The five (5) rules to maintain good physical shape throughout life

After years of practicing a certain sport or training, some people get tired, have been injured and lose motivation, or simply, other activities take up the time that was previously dedicated to sports practice.  Today I am going to convince you to be an active person and to do so, I am going to show you the benefits of incorporating this habit into your lifestyle and some tips to achieve it.

 

Why it is important to ALWAYS be active!

Staying physically active can help you maintain a healthy body weight, reduce your risk of diseases like type 2 diabetes and cancer, improve your blood pressure and cholesterol levels, strengthen your bones, muscles and joints and reduce your risk of falls, recover better and faster from hospitalizations or other immobility, and improve your ability to perform daily activities.

Also, frequent activity helps you maintain and/or improve brain health, greater mental acuity, a stable mood and a better mood.

According to an article in the magazine www.lexingtonathleticclub.com  “Exercise is a psychedelic. It expands and alters consciousness. It is an escape from the monotony of real life, from bills, deadlines, stress and neurotic thoughts. It is a narcotic that literally causes the brain to produce endogenous opioids and cannabinoids that make you euphoric.”

I don't know if to that extent, but I do know that a good workout helps you relax, to get a deep, restful night's sleep. All is well in the world after an intense weight training session or a hike in the countryside. Food tastes better and you eat it with the feeling that your body is earning every calorie. The stress of work is less pressing.  And it is true that training makes a person feel more confident about their body, their movements and their abilities. 

Unpleasant aspects of exercise, such as excessive sweating, burning quads, or the concentration required to lift a certain weight or maintain a high speed, must be learned to “cope” with in some way.

If we endure the pain, or at least are aware that it is doing us a lot of good, we will be using it for our own purposes.

Don't be afraid to confront these sensations. Notice them. They may not necessarily be "fun" or "pleasant" at the moment, but that's not the point. They are just proof that we are alive and that these workouts are serving a purpose.

 

The 5 rules that help you stay physically active throughout your life

1. Mindset and motivation

As you embark on your fitness journey, remember that motivation comes from within. It's all about finding your "why," setting clear goals, celebrating the small wins, staying positive, and mixing things up. Your mindset is key to almost everything you do in life, but especially your workouts. When you're distracted and mindlessly performing exercises, you're not really going to get much out of it. You must approach every workout you do with a focused mind that will help you get the most out of it.

Research shows that just thinking about your muscles moving and working activates muscle fibers even more than if you were to perform the exercise without concentration or attention. In other words, the more you focus on the target muscle while performing an exercise, the greater the gains in strength and muscle memory. ( Study )

2. Do something you like

Some people in the fitness world like to express themselves: they say things like "pain is weakness leaving the body" or "if you're having fun, you're not training." Understood.  I know from experience that reaching elite levels of performance requires enduring pain, a lot of sacrifice, unpleasantness, and even momentary episodes of senseless suffering.

However, the advantage of doing something you enjoy as exercise is that you will actually do it. Since the most effective and beneficial exercise is the one you can stick to, this is one way to ensure you get the benefits.

3. Anything but a sedentary lifestyle

Being sedentary or physically inactive can contribute to many preventable chronic diseases, including heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. It can also lead to weight gain and obesity, and has been linked to some cancers, including breast and colon cancer.

People who lead a sedentary lifestyle also appear to be at higher risk of developing a mental health disorder such as depression, insomnia or isolation.

Sedentary lifestyle has been identified as the fourth leading risk factor for mortality worldwide, responsible for 6% of deaths worldwide. The recommended types and intensity of physical activity vary depending on age and general health. But regardless of age, any physically inactive person will benefit from increased physical activity.

It should be noted, however, that there are people who consider themselves active because they go to the gym for a one-hour aerobics class. The truth is that even if you exercise for 60 or 90 minutes a day, but then go sit in front of a computer for 8 hours, for example, you may not be counteracting the effects of sedentary behavior during the rest of the day.

Sometimes, life circumstances do not allow us to exercise or train as we would like, that is why the expression “physical activity” should be engraved as a mantra in our minds and we should take advantage of any opportunity to move. In my case, I offer to do all the errands that no one likes to do in my house, such as taking out the trash or organic matter to the compost bin, going up or down the stairs with the vacuum cleaner, going to the store to get something that is missing or washing the dishes. 

These boring errands give me a chance to take a break from my work, which is often in front of a computer, and rest my mind, stretch my muscles, and change my scenery.  But there are many more things: gardening, washing the car, deep cleaning a specific part of your house, etc.

4. Physical activity is different from training

That is, MAKE YOUR WORKOUTS HAVE MEANING AND PURPOSE.

