5 tips to stay on track
What are the top 5 tips to stay on track with Fitness?
Written by Adam Church
When it comes to the fitness industry, we are often led to think it’s a success or failure when we measure our progress. Success being we reached our fitness goals and failure being as brutal as you gave up, you weren’t dedicated enough!
Before we look at my top 5 tips to stay active, let's look at what "staying on track" means to me. For me staying on track is simply keeping active and listening to my body. With so many health-related illnesses that come from not staying active, now is the best time to find out what you enjoy doing that keeps you moving (and smiling). Whether it's lifting weights, going for a run, or shaking it in a Zumba class, fitness is far from a one style fits all.
Your fitness is your health and mental wellness. No mirror can show you the benefits of moving on your body's inside. Here are just some of the life-changing benefits of exercise:
Cardio fitness training will help strengthen your cardiovascular system. Therefore:
- Reducing your risk of heart disease
- Reducing your risk of diabetes
- Reducing your risk of stroke
- Reducing your risk of high blood pressure
- Reducing stress and improving your mood
Strength training will help you to build and preserve your muscle mass. Therefore:
- Increase and maintain your metabolic rate
- Increase and maintain bone density
- Increase and maintain flexibility in joints
- Increase and maintain pain management
- Improving your posture and reducing stress
Now with all these benefits to improve your quality of life, let’s look at my 5 top tips to staying active:
- Find time for YOU each week. As we all live increasingly busier lives, we sometimes forget to put aside some time for ourselves. This can be for a sport, a workout, a walk. So plan an activity that you want to do. After all, if you enjoy it, you will look forward to it.
- Train with a partner. Training alone can be hard to stay focused and motivated. So, if you haven’t already, try out some of our group exercise classes to meet other people like you and workout together as a group. Alternatively, on our free friend Fridays, bring a friend along and see how the time flies when working out together.
- Mix up your workouts. As part of your Wellness Journey, you can book a review every six weeks where you can meet with a Personal Trainer and discuss how to get the most of your training. We do this for you every six weeks to help you avoid a plateau with your training. If you’re getting bored of your workout, your body is most likely feeling the same. So mix it up and keep the stimulus going.
- Listen to your body. Although some people judge a workout by the intensity of their DOMS (Delayed onset muscle soreness). Your health and fitness is never a challenge to see how much pain you can endure. If your body needs rest, that is completely normal. No one needs to workout seven days a week. A big part of any workout is the recovery time between sessions. A low-intensity workout or even a visit to our Health Suite are great ways to improve your mood and recovery.
- Fuel your workouts. You cannot drive a car empty, so don’t expect your body to be any different. When you increase your activity levels, be mindful to fuel your workouts. Food is fuel and will help you to recover. No food group is off-limits, and a nice balanced diet will help you get the vitamins your body needs.
