Reshape Your Body, Not Body Parts: Why the Total Fitness Approach Is Better and Inspiring
The concept of total fitness has been around for a long time. It’s a focus on the whole body—including your mental and emotional well-being—as opposed to simply building muscle or boosting your cardio.
The idea behind total fitness is that you get your body into a state where you can lead an active lifestyle, as well as cope with the mental and emotional challenges that life throws your way.
Let’s look at how you rethink your attitude to fitness to encompass these principles.
The 4 Building Blocks Of Total Fitness
Total fitness is not just about hitting the gym. You need to focus on all aspects of your body for all-around fitness.
- A Full-Body Exercise Program
A strong body is one that can handle any problems or challenges that come your way. Your exercise program should include a variety of workouts that target different parts of the body so that you don’t just get strong in one area. This means including all the aspects of exercise, from cardiovascular workouts to strength training, stretch, and balance work.
- A Balanced Diet
While you’re working on getting and keeping your muscles and your heart strong, you need to feed your body correctly. A healthy, balanced diet is important for keeping yourself both mentally and emotionally fit.
You might be surprised at how getting the right nutrition can improve your mood. It can also help you focus better and deal with stress in a more positive manner. What you eat affects every facet of your life, so make it count!
- Improved Mental Fitness
Including mindful practices like meditation or breathing exercises into your total fitness regime is vital. You essentially want to train your mind to react to situations in a positive way. This can include using daily affirmations, mindful breathing every morning, or changing the language you use about yourself and the situations you find yourself in.
If you wake up every morning and think to yourself that you hate your job, it’s going to be hard to get into a positive frame of mind for the rest of the day. Instead, wake up and focus on what you are going to enjoy about the day.
- Healthy Interpersonal Relationships
The relationships you have with the people around you are just as important for your total fitness as exercise and eating right. It’s important to look at the people you interact with regularly and make sure that these relationships are healthy and positive for you.
It might be time to cut down on the time you spend with people who aren’t positive influences and improve the relationships you have with people you truly care about.
Benefits Of The Total Fitness Approach
Just some benefits of adopting this approach include:
- Reach Your Goals Easier
When you are strong mentally and physically, there is no stopping you when you put your mind to something. The total fitness approach can help you train for that marathon you want to run or to get that promotion at work.
It’s all about building a body that is strong and a mental attitude that is up to the challenge of doing something new.
- Feeling Younger And Healthier
You can’t reverse ageing, but you can stop it from impacting the way you live your life. When you approach your overall health the way you do with a total fitness regime, you may look and feel younger. You’ll certainly feel healthier.
- The Ability To Combat Mental Afflictions
Depression, anxiety, and many more emotional and mental illnesses can be combated with the total fitness approach. As you get stronger physically and reframe the way you look at life, you’ll find that it’s easier to cope with stressful situations. It’s also easier to spot your triggers for your mental illnesses, allowing you to work your way out of them quicker.
Of course, it’s always important to talk to your healthcare professional about your concerns and how they recommend approaching a total fitness regime. You need to find a healthy way to get strong and active that suits your body.
- Quicker Recovery From Physical Illness And Injury
A strong, healthy body will always bounce back quicker than one that is weaker. This means that you can combat things like the flu quicker every winter, and when a nasty stomach bug sweeps through your group, you’ll be back up faster. You can also recover from injuries faster because your muscles are strong and your mental attitude is a positive one.
Creating A Workout Program
Making sure that you’re physically fit is a major part of the total fitness approach. This means having a well-rounded workout routine that covers all the essentials:
- Cardiovascular – Aerobic exercise that gets your heart pumping is a must. This includes walking, running, cycling, swimming, HIIT workouts, etc.. You just need to get your heart rate up for about 20 minutes, five times a week. Of course, as you get stronger, you can exercise for longer periods.
- Strength – This is all about building muscles. You don’t need to get ripped or bulk up like a superhero. Small, strong muscles are just as good as big muscles (and more practical for everyday life). Just make sure that your workouts cover different muscle groups and allow for enough recovery time, too.
- Stretch – This is one aspect that a lot of people forget about when exercising. However, it’s vital to stay flexible so that your muscles and tendons can continue to work properly, especially as you get older.
- Balance – Finally, you want to work on your balance. This includes plenty of exercises where you stand on one leg and challenge your core. Working on balance will help to prevent injuries and allow you to stay more active in your everyday life.
Build Your Whole Body Up
The total fitness approach is all about building up your entire body—physically, mentally, and emotionally. It’s a far healthier lifestyle than simply focusing on the way your body looks.