Maintaining physical fitness doesn’t require long hours in the gym or daily runs on a treadmill – all it takes is 30 minutes of moderate physical activity each day for many health benefits to accrue.

Exercise refers to any movement that uses the skeletal muscles and increases your heart rate, such as strength training (like squats ) or flexibility exercises.

Strengthening

Strengthening activities are integral in improving muscle function and avoiding weakness caused by health conditions, while at the same time slowing bone and muscle atrophy associated with ageing and potentially decreasing the risk of falls among older individuals.

A physiotherapist can work with you to develop an individual strength program tailored specifically to your level of fitness, whether that involves simple home exercises or more intensive sessions with weights or resistance bands.

Strength training should encompass all major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, chest, abdomen and arms) and be performed until fatigue sets in (known as the “fatigue zone”). This allows for progressive strength gains over time while simultaneously decreasing injury risk. Other considerations may include exercise order (multi-joint before single-joint) and frequency.

The guidelines suggest two to three total-body strength workouts each week, which should be split among different days (i.e. chest/shoulders on one day and arms/biceps/triceps on another) so as to allow individual muscle groups time for recovery after training sessions. It is advised to choose workouts with moderate to high intensities that won’t exhaust you completely.

Endurance

Endurance exercises push the body to move at a slower pace for extended periods, usually lasting hours. Examples of endurance activities are hiking, swimming, cycling and walking – with endurance defined as being “able to sustain an exercise-related effort for an extended period without becoming fatigued”, according to Cherilyn McLester MS CSCS professor of exercise science at Kennesaw State University and member of NASM Scientific Advisory Board. “Endurance differs from stamina as endurance refers solely to sustained activity at high intensity for an individual.”

Engaging in more intense exercise sessions is an excellent way to keep your heart, lungs, and circulatory system healthy. According to the American Heart Association’s recommendation of at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week for optimal health benefits.

Jordan Hosbein of Iron and Grit notes that adding endurance training to your workout can significantly enhance both muscle strength and flexibility, according to studies. Numerous reports have documented how 12 week endurance-training programs can lead to increases in muscle mass (Konopka & Harber 2014).

Also, endurance exercises offer numerous other benefits, including increased cardiovascular, respiratory and muscular endurance. People with superior endurance tend to perform activities such as running, cycling, swimming and hiking at higher rates for longer than those who lack it.

Flexibility

Flexibility exercises stretch muscles and increase joint range of motion, helping everyday movement become smoother while relieving muscle fatigue. They’re especially beneficial to athletes by enabling faster and more efficient physical activities.

Flexibility refers to the ability of muscles, groups of muscles or single joints to move through their normal range of motion (ROM) without experiencing pain. Flexibility is determined by soft tissues surrounding a joint such as muscles, ligaments, tendons and joint capsules; its level can decrease due to injury, inactivity or lack of stretching; it can be improved through stretching exercises like foam rolling, static stretching or active isolated flexibility or dynamic stretching exercises.

Flexibility stands apart from other fitness components by being highly specific to individual joints. Due to the nature of its physiology and testing method, which assesses an individual’s ability to touch their toes using multiple joints and muscles simultaneously, establishing an association between one measure of flexibility and health outcomes will likely require taking a multivariate approach.

Mental Health

Fitness goes beyond taking trips to the gym and sweating buckets; it’s also about cultivating positive attitudes. Studies show that regular exercisers experience improved moods, improved sleep at night, more relaxation throughout their day, and overall an increase in confidence levels.

Exercise can provide people with mental health conditions a sense of accomplishment and self-worth while relieving stress and anxiety. One study concluded that those participating in structured physical activity programs had similar adherence rates as the general population.

To reap all of the advantages of fitness, it’s key to find an activity you enjoy and can commit to regularly. No one said going to a gym was required; just 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise five times weekly may do wonders; shorter workout sessions such as two 15 minute workouts can still work!

Start small and build up, consulting with healthcare providers and mental health counselors as you go. Also consider adding mindfulness techniques and meditation into your wellness regime in order to reduce negative thinking patterns.