A summary of actionable strategies that will improve your health and fitness (from the last twenty-five blog posts).
If you’re not a big reader, you don’t really care about the hows/whys, and you just want to be told a few things that are worth implementing, this one’s for you!
Many previous blog posts dig relatively deep into the science and literature, so here's an actionable list and summary of strategies from the last twenty-five blog posts that you can use to improve many areas of your health and fitness. If you want the deeper dive, the relevant blog post will be attached!
Strength training and Aerobic training* (cardio) both play an important role for your health and fitness. Including two to three strength training sessions and at least two aerobic training sessions a week is great.
Aerobic Training*: Heart rate between 120-150bpm for at least 20 mins to start, working your way up to more than 30 mins.
(“Should I Be Doing Cardio Or Strength Training?”)
Strength training is extremely effective at building your body’s resilience to reduce chances of injury and your ability to return from them.
• A successful program would be carried out 2 to 3 times a week, include at least 2 sets per exercise (each session), a mixture of single- and double-limb movements, address a few different qualities (eg. strength, balance/stability, plyometrics, conditioning etc.), incorporate various rep ranges (1-5 rep range, 5-15 rep range, 15+ rep range), using full range of motion (for you), and be mentally challenging where appropriate.
• General movement patterns to cover include: Squats (eg. Goblet squat & Split Squats), Hinges (eg RDL & Single-Leg Hip Thrust), Vertical Pull (eg. Pull Up), Vertical Press (eg. DB Overhead Press), Horizontal Pull (eg. Inverted Row), Horizontal Press (eg. Bench Press), Core work in various planes (eg. knee raises & weighted carries).
• Don’t know where to start? In this blog post (“Will Strength Training Prevent Injuries?”), I included a straightforward bodyweight routine you can start with from the comfort of your home (with video demonstration and guidelines).
When it comes to choosing your exercises, there’s more important factors than what you’ve been told is a ‘must-do’ exercise or an exercise that is ‘the best tool for the job’. Here’s what to consider:
• Does it feel good for how your body is structured? Or does it feel awkward and uncomfortable?
• Do you feel like you’re having some success with the movement and could eventually master the exercise?
• Are you getting some kind of immediate reward from it? (eg. you feel ‘strong’, it feels like it’s getting easier, you’re breaking personal bests)
Sometimes a new exercise takes time to learn and feel somewhat comfortable, but over time, considering the above when it comes to your exercise selection is worthwhile for a positive training experience.
Most are time poor, so for more efficient and effective training sessions consider incorporating these:
• Perform ‘core work’ (eg. bear crawl variations, side planks) as your warm-up instead of performing a bunch of stretching, activating, mobilisations etc. (doesn’t mean there isn’t a time or place for them, but if the body is feeling good, core work is a great warm-up.)
• Prioritise compound (multi-joint) exercises (eg. a deadlift instead of a seated hamstring curl).
• Use supersets (eg. opposing muscle group movements back-to-back with limited rest (RDL into a Military Press)).
• Perform your mobility work/stretching during your rest periods.
(“Four Tips For More Efficient (And Effective) Strength Training Sessions”)
Both strength training and aerobic training have been shown to be extremely effective for mental health! (even to the point of certain forms of training creating similar results to drug treatments). If you’re struggling with mental health issues like depression and/or anxiety, exercise is very helpful. (“Will Strength Training Help My Mental Health?”)
Because motivation/discipline etc. are hard to rely on, try incorporating some of these habit building strategies into your health and fitness behaviours:
• Give it context (a time and place when you will perform)
• Make it a small change instead of a complete overhaul of something
• Expect it to take some time but also understand it gets easier the longer you’re sticking with it
• Celebrate the small wins/changes along the way, and have a way to monitor it (eg a streak/tally).
There are different ways of focusing your attention during training sessions to help with the discomfort.
• Enjoy the feeling of ‘embracing the pain’ and ‘hurting so good’? Focusing on the painful sensations, knowing it’s not doing you harm, and leaning into it will work well.
• Don’t enjoy those feelings? You could focus on music, an object inside/outside, think about how good it will feel when it’s over, and/or chat with your trainer/training partners (as long as quality training is still executed!).
• Be in this for the long haul and appreciate that the small behaviours you consistently engage in will compound over time and be more effective than any quick fix/magic formula that is promised to give you quick results.
• It’s good to be aware of the negative bias that will continually show up along this journey, it will show up in people selling their solutions/formulas (to avoid sickness/bad results etc.) and your own thinking (eg. all-or-nothing, catastrophising, ‘should’ statements, etc.). This can lead you away from where your focus should be which is the few consistent behaviours that create the majority of your results.
(“The Negative Bias Distraction”)
If you struggle to engage in a mindfulness practice (which has a number of health- and fitness-enhancing benefits), strength training could be a solution. Being present with the sensations during exercise (or your music) is essentially practicing mindfulness. If you prefer a mindfulness practice to a strength training session, mindfulness may also be useful for creating more enjoyable strength training sessions. They’re intertwined and can complement each other.
("Strength Training: A Meditation Tool”)
• To help with getting yourself to train, try using ‘temptation bundling’ (pairing something you ‘should’ be doing (eg. training) with something you ‘want’ to be doing (eg. drinking a coffee). Finding a good training partner is also very helpful.
