
Stress management:Many people don’t think about stress management unless they’re already on the verge of burnout. With our busy lives, it doesn't’t always seem obviously important to take on the practice of stress management before a worn-out body or an overly taxed psyche force the issue. However, developing healthy stress relieving habits really does pay off in the long run. Not only does a regular stress management practice stave off the negative effects of stress, but it can also bring positive outcomes like increased productivity, better health and more happiness in general.
- Your Health: Excessive stress really can lead to poor health outcomes, from relatively minor things like headaches and digestion problems in the short run to major conditions like heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke after years of unmanaged stress.
- Your Looks: Many stress relievers can also make you healthier and even more attractive. For example, taking care of your body by getting enough sleep can make you more productive and healthier, and can help you better manage stress. Also, eating right can keep your blood sugar levels even, keeping your emotions in check and making you more resilient to stress. Getting regular exercise can help you blow off steam when you’re frustrated and keep your body fit and toned.
- Increased Productivity: Simply put, when you’re not stressed, you can be more productive because you’re more focused. Therefore, it really pays to keep stress to a minimum. Certain stress relief habits naturally make you more productive. Being organized can also help you save time and money in the long run, reducing stress and helping you to be more productive in virtually every area of your life. Even limiting caffeine can help, improving your sleep and helping you feel less stressed at the end of the day. Finally, having the right attitude is actually a habit that can be learned. Being an optimist can benefit you in many areas of your life, helping you let failures roll off your back and actually enabling you to achieve more!
- Your Happiness: Some stress relief practices just bring more joy. If you want to enjoy life more, you’ll want to adopt some of these stress relievers, and the fun will come more easily. Caring for pets, enjoying music, dancing while you clean, working more laughter into your life, maintaining a supportive circle of friends are all fun activities that double as great stress relievers for various reasons. Read more about them and how they can help you, and remind yourself that you’re never too busy to include these activities in your lifestyle—they’re stress management techniques!
Putting in the effort to learn effective strategies for stress relief and low-stress living will pay off in the long run. Because of this, stress management is among the most important subjects to learn!
- Fuel to perform daily activities: Every single act performed by your body – no matter how small or mundane the task may seem – uses energy. Proteins, fats and carbohydrates in food all contribute to the total energy pool of the body. But for the body to be able to use and conserve this energy, it also needs certain vitamins and minerals, which can be obtained either from foods or supplements. A diet deficient in foods that supply energy, and the necessary vitamins and minerals to make this energy available, can lead to serious health problems. By ensuring proper energy, vitamin and mineral intake by means of the foods you eat, you'll provide your body with the necessary fuel needed to do all the tasks required to maintain life. These include the production and maintenance of body tissues, the electrical conduction of nerve activity, the mechanical work of muscle effort, and heat production to maintain body temperature, among other functions.
- Growth and repair of tissue: Just as builders need special materials to renovate a home, your body demands certain nutrients for its "construction zone": the growth and repair of tissue. Good nutrition has the advantage that it ensures growth, healing and the maintenance and build-up of muscle mass. For these essential processes to take place, the body needs energy, certain vitamins and minerals, but especially protein on a daily basis. Although the western diet generally incorporates enough protein, vegetarians may be getting too little of this vital nutrient. If you're a vegetarian, it is important that you make a point of including protein-rich foods in your diet. The advantage is that, should you suffer an injury, your body will be ready and able to repair the damaged tissue. You will also be able to maintain your muscle mass and increase it when you exercise.
- Preventing chronic diseases of lifestyle: Good nutrition can be used as a tool to combat chronic diseases. Here, one of the most important steps is to achieve and maintain a healthy weight by following an energy-controlled diet. It is a well-known fact that obesity and overweight can lead to chronic diseases, like type II diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, osteoarthritis, and some cancers. Start by cutting out the saturated fats and added sugars. Also make a point of including more plant-based foods in your diet. Plant-based foods generally have a lower fat content, are rich in fibre and are also excellent sources of phytochemicals. More and more research points to the protective properties of these substances that occur naturally in plants. Phytochemicals seem to be of particular use in the prevention of cancer and heart disease via its mechanism of neutralizing free radicals and thwarting enzymes that activate cancer-causing agents in the body.
- Maintaining good mental health: Diet can play an important role in thwarting the blues. The most basic principle in preventing depression and mood swings, is to eat a balanced diet that contains foods from all the different food groups – fruit and vegetables, unprocessed grains and cereals, lean meat, eggs, milk and dairy products, legumes and nuts, poly- or monounsaturated margarine and oils. Also make a point of including fatty fish, like salmon and tuna, in your diet. People who have an omega-3 deficiency are more prone to depression than those who consume adequate quantities. A good diet, and sufficient intake of the omega-3s, can also help to prevent Alzheimer's disease later in life.
- Ensuring healthy bones: A nutritious diet also ensures the health of your teeth and bones. A balanced, calcium-rich diet – especially during your childhood, teen and early adult years – has the advantage that it will ensure an adequate peak bone mass throughout life. This will prevent osteoporosis later in life.