Fitness has a broad definition and it’s not restricted to how lean you look or how less your body fat is. Being fit is much more than just that. Fitness is the overall capability to perform actions or activities more efficiently and effectively. This means an increase in body strength, endurance, speed, agility and many more things.
The whole idea of staying fit is to optimize your health and wellness and while doing so there is the bonus of being stronger, faster and better than you ever were. The purpose of this blog is to let you in on ways you can get fitter and stronger over time.
Exercises That Help Increase Strength
Resistance Training
This form of training is perfect for gaining strength. With a good training plan and some guidance it’s possible to increase your strength over periods of time. Progressive overloading helps you understand how your strength increases and with an increase in strength your muscle size increases as well. Therefore a benefit of gaining strength is gaining some good muscle as well.
Resistance Bands
These bands are very easy to use, not to mention you can perform a resistance band workout anywhere you’d like. In case you don’t have access to a gym or weights you can always get in a good workout using resistance bands. They also help you improve the quality of control of your movements.
Gardening
You must be wondering how gardening helps you increase your strength. Activities like digging up the ground, shoveling mud etc. works on all muscle groups. Apart from this, it’s also very therapeutic and improves your mental well being as well.
Trekking / Dancing / Cycling
If you find the whole routine of just going to the gym everyday and lifting weights boring, there’s ways you can make your workouts interesting. Your workout can be something you like. Trekking, dancing, climbing, cycling, running, swimming etc. are some activities that you can do if you enjoy them. Apart from that, they’re a great form of exercise as well.
Foods That Can Help Improve Body Strength
Nutrition is as important or if anything more important than training when it comes to building your strength or the physique that you like. Here are some foods that should be a part of your diet to make sure of that.
Protein Rich Foods
Proteins are literally the building blocks of your body. After training intensely you need to make sure your diet contains an ample amount of protein to make sure that your muscle recovers and grows. With muscle recovery and growth comes increased muscle strength. Some great sources of protein are chicken, fish, soya, tofu, paneer etc.
Vegetables
‘Eat your greens’ is something we have all heard as kids and guess what? Our elders were always right about it. Spinach has many micronutrients like iron, vitamins, nitrates etc. which help overcome muscle weakness and fatigue. Spinach also helps prevent iron deficiency, strengthens the immune system and keeps the eyes healthy.
Nuts
Nuts mainly contain fats. However, the micronutrients present in them like calcium, zinc, omega 3 fatty acids may help you with muscle endurance. Nuts also help maintain skin health, keep the production of essential hormones at an optimum level and are much needed for the efficient functioning of the human body.
Fruits
Fruits contain many micronutrients needed for the body to make sure some other internal actions of the body are enabled. Vitamin C present in fruits like guava, orange, kiwi, watermelon etc. are needed to make sure we are free from infection caused by free radicals. They also help keep your heart healthy and improve skin & hair health as well.
Conclusion:
Ideally, the best way to stay fit and improve strength is to follow a good training and nutrition program. Train the way you like to make sure you do it consistently and have a well balanced diet to make sure you reap the benefits of your training. Things like strength, speed and endurance will definitely follow through.
