Learn how to stay active in your daily life and avoid idleness with these expert-recommended tips. Maintaining an active lifestyle can help prevent a variety of health problems.
Are laziness and lethargy sapping your physical and mental energy? Maintaining an active lifestyle and learning how to stay energized can go a long way in making you feel better about yourself and be more productive. You can maintain an active lifestyle by making some practical changes to your daily life. These changes include incorporating basic physical activity into your day, limiting sitting and eating a healthy diet. Regular physical activity in your daily routine is an easy way to maintain an active and lively lifestyle. Here's how you can boost your energy levels and stay active all day every day.
What is an active lifestyle?
An active lifestyle consists of regular physical activity, exercise and movement, explains fitness expert Wanita Ashok. These activities prevent muscle stiffness, improve cardiovascular health and strengthen muscle and bone density. This is especially important as prolonged sitting has become the new smoking and is causing many health problems for people.
“Even if you exercise for an hour, you shouldn't sit still for hours. Stay active, take short breaks and remember to move around,” says Ashok. The UK's National Health Service says being active includes everyday activities like commuting to work or gardening. It also includes things you do in your free time, like dancing at social events, going for walks or cycles or playing a sport you enjoy.
Why do we need to continue to operate?
Being active is essential to maintaining mental and physical health. Being active helps reduce or prevent chronic diseases such as stroke, diabetes, and some cancers. Managing your weight reduces the risk of obesity-related health problems. Exercise reduces stress, anxiety, and depression; enhances mood cognitive function; improves sleep quality, duration, and consistency; increases energy levels; reduces fatigue; and improves overall physical function. According to the American Psychological Association, Americans spend a lot of time in front of the television, more than three times a day, an activity that contributes to stress.
Plus, weight-bearing exercise keeps bones strong, prevents osteoporosis, builds muscle mass and boosts metabolism. Staying active improves the quality of your daily life, explains Ashok.
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How can I stay active?
Maintaining an active lifestyle requires a variety of simple, practical habits to incorporate every day.
1. Brisk walking
The best recommendation is brisk walking, at least 3-4 miles per hour, which can help improve your cardiovascular health, lift your mood, and increase your energy. “Aim for at least 30 minutes per session, five days a week, and maintain the same pace when walking around the office or outdoors (like if you miss a bus),” explains Ashok. Read on to learn more about power walking.
2. Body Weight and External Resistance Exercise
Experts strongly recommend performing bodyweight and external resistance exercises targeting all muscle groups two to three times a week. Here's an easy way to do this: Resistance training with elastic equipment is just as effective as other more advanced traditional equipment. This allows you to use equipment that is low-cost, easy to handle, and can be used to maintain and increase strength in a variety of locations, says the study, published in Sage Open Medicine.
3. Bodyweight Training
Bodyweight exercises like squats, push-ups, lunges, plank variations, yoga, and pilates can help you build strength, increase flexibility, and improve balance, says Ashok. But there's a word of warning: If you rely solely on these exercises, you should also be aware of the side effects of bodyweight training.
4. External Resistance Training
The American College of Sports Medicine states that resistance training is any physical activity that exercises a muscle or muscle group against external resistance. This helps in improving strength and endurance or power. “For external resistance training for general fitness and strength, I recommend freehand, which mimics the activities of your study day and is more functional than strengthening with gym equipment,” says Ashok.
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CUSTOMIZE NOW Consistency with your training plan is important to stay healthy and get the most out of your workouts. Image credit: Pexels
5. Invest in inexpensive fitness equipment
Use a variety of equipment like dumbbells, mini bands, barbells, physio ball, gym stick, boy board, balance ball, weighted gym ball extra etc. “I recommend starting with fewer reps and sets and gradually increasing,” says Ashok.
6. Stay active while doing household chores
For those who aren't big fans of exercise, non-exercise activities could include staying active by doing household chores, gardening, answering the doorbell or taking short breaks to move your body. Find a reason to move, says Ashok.
7. Don't sit for long periods at a time
To maintain an active lifestyle, avoid prolonged sitting and limit sitting time to 30 minutes at a time. Prolonged sitting has many side effects and can lead to chronic diseases and reduced physical functioning.
8. Reduce screen time
Limit screen time, watching TV, playing video games, and other sedentary activities, as they can lead to a slower metabolism and stiffer joints and muscles. A study published in Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine found a strong link between daily screen time and risk of back pain.
9. Regular
If you want to maintain an active lifestyle, exercise needs to become a habit. Aim to undertake regular physical activity rather than sporadic or occasional exercise to maintain consistency and progress, says Ashok.
Basic yoga, resistance training, and strength training can help you stay healthy and active. Image credit: Pexels
10. Listen to your body
It's important to stay active, but it's also important to take rest when you need to: To avoid burnout and injury, Ashok says it's helpful to pay attention to your body's signals and take a break or change your activity when needed.
11. Eat well
Eating a variety of healthy foods is very important to maintain an active lifestyle. You need to consume enough carbohydrates to keep you going while training. In addition to this, try to include whole grains, fruits, vegetables, milk, yogurt, cheese, lean meat, fish, poultry, eggs, nuts and legumes in your daily diet.
12. Eat on time
Eating on time helps you meet your daily energy and nutritional needs. This also helps food to be digested better. Ideally, you should have your first meal within 2 hours of waking up. Eating dinner early also has many benefits.
13. Stay hydrated
Water helps keep many functions in our body working properly: it replenishes electrolytes, improves digestion and metabolism, and removes toxins from the body. Staying hydrated is key to staying active. Find out how much water you should drink per day.
summary
Maintaining an active lifestyle means staying active yet getting enough rest. Remember, a balanced and sustainable approach to physical activity, nutrition and overall lifestyle habits is key to maintaining an active lifestyle.
