You’ve likely heard that you should make your fitness and overall health a priority. However, between work, school, raising a family, and dealing with the stresses of daily life, you may have neglected your fitness in the past. This happens from time to time, but it’s crucial to get back on track and make fitness a priority. Not sure how to do this? If you need fitness inspiration, here are ten of the best fitness tips to follow and how they’ll help keep you healthy this year.
Consult Your Doctor About Your Fitness
Before you embark on a brand new fitness journey, you should consult your doctor about your current fitness level and how changing your exercise routine will impact your health. Everyone’s fitness level varies, but it’s important to know where your fitness level is now. If you’re not exercising regularly, your health could be impacted. Regular exercise helps build muscle, improves circulation, and helps you maintain a healthy weight. If you don’t have an exercise routine to follow, you risk becoming lethargic, developing heart disease, and developing serious conditions like diabetes.
Talk to your family doctor to see where your health is at now and how getting a new fitness routine will impact it. A new fitness routine may make you healthier, but too much exercise can negatively impact you, too. If you exercise too much, your hormones could become off-balance and you could start to burn muscle instead of fat. Certain health conditions may prohibit you from participating in select physical activities, so make sure you’re crystal clear about what you can and can’t do.
Treat Any Injuries You May Have
You can follow the best fitness tips closely, but they won’t help you if you’re injured. Be sure to treat any injuries you have before starting a new exercise routine. You may not think these injuries are a big deal, but if they aren’t treated, they can get worse if you strain them. These injuries include sprained ankles and strained backs. You may think these injuries are healed, but you should make sure they’re healed before you start a new fitness routine.
If you can’t make it to your primary care physician’s office, you can go to clinics or urgent cares to see if your injuries are healed. You can make a separate appointment, or you can ask about your injuries during your annual checkup. You may be wondering, ” do urgent cares do physicals?” Generally, urgent care centers can do physicals, but it’s best to call one near you and get the right information. If the center does do physicals, you can schedule one and double-check that any previous injuries are properly healed.
Keep Your Exercise Routine Consistent
One of the best fitness tips to follow is to keep your exercise routine consistent. The more consistent you are with your routine, the easier it will be to keep up with. Plus, a consistent exercise routine will help you achieve your fitness goals within a reasonable timeframe.
Adults should partake in at least 2.5 hours of moderate physical activity per week. Take the time to plan out your exercise schedule and schedule workouts on days you have free time. If you schedule workouts on your busy days, you may be tempted to skip them. Instead, schedule your workouts on days you know you’ll have the time and motivation to keep up with the routine.
There are many options to choose from in terms of exercise routines. You could run first thing in the morning, or ride your bike around the block after work. If you need a bike, you could always research custom bicycles for sale. You could also hit the gym, take a fitness class, or do online workouts. The key is to find something you’ll be consistent with.
Mix Up The Cardio and Weight Training
Some of the best fitness tips will encourage you to participate in a variety of exercise routines as you work on your fitness. Mixing up the kind of exercise you do can help you reach your fitness goals faster and make you healthier overall. One way to mix up your exercise routine is to alternate between cardio workouts and weight training workouts.
Cardio and weight training workouts have different perks. Cardio workouts, such as running or cycling, strengthen your heart, burn calories, and can reduce joint pain. Weight training workouts help you increase muscle mass, boost your metabolism, and can even help improve your posture. Weight training exercises include squatting, deadlifting, and doing reps on the bench press.
If you do a cardio workout one day, try a weight training workout the next day. You can alternate workouts or you could do a small cardio workout and then do a more rigorous weight training workout. This all depends on what your fitness goals are and what you feel comfortable doing. If you aren’t sure what kind of routine works best for you, consider working with a personal trainer. They’ll guide you through your fitness journey and make recommendations based on your goals and fitness level.
Try HIIT Workouts
As you keep the best fitness tips in mind, something to remember is that different workouts will yield different results for people. That’s why it’s important to try different workouts to see what works for you. If you haven’t tried it yet, consider participating in HIIT workout. HIIT stands for high-intensity interval training and consists of short bursts of intense anaerobic activity followed by slowed-down recovery periods. This helps burn fat, lower your blood pressure, and improve your overall heart health.