A big problem that stops people from exercising is that it all seems pointless. The truth is that going to the gym to lift weights only to put them back down or walking on a treadmill for an hour without going anywhere is pointless on a basic level. But it doesn't have to be that way.

My suggestion is that if you go to the gym to get on a treadmill, make a plan, not necessarily to compete in a 5K race.  But you can set a goal to simply train for a 5K run at your own pace without having to sign up for a competition.  If you already run 5K and do it in 30 minutes, then train to go down to 25 minutes.  It is by setting challenges for yourself that you gain the discipline and motivation to continue. That is when exercise for the sake of exercise makes sense and becomes your goal.

Most of us can't create a life in which regular exercise is a prerequisite for survival (nor would we want to), but we can inject meaning and purpose into our movements by creating our own personalized workout.

5. Listen to your body

Listening to your body is basically being aware, constantly, but especially during your training or sports practice, of how your body is feeling and how it is assimilating the stress that you are imposing on it with the activity you are doing at that moment so that you yourself perceive how much more you can demand from it or if you are approaching your limit.

Similarly, paying attention to your bodily sensations during training allows you to understand how your body is responding, whether you need a rest the day after an exhaustive workout or whether you can train again and what type of training, in case you are still tired, but have enough energy for a gentler workout, for example.

This mind-body connection is crucial because it allows you to avoid injuries, overtraining, intuit how much rest you need, and make you aware of the rhythms in which your body works. 

  

How to reactivate yourself and also how to transition to other activities

Maybe you were a super athlete and you got injured, or got tired, or your life changed and you had to stop exercising, or you just always had a hard time adapting to exercise.  Below you will find some alternatives that may be useful to you.

Start slowly. Gradually build up to at least 30 minutes of activity on most or all days of the week (or as recommended by your doctor). 

Exercise at the same time of day so that it becomes a regular part of your daily routine. For example, you could walk every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 12pm to 12:30pm.

Find a convenient time and place to do the activities. Try to make it a habit, but be flexible. If you miss an opportunity to exercise, incorporate physical activity into your day in another way.

 

Combine sports or types of training or variations to your training

Awaken your adventurous streak.  All humans have it and it is what gives us the curiosity, motivation and impetus to explore, know our capabilities and test our limits.  This affects how we relate to everything and what is known as cognitive flexibility (the ability to adapt to new environments, new situations or unexpected things, among other things).

As I mentioned above, motivation is key.  If you are bored with exercise, it is because you are bored and not because exercise is boring.  If you just do the same thing over and over again, you're doing the bare minimum and of course, the results are minimal. But if you're passionate about what you do in the gym, in the pool, or on the bike, by varying it up you'll focus more on technique, going further or faster sometimes, and so you'll get more out of the activity and your life will be more exciting.

Instead of running on the treadmill at the gym, if the weather is nice, maybe you can venture outside for a run. 

Do you come from a tradition of lifting weights at the gym? How about this weekend hiking up to the nearest hill with a backpack and taking a long walk to the top? A variation of this kind can give you a complete cardiovascular and strength workout with the added bonus of fresh air, vitamin D from the sun and a change of scenery.

If you don't have the opportunity to get out into nature, your strength training at the gym can be made more interesting and effective by simply increasing the intensity, whether it be volume, weight, etc.  A 2014 study of both beginners and advanced athletes showed that, compared to varying intensity, varying exercises produced significant strength and hypertrophy gains in both groups. According to the study's researchers, varying the exercises you do in the gym "appears to produce more complete muscle activation by hypertrophying all heads of the multipennate muscles." That is, all of the muscles involved in the exercise are developed or toned.  For example, a multi-pennate muscle is the deltoid, the triangular muscle located in the shoulder and composed of 3 heads: anterior, middle and posterior.  These heads join to form a single insertion on the arm. This is a multipennate muscle.

 

Are you a solo or group athlete?

If you are one of those people who needs support, that is great and can be a great motivator to get into the habit of training.

Exercising in a group increases the stress reduction that comes with exercise.

Simply training in the presence of another person reduces the perceived exertion of the exercise.

Train with someone who is stronger/faster/fitter. If you feel that your training partner is doing better than you, it motivates you to try harder.

Men can also train alongside a woman, as it has been shown that exercising with a member of the opposite sex also reduces perceived exertion. The same is true for women when we exercise alongside a man, so it works for both sexes.

You don't have to join a CrossFit group (although that's not a bad idea). Just get together with one or two friends and train regularly. And the social contact is a big plus.

Finally, get inspired.  Read health magazines, visit websites that show the techniques or tutorials of the exercises you want to do and the results in people who practice them.  Sometimes reading and seeing pictures of healthy people using the same approach as you can motivate you.