Most people tend to think that there's no way for them to get into the world of fitness once they've passed or reached a certain age, but that's not true at all.
However without the right workout habits the feeling of hopelessness and frustration is all too common when one is struggling to stay fit, lose weight and more importantly, stay motivated as they work towards their fitness goals.
This process is something a lot of middle-aged people experience or have experienced before, and its totally understandable.
The whole training process and pressure of staying fit and losing weight can be utterly exhausting especially when you have to keep up with a job and or family and can make exercising unbearable and easy to give up.
That's why today we'll be giving you tips on how you can increase your focus, free your schedule, and create overall healthy habits and ways to make exercise a routine and even fun.
Let's get started.
5. SET GOALS & MOTIVATE YOURSELF DAILY
Training becomes much easier and can even transcend to becoming a lifestyle when you think about the bigger picture.
If you're still on the fence and don't have a reason to start working out ASAP, here are a few reasons/ benefits you'll begin to enjoy should you should hit the gym:
- Longer lifespan
Regular physical activity is associated with an increase of life expectancy by 0.4 to 6.9 years [1]
- Better sex life
- Increased agility
Do you struggle with physical activity? Exercising can help you free up tension in your joints, reduce lethargy and make you live a more active lifestyle.
- Exercise combats health conditions and diseases
According to this study, physical activity reduces many major mortality risk factors including arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus type 2, dyslipidemia, coronary heart disease, stroke, and even cancer [1].
- Exercise boosts your confidence
When you set goals and hit them you feel great about yourself, and your self-improvement and that alone does wonders for your self-esteem.
- Exercise helps greatly to improve your mood
Exercise can be particularly helpful for people who deal with anxiety and panic attacks by releasing happy or calming hormones (serotonin, dopamine) in the brain. [3].
- Exercise promotes better sleep
According to the John Hopkins official website, the effects of exercise on sleep are similar and can even surpass those of night/sleeping pills.[2]
- Exercise can be a great way to improve your social life
The gym can be a great place to meet people, and the added confidence boost of having an attractive, shredded physique doesn't hurt your chances either.
- MAKE TIME TO EXERCISE
As a middle-aged person, life can be very demanding and exhausting. You have a dozen things that require your attention now; kids, a spouse, a job, your community, in-laws, so many other things that pull your attention every day and leave you with very little or no time at all to focus on your health and fitness goals, be it losing weight or staying in shape.
But the important thing is you have to make an effort to create time.
Think of it this way; exercise like its professional medical advice from a doctor. Treat it like medication, only this time, you begin to enjoy and even look forward to it once you make exercise a habit.
Here are a few ways you can do this:
- Practice early morning workouts
Get up from bed an hour and half earlier and workout. It can be simple exercises or you can even hit the gym if it's close by.
The important thing is that you develop this a habit so that you can set the tone for the day by getting some exercise in your bones and avoiding things that could stop you from doing so later in the day.
- Carry out simple exercises whenever possible
For example, bicycle to work. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Take evening walks even if it's just five minutes. Do a 30-second plank at random when indoors. Carry out stretches or jumping jacks while you watch tv.
By doing this, you program your brain towards following a particular routine that revolves around physical activity, and this is a key process to making exercise habits stick.
- Exercise with your family
If you're a family person, exercising with your family is a great way to combine family time with working out and it makes for a super fun experience.
- FIND A WORKOUT BUDDY
Relationships made in the gym are forged in fire and sweat. If you want to make exercising a habit, but don't have or can't afford a personal trainer, then try to make relationships with the hardest working people you can find in the gym.
Doing so will help you stay motivated and keep you accountable and increase your chances of making your fitness goals a success.
- DOCUMENT YOUR PROGRESS
Exercising is a lot of work so you have to make sure to document your progress and success so your brain subconsciously develops a reward system when you see the fruit of your labor, making you develop healthy habits that stick faster.
You can do this by taking your body measurements every other week down in a journal, or by just taking pictures of yourself if you don't like to write to help you stay on track.
- KEEP TRY NEW THINGS
There’s no better way to make exercise a habit than switching things up and incorporating fun activities you actually enjoy into your workout routine.
While its perfectly fine to have an exercise program, things can get boring really fast after a while if all you do are things you don't particularly have an interest in and you can easily lose motivation as a result.
One way to remedy this is by adding in healthy activities into your workout plan like
- Cycling
- Walking
- Swimming
- Jogging
- Hiking
- Martial arts
- Yoga
You can schedule these exercises at least once or twice a week, that way you look forward to it, and keep your much needed motivation levels up.
To make it even more interesting, you can pick dates on the calendar invite your gym buddies, or members of your exercise class if you have one to make the activity more or less a social event, and before you know it, you're breezing your way through losing weight or whatever fitness goals you may have set for yourself.
CONCLUSION
Nothing good will rarely happen automatically; you have to make an effort to get the results you want, and this doesn't only apply to exercise habits.
Regardless, staying fit and working towards your fitness goals can be a bit much, especially with the stress and demands of the modern world, and you'd very much rather want to sit back and watch your favorite show than exercise...
But the benefits of healthier habits are immense, and the best way to do so is with exercise by following the tips on this list, you can reach your fitness goals.
The key is taking it slow, putting in the work, and most importantly, staying consistent.
