Fall Into Fitness
As the holidays approach, so too does indulging (or overindulging) in food and cocktails. From Halloween candy and treats through New Year’s Eve champagne and chocolate, only the most disciplined of individuals will pretend all unhealthy bites and sips don’t exist.
As a good life is a balancing act, you can indeed indulge in a full Thanksgiving dinner, and holiday parties. And if the thought of exercising or joining a gym is off-putting, keeping fit does not have to be.
The “old days” of workouts -- gym machines, aerobics or road running -- have given way to newer and proven ways to actually enjoy a workout and feel the benefits of glowing health and robust fitness. Take a supplement can also help support your weight management journey.
The worldwide quarantine that epitomizes the great pandemic of 2020 has benefited the ways in which you can be healthier by introducing and expanding on tools and techniques designed to improve body composition, endurance and strength, as well as overall heightened well-being.
Tools to help you achieve your weight goals
Perhaps the most significant tend is, according to the Health & Fitness Journal, is not a type of exercise at all -- it’s the use of wearable technology. Utilizing a fitness tracker, smart watch and/or a heart-rate monitor defines one’s fit status, and helps you customize your individual needs to reach achievable goals. According to one source, new smartwatches and fitness trackers have features that utilize metrics such as body temperature, stress level, sleep quality and duration, and heart rate. Herein lies the seed of success: each achievable goal reached motivates you to keep going, reducing the risk of quitting.
Since the pandemic, there has been a dramatic shift to digital workouts and virtual training, opening doors to creating individualized fitness programs at home as well as outside or at gyms and studios. Now, most gyms also offer virtual classes to accommodate members.
Create your own workout menu
Now more than ever, you can create your own workout menu by integrating traditional gym weight sessions with many newer options. Overall, achieving fitness encompasses healthy ratio of lean body mass to fat (body mass index) and high VO2 Max, which is the maximum volume of oxygen that you can use during exercise, and is related to cardiovascular fitness and endurance. The five key components of being physically fit -- at any age -- are muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, and body composition.
Here are several ways you can work out to achieve your heightened fitness for the long term.
Outdoor exercise.
There’s nothing quite so refreshing as being outdoors in temperate weather. Walking, running, hiking, cycling, playing games, are good for the body and the soul. Take note of your surroundings and enjoy breathing in the fresh air. New outdoor activities gaining popularity are reverse running and stroller fitness. Reverse running is running backwards, and it enhances balance and form while strengthening the core. More reverse running groups are being formed. Stroller fitness, also called strollnetics and strollercize, is a fulfilling activity for moms who want to get some exercise time but can’t leave the baby. There are class-based groups forming across the country.
Low-impact movement.
This type of exercise is easier than high-impact, which is a physically demanding workout. Low impact exercise means that one foot is always in contact with the ground, so you can still work out at a high physical intensity but with low impact. Great low-impact exercises are walking, hiking, and stair-climbing. Challenge yourself by increasing pace or step count. Barre workouts are swiftly becoming popular. They are a blend of Pilates, ballet and yoga, providing benefits for flexibility, balance and muscle tone.
HIIT:
The opposite of low-impact is a style called HIIT, high-intensity interval training. HIIT continues to be a favored choice for people who want to burn fat and build muscle. A HIIT workout has several rounds alternating between several minutes of high-intensity movements to increase heart rate then a few minutes of slower low-impact movements. Gym equipment isn’t needed, just a mat and handheld weights. But HIIT can be used on stair climbers, treadmills, and rowing machines. It’s about pacing, not about the equipment. A newly emerging style of HIIT is called ZUU, which mimics animal movements, and was designed to also increase agility.
Mini workouts:
Much like eating smaller meals more often during the day, fitness broken down into multiple small durations during the day helps maintain physical health. This is the solution to those who just “don’t have the time for regularly working out.” Break that one-hour-per-day workout into six 10-minute periods throughout the day.
Mind-body connection:
Exercise programs such as yoga and tai-chi are excellent in helping to relieve stress and anxiety while promoting balance, flexibility, agility and muscle strength. New yoga trends include HIIT yoga, aerial yoga, broga, capsule yoga, roga and chroma yoga.
New classes:
If you like the sociability of being part of a group or class, try something new, fun, exhilarating and challenging. Specific fitness clubs are opening up that offer trapeze, trampoline, roller skating and more.
Conclusion
Working out, getting into shape no longer has to be drudgery or something you “have to do” or to dread. Quite the opposite -- there are so many ways to move, guaranteed you will find what you like, indoors or out, solitary or in a group, with your BFF, your pet or your baby. Start now so you can relish the holidays without any guilt -- and look and feel great!
OMNITRIVIA: The first credited “fitness celebrity and influencer” was not Arnold Schwarzenegger nor Jack La Lanne. It is Eugen Sandow, who opened the School of Physical Culture in London in 1897. (Source)