3 Easy Ways To Strengthen Your Body
There are many ways to strengthen your body. This can be achieved through regular visits to the gym, performing as a professional athlete or through unintentional avenues such as walking often or gardening.
Keeping our body healthy and strong has a range of benefits such as being able to undertake heavy tasks more easily, perform better at school or work and most importantly feel better within our skin.
Goals centred around strength training can quickly consume your every movement if you overthink it. Strengthening your body can be easy and fun but only if you let it.
It is vital to understand that taking care of your mental health and being kind to yourself is an important part of the strength building journey. There is no use beating yourself up for missing one day in the gym.
You don’t gain all your muscle in one day, so you won’t lose it in one day either. You just need to stay dedicated and positive.
Make Use Of The Stairmaster
Using the stairmaster at the gym is something you can add into your everyday life without causing too much disturbance to your routine.
And because you essentially have been walking up stairs your entire life, the stairmaster is practically second nature. Which means it is a really easy machine to get the hang of and I guess you could say master.
The first week or so that you add the stairmaster into your routine, you might find yourself out of breath with aching calves but it will be worth it when you see the definition building on your legs.
You will also feel a great deal of satisfaction and accomplishment when you notice your improvement in your daily life such as not getting out of breath walking up the stairs at work.
Using the stairmaster can help you burn anywhere from 70 to 100 calories in just 10 minutes making it a really good addition to your routine as it helps you burn a huge amount of calories in a short time. This is good if you are looking to lose fat and grow your muscles for a more chiselled appearance.
The stairmaster works your legs, abs, back and calves. It can also improve your flexibility between joints in your hips and knees.
Other benefits include relieving stress and giving you the opportunity to focus on your music, podcast or tv show which can be hard to do during other aspects of your workout such as lifting weights.
Use Resistance Bands With Your Workout
If you are a beginner in the fitness world, you may choose to engage in general exercise which helps you strengthen your core and slowly build up your muscles. As you begin to feel more confident and immersed in the fitness world, you may become more interested in targeting specific areas of your body.
Using resistance bands is an easy way to upgrade your routine to strengthen targeted areas in your body at a faster rate. You can find resistance bands within gym vending machines, sports shops or on Amazon. Prices typically range anywhere between £1 to £15 ($1-$20).
The brand and price point of resistance bands is not relevant. Instead you should aim to find something that is within your budget and has a few good reviews.
One thing that is worth keeping in mind is that resistance bands come in varying levels of resistance. It may be a good idea to get two or three bands to decide what intensity level you like working out with.
You can also ask the personal trainers in the gym if they have any suggestions for you or if they can give you a test session with resistance bands.
The usage of resistance bands is versatile, but the general idea is that they can be used during exercises to create a resistance force which makes your body exert more energy to complete the exercise. This is a form of strength training without the usage of weights.
Resistance bands are really handy during exercises such as push ups. You will need to get into a push up position and place each end of the band in each hand, with the bulk of the band resting on your upper back. As you begin to push up, the band will stretch and create a resistance which your body will have to work harder to push against in order to complete a total push up.
You can also use resistance bands for lunges, squats, bicep curls, chest press and many more. It is a great way to increase and test your strength.
Resistance bands are also a good option to keep in your gym bag if your gym has limited weights which always seem to be busy with other people. Resistance bands give you the opportunity to strength train even when you cannot get access to the weights at the gym.
Open Water Swimming
Open water swimming is a fun activity that exercises your entire body. This is a perfect fit for those who live close to any lakes, oceans and reservoirs. If you don’t live close by to any open water, you can opt for an indoor swimming pool.
Swimming strengthens your arms, legs, back, shoulders, chest and entire core which makes it a great alternative or partner in crime to the gym.
Swimming in open water compared to an indoor pool will exercise the exact same muscles. However due to differences in water pressure, temperature and behaviour (waves), you might find that open water swimming provides a greater workout as it requires substantial resistance and strength.
You must ensure that you know how to safely swim in open water before choosing it over an indoor swimming pool. Open water is not the greatest choice for beginners as there are no lifeguards or shallow ends to help you out.
Most high end gyms also feature indoor swimming pools which you can make use of as part of your membership. Switching between your gym routine and indoor swimming is a good way to keep yourself feeling energized and motivated.