Ways to Live a More Active Life
Living an active life is important to staying healthy-as exercise is associated with improved mental health and cognitive function. You don’t have to be a distance runner to improve your health. The most important thing is that you’re staying active.
One trick to staying active is to find something you may enjoy doing. For some, that means having a friend to exercise with. It doesn’t matter whether you’re training or dancing at home, walking, going for a nature hike, or going out for a run or a bike ride to the beach — just as long as you get moving!
It may help to mix it up every once in a while. You may also find that you like trying something new like getting a group of your friends or family together for some exercise!
Here are some simple tips you can use to get active and stay active.
Involve the whole family in keeping fit!
Arrange for outings that are physically active, such as badminton, hiking, swimming and playing flag football which also helps blast calories, tone and expand muscles, trim away fat, and work towards a healthier physique while developing new skills requiring athletes to effectively communicate with both teammates and coaches.
Make getting fit enjoyable.
Pick a range of activities that appeal to you and if you like it, keep it for your exercise plan.
Keep exercise equipment at home.
Options include Agility Ladders, skipping ropes, fitness balls, resistance bands and Fabric Booty Bands, dumbbells' – that help improve your physical fitness and flexibility while tightening your body and can be used by anyone, from beginners to serious athletes.
Make exercise a social event.
Find friends to be active with so you can motivate and reward each other. You may try Badminton which improves blood circulation to a greater extent, which in turn means that it strengthens the heart muscles to pump blood more profusely. A stronger heart becomes a healthy heart which helps unclogging of the arterial walls and reduction of bad cholesterol.
Look for ways to move your body every day.
This could be walking your dog -or brisk walking to your nearest grocery store instead of driving the car. Use the stairs instead of the lift or escalator.
Be active around the house.
Housework, gardening, washing the car or dog are all physical activities that burn calories which help keep you fit.
Remember to take it slow.
If you haven’t been active for some years, start out slow. Always talk to your doctor before starting an exercise program, as there may be precautions you should take.
- Stretch
Stretching before and after a workout should always be part of your routine. Stretching improves flexibility and range of motion. It may also cut your risk of injury as well as muscle cramps. Also, stretching improves circulation throughout the body.
- Work your muscles
Resistance training or weight lifting is also important. This type of exercise helps strengthen your muscles and bones and improve your balance and coordination. This reduces your risk for osteoporosis.
- Mix it up
You may go to the gym, prefer to workout at home or head outdoors for a change.
Staying active is one of the most important ingredients of a healthy life. This becomes particularly important as you age. You can be creative about fitting in your 30 minutes of activity a day for starters. That’s all it takes and you’ll be well on your way to a healthy lifestyle!
To Chris, all men and women can be active at EVERY age. He founded Trained Sports on this vision that“ you can always start from where you are, use what you have and continue to improve - your limitation is only your imagination.”
It’s just up to us to see how we can improve ourselves...
We’ll have more details about" Improving Ourselves " in our next email...
P.S. Did you know? Scientists have proven that working out sharpens your memory: Exercising increases the production of cells that are responsible for learning and memory.