(“Two Effective Strategies to Help Get You to The Gym”)
• To help with sticking to the health/fitness behaviour:
1. Have an outcome and a ‘why’ that you truly value (will require some introspection).
2. Improve your self efficacy by engaging in behaviours where you feel some success, being around someone on a similar journey and see them succeeding (knowing it’s possible for you too), understanding that you’ll feel uncomfortable sensations when training/challenging yourself, and having people around you (or a coach) who can give you positive feedback and reinforcement.
3. Know that engaging in strength training consistently will drive you into a ‘positive loop’ where you’re improving on areas (eg. psychological health, fitness level etc.) that help you enjoy and stick with the health and fitness behaviour. This then further helps you improve on those areas and you enter the ‘upward spiral’.
(“Why Can’t I Stick to a Health and Fitness Behaviour?”)
You want to be generating positive emotions as much as possible when it comes to your health and fitness behaviours. It will help with your adherence, your ‘want’ to seek out further beneficial behaviours, your recovery, your performance, your general well-being and more
• Try incorporating ‘play’ where possible. This could be within your actual training sessions, or outside of them.
(“Want To Train More Consistently? The Role Of Positive Emotions (And Play)”)
• Implement the following strategies to experience more enjoyable training sessions:
1. Give yourself some more choice in things like exercise selection, order or exercises, how much load you want to use etc.
2. Listen to music
3. Experience competence (through your exercise selection), get some social interaction, add a bit of novelty, and physically exert yourself!
(“How To Experience More Enjoyable Strength Training”)
All foods have a place! Rather than stressing over individual compounds found in various foods, focus on the whole food (the important ‘food matrix’) and seek out the foods that can benefit your overall health and fitness.
• Two effective nutritional strategies regardless of your goal: Increase your protein and fibre intake.
(“Better Health and A Better Body – Two Nutritional Considerations”)
• High protein meals: 25-40g of protein with each meal evenly distributed throughout the day. This would look like an animal based protein source (eg. beef, chicken, turkey, pork, fish) roughly the size of your palm (slightly bigger for 40g of protein).
• If you don’t eat animal products, here are some alternative protein sources (although you’ll need to eat a lot more than a palm sized portion to get in an adequate amount of protein): kidney/pinto/black/soy beans, dry seaweed, tofu, chickpeas, lentils, nuts/seeds.
• Protein snack ideas: Eggs, beef jerky, greek yoghurt, nuts and seeds, canned fish (eg. sardines and mackerel), protein shakes/supplements.
(Protein: Are You Getting Enough?)
• Increase your intake of veggies and fruits! Shoot to consume at least 400g (five portions) a day and simply focus on frequency and variety (pair snacks and meals with fruits and vegetables and eat a large variety).
(Are Fruit And Vegetables Really That Important?)
• Fermented foods are a superfood that have very impressive benefits for your health and fitness. Including a few serves of fermented food into your daily diet is a great idea. Some examples: Kimchi, yoghurt, kefir, sauerkraut, apple cider vinegar, fermented olives, kombucha, miso, fermented cheeses. (“Why You Should Include Fermented Food: Superfood”)
• Creatine does a lot more than help your performance. It can help your recovery, cognitive function, and may even act as an antioxidant. It’s also been extensively studied, reinforcing how safe it is to consume.
• If you want to supplement, simply take 5g of creatine monohydrate daily.
(Creatine: Why You Should Consider Taking It)
• If coffee consumption suits you, it can be a great beverage to drink for health benefits (it’s high in ‘bioactive compounds’ and is a great source of antioxidants), and also for your physical performance.
• Enjoying two cups of coffee about an hour before exercise will help with your exercise performance, and a couple cups of coffee is associated with a number of positive heath outcomes (like a reduction in your risk of dying compared to no consumption). Try to cut off your intake by midday to avoid sleep interference.
(“Coffee, good or bad for health and fitness?)
(“How to Feel Great From a Light Adjustment”)
(“Sunlight – The Health and Fitness Enhancer”)
• Light exposure: Throughout the morning and day, try to get lots of natural light. Being outdoors would be great, but if that's not possible, having bright overhead lights on, situating yourself in front of a window, and/or using light therapy devices can be helpful for your alertness, mood, sleep quality, and so on.
• Throughout the night, try to minimise your exposure to light as much as possible. Before bed, turn off overhead lights (could replace with salt lamps or lights dimmer/lower to the ground), limit electronic device use (or dim/night-mode). When sleeping, shoot for a pitch black room.
• Sun exposure: Some sun exposure (without over exposure/burning) is a great health-enhancing tool. How much you should get is going to vary based on a number of factors (eg. geographical location, skin tone etc.) but spending some time out in the sun can help with your immunity, Vit D production, nitric oxide release (good if you’ve got high blood pressure) and metabolic health.
If you’re seeking guidance and coaching specific to your situation and goals, I have online coaching available.
Thanks for reading and I hope you’re able to implement something from the list that helps enhance your health and fitness!
Food choices that can drive your fitness and health outcomes beyond their calorie, fat, carbohydrate and protein content.
Read article >
How including both aerobic training and strength training improves different areas of your health and fitness (and how to go about it).
Read article >
Why everyone should consider supplementing with 'Creatine'.
Read article >
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