Creating a Holistic Fitness Routine
When we talk about fitness, the key is always finding the right routine and exercises that work for you. Having an ‘active’ lifestyle can be something as simple as committing to a walk every day, doing yoga or deep stretching a few times a week, or even lifting weights at the gym.
In our experience, we’ve noticed that most people tend to gravitate to strength, stretching, or cardio as their primary form of exercise. As much as we have a preference though, it is important to incorporate the other two forms into your routine here and there. Focusing on just one type of exercise can leave many other benefits on the table.
Incorporating stretching
Flexibility is key to unlocking greater gains in a cardio or strength routine. According to Harvard Health, without stretching muscles become shorter and tighter. This can make it more difficult for you to get the full potential out of them when you need them for exercise. When this happens you increase your risk of injury.
Stretching in general can help loosen up tight muscles from everyday activities, like sitting at a desk all day, so it should be something that you do every day, even if it’s just 5-10 minutes in the morning or before you go to bed. We like Healthline’s daily 5-minute stretch as an easy add-on and we’ve linked a couple of our favorite YouTube yoga instructors as well at the end.
Strength and cardio
The strength and cardio conversation often go hand in hand. Cardio is great for improving lung and heart health and can reduce your risk of diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Strength training allows you to build lean muscle, lowers the risk of obesity, and reduces bone loss.
Other benefits of cardio training include:
Building stamina
Reducing fatigue
Improve endurance
Burn calories
Activate the immune system to ward off colds and flu
In addition to the above benefits, strength training can also:
Provide stability to joints
Fight off conditions related to aging
Relieve the impact of repetitive actions like running on your joints
Combining strength, cardio, and stretching
There’s no perfect ratio of strength, cardio, and stretching. Finding the balance and exercises that most motivate you will help you find the most success. Incorporating the elements that are missing into your routine can help you stay strong and able to spend more time and achieve more goals in the areas you want to excel in.
Some benefits of this combination of exercise include:
Improved sleep
Greater general fitness
Lower risk of injury
Efficient muscles
As someone who is notoriously bad about stretching, our goal is going to be aiming to get a 5-10 minute stretch in each day.
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