5 Small Changes That Could Dramatically Improve Your Health and Fitness

Photo by Marc Najera on Unsplash

Optimization is the key to a healthy lifestyle. Whether you already lead an active lifestyle, or you’re looking to start a new fitness routine, there’s likely a few small things that you could be doing that would help you get closer to your goal.

The 5 changes we’re going to share are more about improving your daily routine than anything else. But by implementing them, they could certainly help you achieve your goals quicker and easier.

1. Take cold showers to pep yourself up.

A cold shower is an effective way to boost your mood and energy levels. While we may love lingering under a hot shower, that’s best reserved for relaxing your muscles after a tough workout.

By taking cold showers, you’ll be re-energized and revitalized. A cold shower will wake you up, improve your blood circulation, and give you that fresh, ready-to-take-on-the-day feeling.

Although the colder the better, your cold showers don’t need to be freezing cold to enjoy the benefits if you absolutely abhor this idea. Aim for a nice pool temperature to get yourself accustomed, and you’ll find that you quickly adapt.

2. Joining a Community-Focused Fitness Website or App

If you’re the type of person who can set a fitness routine and stick to it by yourself, all the more power to you. But many people struggle with motivating themselves, so having a fitness buddy or group of people to help keep you motivated can help a lot.

If you’re not a person who enjoys the social aspect of exercise, there are still some benefits to joining an online fitness group, like Physeek.fit – you’ll be able to ask for workout recommendations, get feedback on your progress, and enjoy a community of support.

3. Hang from a pullup bar.

Pull-ups and chin-ups are a common bodyweight exercise, but did you know you there’s some benefits in just hanging from a pull-up bar for a while?

Also known as “dead hanging”, this is a great way to alleviate lower back pain, decompress the spine, stretch your shoulder joints, and improve your rest position between sets of pull-ups.

It also improves your stability and strength, which can be a great asset to your overall workout. If you’re looking to start a new workout routine, this is a great way to kick things off.

4. Skip the fad diets, just eat healthy and exercise more.

Studies show that while many people lose weight while following popular fad diets, they’re likely to regain the weight once they stop following that diet.

While everybody should avoid unhealthy foods in general, the truth is that you can generally achieve your fitness goals, while eating healthily, if you simply make sure you’re exercising off excess calorie consumption.

For example, let’s say you want to lose weight – instead of starving yourself, just maintain a healthy caloric intake, and make sure you burn off extra calories through exercise. If you exercise a little bit more than you eat, you’ll lose weight without starving yourself.

This isn’t an excuse to go overboard with eating habits while believing you can just exercise it off later, but it also means you don’t need to try some wacky soup-and-salad diet that will harm you in the long run.

5. Limit screen time before bed, or at least use a warm filter.

Studies repeatedly show that screen time is terrible for us before we sleep. Blue light is the worst, as it particularly messes with our circadian rhythm. And sadly, many devices have a Cool screen mode by default, which means the blue light is harsher than needs to be.

If you simply can’t avoid using your cellphone or computer before bed, make sure you’re using a blue light filter. This is often as simple as toggling Night Mode on your phone or computer, or using a Warm filter on your TV’s picture settings.