From an evolutionary perspective, the human body was designed to move. Every component of our body is designed so we can chase and hunt prey, walk for miles gathering vegetation and generally get around. But in today’s modern world when we can conveniently drive everywhere, eat high energy food without having to do any of the work for it and generally spend most of our days seated, our bodies can really suffer. When we don’t use our muscles, they grow feeble. When we don’t work out our cardiovascular system we become unfit, and issues like high blood pressure and heart disease can follow. Type two diabetes, strokes, certain kinds of cancers- these are all common when you eat the wrong foods and don’t use your body in the way it was designed. But exercise isn’t all equal, and if you’ve been out of a fitness regime for a while chances are you won’t be able to lace up your running shoes and run a marathon. But there are plenty of things you can do, either to build up a foundation level of fitness, maintain your fitness or just to have fun while looking after your body. Here are a few ideas!
Hiking and Bike Riding
The best thing about hiking and bike riding is that you get to go outdoors, get some fresh air and enjoy the views all while getting fit. Depending on your current fitness level you could choose an easy, moderate or difficult route, either way, it’s a gentle and low impact exercise that most people can do. Walking is so simple, but massively effective. It tones the legs, glutes, core, even the arms, and back where you swing your arms when you walk. You don’t need any special equipment just a pair of sensible and comfortable shoes. It elevates your heart rate but not too dramatically, but puts you in the ‘fat burning zone’ making it easy to lose or maintain your weight. Biking is again fantastic exercise, as well as work out the legs it can also strengthen knee joints without putting pressure on the back like many high impact activities such as running can do.
Yoga and Pilates
Yoga and pilates focus on strength, balance and flexibility which can help to tone the body and re calibrate the mind too. When your body is strong, and you have a good range of motion with your muscles and joints, you prevent yourself from getting injured doing other activities. It might not be a high cardio activity but you will still burn calories, and you could improve your posture, build strength in muscles and joints and boost your flexibility.
Golf
Golf benefits the body in a number of ways. Not only are you doing a lot of walking throughout the day, but when you swing a club you work out your arms, legs and back. You will need some clubs and some additional accessories like golf balls, tees and a golf towel- according to https://atthetee.com/golftowel/ something as simple as forgetting this could cause you to lose the game! It’s low impact so a great activity if you want to stay active without breaking into a full sweat, or hurting your joints or back.
Swimming
Swimming benefits everyone, regardless of what level of fitness you’re at. The water supports your body so it’s ideal if you have to be careful of your joints, or if you just want to build them up. Swimming tones just about every muscle in the body, switch out the strokes you use every few laps to give different muscle groups a workout. If you live by the coast, during the warmer months, you could even go swimming in the sea. It’s completely free and good for you as well since the salt water can help with all kinds of skin conditions. Otherwise, head to your local pool to swim laps or even to splash around with your kids or younger siblings. You’ll have fun and do your body the world of good
Exercise doesn’t have to be extremely strenuous or cardio heavy to be good for you. Anything that gets your heart rate up and your body moving helps you to keep your muscles strong and healthy, reduce preventable illnesses and on top of this it makes you feel good too. So if you’re very unfit and starting from scratch with exercise, low impact activity is a great place to start to build up a good base level of fitness. Even if you’re a gym bunny, there’s place in your regime too for the kinds of activities above as they’re fantastic for weight maintenance.
