When you think about fitness and what that means, many things might come to mind. Do you picture someone with six pack abs, a body builder or someone that can run a marathon? Whether or not you aspire to achieve those things, you have to start somewhere. You have to start where you currently are. Do you have the physical ability to do what you need and want to do on a daily basis? Let’s focus more on the foundations of fitness. The three things you’ll want to focus on as your goals in fitness should start with flexibility, strength, and endurance. They all work hand in hand to help you live your best life every day.
What are the basic goals in fitness?
- Flexibility- the range of motion in a joint or group of joints or the ability to move joints effectively through a complete range of motion
- Strength- our ability to physically overcome a force
- Endurance- the ability to exert oneself and remain active for a long period of time
How flexible are you?
Do you have the range of movement (ROM) to easily complete daily tasks? Flexibility helps you move in different ways to complete daily tasks without injuring yourself. That might include things like picking things up off the floor or reaching for something off a high shelf. If you don’t have the range of motion (ROM) to complete these simple tasks, you’ll want to start working on improving your flexibility. Start off with a daily stretching and ROM routine. It helps to warm up before stretching. You’ll be able to increase you ROM more easily and be less likely to injure yourself. Stretching should not be painful, but you may feel a little discomfort. Unfortunately, as we get older we become less flexible. Therefore, stretching becomes even more important as one of your goals in fitness than it was in our younger years.
Do you feel strong?
Can you lift a heavy bag of groceries out of the car or walk up a flight of stairs without feeling strained? These are normal daily tasks that shouldn’t be difficult to perform for most. If lifting weights isn’t something you already do, start off with body weight resistance exercises or small weights. Once that gets easier you’ll want to increase the weights and difficulty to continue to get stronger. There’s no down side to getting stronger. Not only does getting stronger make you feel more capable of everyday tasks, resistance training has so many other benefits including increased metabolism and increased bone density.
Do you have the energy?
Are you feeling drained of energy before you think you should be or want to be? If you have small children, can you keep up with your kids? Just because you’re older doesn’t mean you have to have less energy. Along with increasing muscle mass you’ll need to include some cardio on a regular basis. There are so many different ways to do this. You can walk, dance, bike, or swim just to name a few. Not everyone is going to enjoy the same thing, so pick at least a couple different activities you enjoy and add them to your life. The goal is to increase your endurance. You can do this be increasing your time or increasing our intensity/speed. Do it consistently and you should see your endurance improve.
Increasing your flexibility, strength, and endurance opens up your possibilities in life. Not only does it make your everyday life that much easier, but it can also lead to new adventures and opportunities that you might not have known you were capable of. The point is to live your life to the fullest and being physically able to do that. Your workouts are just the means to get you there. So, get moving and enjoy what your body can help you experience!