You can do HIIT workouts in the gym or online. Typically, they consist of resistance training and aerobic exercise. These exercises include jumping jacks, running stairs, and jumping rope. HIIT workouts can range in intensity, which means some workouts are harder than others. If you’re going to try a HIIT workout, be sure you’re comfortable with the intensity. If it’s too hard, try a less intense HIIT workout. It will still give you a good workout and help you achieve your fitness goals, but you won’t be completely exhausted after completing it.
Look For Unique Ways To Exercise
One of the best fitness tips to keep you healthy is to look for unique ways to exercise. If you do the same workout day after day, you risk plateauing. This means your fitness level will stay the same instead of improving. To avoid plateauing, switch up the ways you exercise and do activities that require a bit of physical activity.
Think of activities that require some strength and agility to do. One example of this is bow hunting or archery. These activities require you to have certain skills and some level of physical strength. If you’ve never done this activity before, try going to an archery pro shop or another place that can help you gain perspective on what it’s like. The more you know about its physical demands, the better prepared you’ll be.
There are other unique ways you can leisurely exercise, too. For example, ice skating is an activity you can enjoy while getting some exercise in. The best part is that you may enjoy yourself so much that you don’t even realize you’re exercising. Finding activities that help you be consistently active will help you achieve your fitness goals faster.
Build a Home Gym
Sometimes, following the best fitness tips means incorporating fitness into your everyday life. One way to ensure that happens is to build a home gym. A home gym would allow you to work on your fitness goals without having to leave your house. This is especially convenient for those who work from home or are primary caregivers to family members.
There’s a lot that can go into your home gym. You can get cardio machines, kickboxing or boxing equipment, weights, and resistance equipment. The equipment you’ll get will depend on the kind of exercise routine you’re committed to. It’ll also depend on how big your home gym will be. You want to leave enough space in your gym so you can freely walk around and not have your machines crowd one another.
If you want to build a home gym, you can contact a general remodeling contractor to help you transform one of your home’s rooms into a gym. You also want to make sure the space you’re transforming is in good shape. Make sure the space you choose doesn’t have mold issues or water damage. If there is water damage, look into water damage restoration services before you complete the home gym. You want your home gym to be in the best shape possible so you can have a great space to work on your fitness goals.
Convert Your Garage Into a Workout Zone
If you don’t have space in your actual house for a home gym, you can convert your garage into a workout zone. A garage may give you more room for your gym, which means you can get more exercise equipment and incorporate more exercises into your routine. If you don’t mind giving up your garage, you can gain a great space that helps you reach your fitness goals and keeps you healthy.
Be sure your garage is in good shape before converting it into your workout zone. There may be cracks in the walls you need to fill or garage door repairs you need to make. You will also have to find storage space for the things you may have in your garage. Even if you want the garage to be converted as soon as possible, don’t rush the project. Make sure everything is done right and in good shape before you start working out in your new fitness space.
Swim Laps In The Pool
If you have a pool, one of the simplest and best fitness tips is to swim laps. Swimming is a great exercise that gets your heart pumping without much physical impact. It helps you maintain a healthy weight and strengthens your heart and lungs. Plus, swimming in your own backyard can save you time and allow you to get quick workouts in amid your bust life.
If your pool has been stagnant for some time, be sure you get it serviced before you use it. Contact a pool service company to help you get your pool clean and ready for you to regularly use. If you don’t service your pool, you risk swimming in unclean pool water, which can cause you to get sick.
If you don’t have a pool, you can consider getting one. It will help you maintain a regular fitness routine and provide entertainment for you and your family. You can also integrate it into your patio design and increase your home’s value by having it installed.
Monitor Your Progress
As you catalog the best fitness tips you can find, something else you should do is monitor your progress. Monitoring your progress keeps you motivated and shows you what’s working with your fitness routine. You can track your progress in numerous ways. You can record the miles you run each day, the number of reps you do on machines, or the total amount of time you worked out. If you’re tracking your physical progress, you can write down your weight over time and take before and after photos to see results.
Remember, everyone’s progress looks different. What may be a stepping stone for one person could be a milestone for someone else, and that’s okay. Don’t compare your progress to others’ progress. Instead, be proud of the progress you’re making and stick with your fitness routine.
The best fitness tips will challenge you to meet your fitness goals and motivate you to keep going, even if your motivation is at an all-time low. You may have to adjust your fitness goals as time goes on, but that’s normal. The fitness goals you have this year may not be the same goals you have next year. The key is to adjust as needed and be honest with yourself about your goals. If you do this, you’ll be in better shape and live a healthier life.