Finding exercise you enjoy is an important step…here’s how to get strategic about doing it.
This is a follow-on from last week’s blog post, where I wrote about falling in love with exercise. I hope it got you thinking. Maybe you’ve already found the sport or activity you really love? It’s lifelong joy that many people will never experience.
But falling in love with exercise is just one part of the equation. Living a long and healthy life also requires consistently doing the healthy habits that will keep you fit, strong, and active.
These things rarely “just happen”. Even the most naturally sporty people you know will have worked hard to fit exercise into their life until it became a habit. Here’s how to plan and programme a lifetime of healthy movement.
What is a lifetime fitness plan?
Most of us are familiar with the concept of a 12-week training plan. It’s the kind of thing we can find in magazines or online when we commit to running a half marathon or getting in shape. Personal Trainers and coaches traditionally work to 8, 12, or 16-week training blocks.
But what about the bigger picture? Short-term fitness plans are important for kick-starting healthy habits or achieving specific goals. But if you want to be fundamentally fit and healthy for life, you need to think about a lifelong fitness plan.
This means considering how you’ll keep moving your body throughout every phase of life, throughout ageing and illness, stress, and big life changes.
How to be fit for life
Being fit for life is very different to getting fit for an event. If you want to run a marathon, you obviously need to focus mainly on running. But for lifelong fitness, it’s important to widen your lens and have a looser view of “exercise”.
The exercise you enjoy right now might not have the same appeal this time next year. Your body might not be able to move in the same way in 5 years’ time. Energy levels will change over a decade.
Your approach to exercise, training, sport, and healthy eating will have to change over the years. Keep your rules too rigid, and you risk giving up all together when life changes.
The 3 fundamentals of fitness for life
Rather than thinking about health and fitness in precise terms (I need to train 4 x a week….), start thinking about the health pillars that support your body and mind.
Movement
It’s helpful to think about exercise in terms of “physical activity” or simply “moving your body”. This removes any pressure about doing specific types of exercise or training, and will help you carry your exercise habits with you throughout life.
The case for physical activity couldn’t be stronger: we know that maintaining movement throughout life is a leading factor in health, happiness, longevity, and reducing the risk of disease. Exercise of all forms helps build muscle and bone tissue, and keeps us mobile which has obvious benefits as we get elderly. And it’s social, too, maintaining important connections and friendships. (1)
As you move through life as a “fit person”, don’t worry too much about the exact type of training you do. As long as you are moving your body, you are doing great. Running may have to make way for fast walking. Weight training might have to become bodyweight exercises. Sunday 5-a-side might become walking football. Eventually, it might all become gentle walks and a lot of gardening.
It doesn’t matter. What’s important is that you keep moving your body as it was intended to move. Remember the basic movement patterns of squat, hip hinge, lunge, push, pull and carry. Do some exercise that gets your heart rate up, some that puts load/resistance through your body, and some that keeps you mobile. (2) The specifics are up to you.
Nutrition
Think you’ll care about fat loss when you’re 80? I doubt it. The nutrition goals we have in our 30s, 40s, and 50s will naturally make way for more health-focused and convenient habits as we get older.
Healthy eating should be flexible at any time. You should never be on a “diet” that is so structured that you can’t adapt it to your schedule. As you design a lifelong plan for health and fitness, remember the basics of good nutrition.
- Eat enough protein to support lean tissue (this usually means a bit of protein at every meal and snack)
- Ensure you eat plenty of vegetables and fruits (I’d be here all day if I listed the health benefits)
- Eat an appropriate amount for your energy output, and understand that calorie balance is the basis of weight gain and weight loss
- Find healthy foods you enjoy (and meals you like to cook) so basic healthy eating is easy
- Aim for an 80/20 split of healthy, natural, wholefoods and treats – whatever that means for you
- If in doubt, eat foods that are as close to their natural form as possible
Sleep
Sleep is one of the best gifts we can give our brains and bodies. Your sleep should not be an afterthought (in fact, without good sleep you could argue that exercise and healthy eating are less effective).
Aim for 7-9 hours a night and get serious about good quality sleep. This means minimising light in the bedroom. And not scrolling your phone before bed. Leaving your phone outside the bedroom is a game changer for most people.
People who sleep well are healthier, happier, more productive, eat better, and have more energy. This is powerful stuff that has a direct impact on longevity and quality of life.
Get good sleep habits in place as soon as possible, so you can enjoy the benefits for as many years as possible.
Designing your own lifetime of activity
I hope this has given you a different perspective on getting fit and healthy. If you’d like help with any of this, drop me a line.
‘The number one rated Personal Trainer In Henley and Oxfordshire’
References used in todays blog:
(1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1402378/
(2) https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0126336
