Five Things That Are Easy To Forget When Judging Your Health And Fitness

If you are reading this then you’ll have found our website and you will no doubt have at least a passing interest in health and fitness. You are not alone, the vast growth in the number of gyms across the country in recent years is testament to the fact that as a country, we are slowly recognising the need to take our health and fitness seriously.

Yet at times, it is too easy to assume that because we are regularly doing or eating something and because we are not grossly over or under weight, that we are ‘healthy’. In truth, fitness and health are such multi-faceted things that it can be very easy to state “I must be fit and healthy because I run 5 kilometers once a week”, but is that always the case if the same person is recording slower and slower times, perhaps because they are smoking more, or eating poorly?

In this article, we’ll examine five aspects of fitness that many people often neglect and which, when given as much attention and focus as other more common areas of health and fitness, can often have an equally impressive result in improving the strength, stamina and ability of the individual in question.

1. Nutrition

Diet plays a vital role in determining both health and fitness within an individual. While American swimmer Michael Phelps can pretty much eat anything he desires, that is only because he is using vast amounts of energy when training and competing that means unless he eats high fat content food, his body would literally waste away. For most people however, we need a diet that does not work against our fitness and health kick, but compliments it.

This means reducing the amount of ‘bad’ food we eat, such as high salt, high saturated fat, high sugar foods and drinks, and replacing them with healthier alternatives. If you are exercising too, you need to recognise the signals your body is sending you to replenish its reserves of protein and other nutrients and replace them using the best possible foodstuffs. So put away the chocolate bars, fizzy drinks and crisps, and break out the oats, chicken breast and berries to have a diet that helps you achieve the levels of health and fitness you are trying to gain through exercise and other lifestyle changes.

2. Flexibility

Perhaps the most neglected part of health and fitness is flexibility. Even some of the fittest people may find that when it comes to flexibility, they may struggle. Increasing flexibility is not something that can be done with a miracle cure, or by swallowing cod-liver oil capsules by the handful. It is something that should be build into every single healthy training and fitness routine.

Flexibility is vital in almost every area of exercise as it not only helps the body function in a biomechanically sound and efficient way, making you a better athlete, but it helps prevent injury and allows for greater extension of movement. Athletes that are not flexible tend to be prone to more injuries and less efficient at what they do.

3. Mental Health

There is no doubting that kick starting your body’s physical shape and improving your fitness and general health is a good thing, but it is so much easier to do that if you have good mental health too. Indeed, it is only in relatively recent times that we have discovered the importance of the mind in terms of how it allows the benefits of exercise and healthy eating to manifest itself as a daily routine for the individual.

Someone with poor mental health will find keeping to these routines daunting, they will appear listless and demotivated and as a result, the effects of even the best healthy living plan, will only have limited effect. Many athletes now employ sports psychologists to ensure they are mentally ready for their events and it is important that people realise that simply wishing they were healthier is not enough- they need to have the mental strength, drive and focus required to not only help them achieve their goals but believe that they can achieve them in the first place.

4. Joint health

There is no doubt that as we get older, our joints, such as the hip, shoulder, knee and ankle all take a greater pounding. This is especially true in many competitive sports, such as basketball, rugby, soccer as well as events like running and jogging.

As such, maintaining flexibility in the joints and a full degree of movement becomes vital especially as we get older. Cod liver oil and other supplements can help and a strong fitness program that emphasises flexibility is also a good idea as it will keep joints supple and less brittle for longer.

It is also a good idea to build into your fitness program some events that are not so taxing on joints. Jogging for example, can put strains and stresses on the knee, but a cross trainer offers an equally good workout but without outing your knee under duress. All forms of swimming and water-based exercises are equally good for those who suffer with joint health.

5. Posture

It may sound strange, but how you sit and stand for long periods each day may be having a negative effect on your health. Many studies have now shown that back problems are on the increase due to people being hunched over computers. Similarly, if you are a person who is much stronger on one side of their body than the other, you may well exacerbate this inequality by favouring that side over the other, creating the possibility of problems in later life.

Improving your posture by making small lifestyle changes, such as getting an ergodynamic office chair or even using popular games consoles to help improve and understand your good posture, can have beneficial health impact for many years to come and help increase the positive effects of any training regime you may be following.