Do laziness and lethargy suck your physical and mental energy? Maintaining an active lifestyle and learning how to be energetic can go a long way in making you feel better about yourself and being more productive. Some practical changes in your day can help you maintain an active lifestyle. These changes include adding some basic physical activity to your day, restricting mere sitting around, as well as eating a healthy diet. Ensuring regular movements in our daily routines is an easy way to maintain an energetic and active lifestyle. Here is your guide on how to increase your energy levels, and how to be active all day, every day!

What is an active lifestyle?

An active lifestyle consists of regular physical activity, exercise, and movement in our daily routines, explains fitness expert Wanitha Ashok. These activities avoid muscle stiffness, improve cardiovascular health, and strengthen muscles and bone density. This is especially important as prolonged sitting has become the new smoking, causing many health issues among people.

“Even if one exercises for an hour, they should not sit down for hours together they should be active remember to take short breaks and move around,” says Ashok. The UK’s NHS states that being active includes routine activities like walking to and from work, or gardening. It states that it includes things you do in your free time, like dancing at a social event, walking or cycling or doing a sport you enjoy.

Why must we stay active?

Staying active is crucial for maintaining physical and mental health. It helps to reduce or prevent chronic diseases like stroke, diabetes and some cancers. It manages weight reducing the risk of obesity-related health issues. Exercise helps reduce stress, anxiety, and depression symptoms, boosts mood cognitive function, improves sleep quality, duration, and consistency, boosts energy levels, reduces fatigue and improves overall physical function. The American Psychological Association states that Americans spend much of their time, more than three times a day, in front of the TV, and this activity stresses them out.

Additionally, weight-bearing activities maintain strong bones and prevent osteoporosis, build lean muscle mass and boost metabolism. Staying active improves the quality of our day-to-day life, explains Ashok.

How to stay active?

Maintaining an active lifestyle consists of various simple and practical habits that one must try to include daily.

1. Brisk walk

The number one recommendation is to walk briskly at a pace of 3-4 miles per hour or faster can help improve cardiovascular health, boost mood, and increase energy. “Aim for at least 30 minutes per session, five days a week. Maintain the same pace while you are walking around in the office or outside ( like you are missing a bus),” explains Ashok. Read more to know more on power walking.

2. Bodyweight and external resistance exercises

Weekly 2-3 sessions of bodyweight and external resistance exercises targeting the entire muscle group in the body, are highly recommended, suggests the expert. There are simple ways of doing this. Resistance training with elastic devices is as effective as other more advanced, conventional devices. This allows us to use devices with low costs, that are easy to handle, and which can be used in different places for maintenance and gain in muscular strength, states this study, published in Sage Open Medicine.

3. Bodyweight exercises

Bodyweight exercises such as squats, push-ups, lunges, plank variations, yoga and pilates can help build strength, improve flexibility, and enhance balance, says Ashok. However, a word of caution - if you are someone who only relies on these, you must take note of the side effects of body weight exercises as well.

4. External resistance training

The American College of Sports Medicine states that resistance training is a physical activity that exercises a muscle, or group of muscles against external resistance. This helps to improve muscular strength and endurance or power. “For external resistance training, for general fitness and strength, I would suggest freehand as it mimics study day activities and is more functional compared to strengthening with gym equipment,” says Ashok.

Being consistent with your workout regime is important in order to remain healthy and gain maximum benefits. Image courtesy: Pexels

5. Invest in inexpensive fitness equipment

Use various equipment like dumbbells, mini bands, barbells, Physioball, gym stick, boys board, stability ball, weighted gym ball extra. “I suggest you start with fewer repetitions and sets, and increase only gradually,” says Ashok.

6. Stay active doing household chores

If you are someone who is not big on working out, then non-exercising activities would include staying active doing household chores, gardening, answering the doorbell and taking short breaks to move around. Find reasons to move, says Ashok.

7. Don’t sit for long at one go

To maintain an active lifestyle, avoid prolonged sitting, and try to limit sitting to more than 30 minutes at a time. There are many side effects of sitting for long, it can lead to chronic diseases and decreased physical function.

8. Cut screen time

Limit screen time, watching TV, playing video games, or engaging in other sedentary activities that can lead to sluggish metabolism, and stiff joints and muscles. A study published in Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, states that there is a deep association between daily screen time and the risk of low back pain.

9. Be regular

Workouts need to become a part of your routine if you want to maintain an active lifestyle. Aim to engage in regular physical activity, rather than sporadic or infrequent exercise, to maintain consistency and progress, says Ashok.

Basic yoga, resistance training and strength training exercises can help you remain healthy and active. Image courtesy: Pexels

10. Listen to your body

While staying active is important, it is also important to stop when you need to. It’s good to pay attention to your body's signals and rest or modify activities when needed to avoid burnout and injuries, says Ashok.

11. Eat well

It is very important to eat a wide variety of healthy foods to maintain an active lifestyle. You must eat enough carbohydrates to keep you going during your workout sessions. Besides this, make you include wholegrains, fruit and vegetables, as well as milk, yoghurt and cheese, lean meat, fish, poultry, eggs, nuts and pulses in your daily diet.

12. Eat on time

Eating on time can help you to meet your daily energy as well as nutritional needs. This helps you digest your food better. You must ideally take your first meal within the first two hours of waking up. There are many benefits of eating an early dinner as well.

13. Hydrate well

Water helps to regular many functions in our bodies. It helps to replenish your electrolytes, improve digestion and metabolism and remove toxins from the body. Hydrating well is the key to remaining active. Check out how much water should you drink in a day.

Summary

The key to maintaining an active lifestyle is to make sure you are on your feet but are also getting enough rest. Remember, a balanced and sustainable approach to physical activity, nutrition, and overall lifestyle habits is crucial for maintaining an active lifestyle.