Fitness is defined as good health or physical condition, especially as the result of exercise and proper nutrition. Before the industrial revolution, it was also be describes as our ability to carry out daily tasks and routine physical activities without undue fatigue.
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| Meditate at least 10 minutes per day! |
However, with changes to our modern lifestyle and automation, fitness is now considered a measure of the body’s ability to function at optimum levels for work and leisure; to be healthy and to be able to recuperate after illness. There is a general consensus that everyone will benefit from activity as it promotes good mental and physical health.
According to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, adults should exercise at least 150 minutes (2 hours/30min) a week of moderate intensity of 75 minutes (1hour/15min) of vigorous intensity.
The WHO says that a healthy lifestyle is extreme important to improve cardio,respiratory and muscular fitness, bone health and to reduce the risk of disease and depression
What is a healthy lifestyle?
There are different components to a healthy lifestyle. You need to look at the following;
• Regular exercise
If you exercise on a regular basis, not only will your body strengthen and be more resilient to illness, it will also help to decrease your stress levels.
• Balanced diet
This is such an important part of being healthy that I cannot emphasise this enough! Get rid of your bad eating habits and see your body and mind will flourish.
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| Change your eating habits for long terms benefits |
• Manage your external stressors
It is so important to learn how to manage your daily stress. Conditions such as obesity, insomnia and various diseases can be directly linked to our ability to manage stress. Try meditation to help with you stress overload, it really helps!
• At least 7-8 hours of sleep
• This is vitally important! Your body cannot recover and heal itself if you do not get enough rest. Less than 6½ hours of sleep, will affect your hormones and will lead to more health issues.
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| Sleep is a good thing! |
To increase and/or maintain your physical fitness you should look at a combination of strength, cardio exercises and flexibility exercises.
Strength training is a type of physical exercise specializing in the use of resistance to induce muscular contraction which builds the strength, anaerobic endurance, and size of skeletal muscles. It includes gym circuit training, gymnastics, resistance training and martial arts.
Cardio or cardiovascular exercises are any exercise which involves working your large muscle groups and raising your heart rate for an extended period of time example running, swimming and cycling. The purposes of this exercises is to improve your heart’s and lungs’ capacity, to make it stronger so that it can work more efficiently.
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| You do not have to join a gym to get your body moving. |
Flexibility training includes stretching exercises for the purpose of increasing one's range of motion. Look at yoga, foam rolling and any other stretching exercises.
Try to exercise at least 3 times a week and slowly build up your time as you grow stronger. Strength training includes gym circuit training, gymnastics, resistance training and martial arts. Cardio, and look to yoga and stretching exercise for flexibility.
What are the risks of not maintaining our physical fitness?
• Future weight problems
The top 3 killer-diseases in our modern society are heart disease, strokes and chronic lung diseases. However, for the first time in history, in 2015, more people died from obesity related diseases then those that died from starvation related diseases. Between 1980 – 2000 obesity rates in the USA Doubled This is very concerning and highlight the problem with our obsession with fast foods and unhealthy food.
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| Yoga is ideal to maintain posture and relieve stress. |
• Postural and back problems
Lack of exercise can contribute to our society’s growing number of people who complain about lower back pain and. It is important to be aware of your posture during the long hours in front of your computer. Get up and stretch your body often during your working day and stand and walk tall!
• Reduced mobility and flexibility as we grow older
Our joints lose their flexibility and an exercise routine which includes all the different exercise groups will help to keep you mobile until well into your golden years.
• Health problems
It has been shown over and over, that a strong and mobile body will be much healthier and will be able to fight of diseases.
• Lifestyle diseases
Lifestyle diseases are a ‘modern man” problem as this is directly linked to our lifestyles; too little exercise, bad diet, drug and alcohol consumption, smoking and our social habits of sitting in front of the Television or computer. It is also known as Non-Communicable Diseases. A non-communicable disease is a medical condition or disease that is not caused by infectious agents. Diseases that impact on our lifestyle are heart disease, stroke, obesity and type II diabetes
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| Life is too short not to make the most of it! |
With the advances in nutrition and medical treatments, modern man will far out-live all his ancestors. So, if you do not want to spend your later years sickly and maybe in a wheel chair,you should strive to keep your body in perfect condition to enjoy your life full-on.
