Three Easy Ways To Be Fitter This Week

You’re about to read one of the most important pieces of advice that will affect how fit you are, how healthy you feel and just how close to your goals you can get this week. This advice is wrapped up in the well-known saying: if you keep doing what you’ve always done then you’ll keep getting what you’ve always got.  The comfort zones that slowly creep into all areas of your life are your natural enemy because they’re also one of the worst things you can do for your fitness levels. Use these three simple tips to bust free from the shackles of stagnation so you’re always taking the crucial actions you need to become progressively better.

Do Something Unexpected

One of the reasons why 2020 was so bad for people’s mental and physical health was the lack of variety in people’s daily lives. Activity, of course, is good, but varied activity is significantly better, found a 2021 paper in BMC Psychiatry. You were not meant to be a one trick pony so add one thing to your weekly workout schedule that challenges you in unusual ways. Your movement patterns will improve, new muscles will be worked and your sense of wellbeing will be hugely improved. You may even find a new passion.

Vary Your Rest

You might already be going through the motions of the drill that’s become the status quo for muscle building.  You do your four sets and rest for 1-2 minutes after each one but there could be a better way. When lifters took mid-set rests when their heart rates hiked up too high, they felt like the sets were lighter and they even had more power compared to when they rested at the end of each set, found a paper in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. Mix up your rest times. Just because you felt a little tired mid-set doesn’t mean you need to give up. Just take a breather. Reset, rest for 10 seconds and keep going. Your muscles will thank you for it.

Take It Outside

You were not meant to move from one climate-controlled environment to the next. When you go from your temperature-controlled house to your car, to your gym to your work your body doesn’t have an opportunity to work outside its comfort zone.  This can hamper your ability to be your best because doing physical activity outdoors in a natural environment improves your fitness levels and mental wellbeing far better than when that same activity is done indoors, found a paper in the journal, Environmental Science and Technology. If it’s too hot, then you can sweat a little more and if it’s too cold then you can always move faster to generate heat. Push yourself to do the things you don’t want to do, and you’ll find that you’ll get a more rounded sense of fitness and a greater sense of confidence that you can achieve just about anything in life. Don’t make it easy on yourself because the world won’t be as kind and when you get used to doing hard things then you’ll be better prepared for anything.

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[REFERENCES]

Photo by Gabin Vallet on Unsplash

VARIED EXERCISE

https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-021-03147-9

REST

https://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Abstract/2021/03000/Efficacy_of_Rest_Redistribution_During_Squats_.2.aspx

OUTDOOR EXERCISE

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21291246/