If you would like to make sure that 2021 is a great year, there are many ways to make that come true. It is always worth focusing on your health, as without your health you are probably not going to be able to achieve much else, and it’s always good to have this at least. So what kinds of goals should you aim for if you are keen to become as fit as possible this year? In this post, we are going to take a look at some of the major fitness goals you might want to consider for 2021 and beyond.
Build Upper Body Strength
Here’s one that men and women alike can get on board with. Having upper body strength does a lot for you. For one thing, it encourages you to workout in other ways. It is also a great way to build up some confidence, especially for men a lot of the time. And if you are working on your upper body strength a lot, that means that you are probably focusing on eating well and looking after yourself in other ways too.
In order to build upper body strength better, there are some key exercises you should consider doing regularly. One of the most important is the pull-up, which is a great all-round builder of the upper body. If you can do some of those a few times a week, that is going to make a huge difference to your muscle mass in the upper body. Similarly, you might want to consider doing a kettlebell routine once a day, up to five days a week (allowing yourself those all important two rest days, however). That will really start to build your muscle before too long.
If you want to make this entire process a bit easier and a bit faster, you could look out for the best sarms to help you along, while also making sure that you are eating plenty of protein and generally keeping a good diet. Do that, and you are going to have much better upper body strength in no time.
Start Stretching
How often do you stretch right now? Most of us simply don’t do this enough, and over time this can have a really detrimental effect on our overall health. If you want to keep your body limber and in shape for longer, you have to make sure that you are including stretching as a necessary part of your workout routines. If you are older than about 30 years old, this is especially important, for that is when your body starts to need extra care in this way. So what can you do to ensure that you are keeping on top of your stretching habit and keeping your body limber and in shape in this way?
As many people know already, one of the very best practices for keeping limber has to be yoga. If you practice yoga once a day, you are going to find that your body starts to stretch out so much more, and you will be amazed at how flexible you can feel as a result. In fact, many people will see benefits after merely one or two sessions a week, so if you don’t have lots of time that should suffice to some degree at least. If you make a point of stretching a little every day, however, you are going to be helping yourself out in the long run, and making your future so much less worrisome in so many ways.
Eat More Vegetables
There is nothing wrong with eating plenty of food – as long as the food you are eating is mostly vegetables. The best diet is pretty much entirely veg and fruit with a little other stuff thrown in, and a complete absence of anything processed. If you can, you should eat a so-called rainbow of vegetables, meaning that you are trying to eat plenty of different kinds and colours of veg. If you can do that, you will be getting all of the nutrients and minerals you really need, and you’ll find that you feel so much better in no time.
In order to make this easier and ensure that you are really doing it, you might want to draw up a schedule for what you are going to eat each day – not necessarily in meal form, but more in terms of which veg you are going to try and eat and how much of it. If you can do this, you will find that you are much more likely to get it all in there in your diet, and that is going to help you become so much healthier. Eat more vegetables in 2021 for a much better approach to health in general.
Maintain Your Weight
Having a good weight is about much more than just looking good. In fact, the most important reason to try and keep a healthy weight is because it will bring about many positive benefits for you in so many ways. One of the best overall things you can ever do for your health is to keep your fat to a minimum and maintain your weight there, but it is also one of the most challenging. Most people end up going up and down on the scale and never quite working out how to find the right means of maintaining it, and that can be a real problem.
If you are keen to try and maintain your weight in 2021, the best thing to do is to focus on eating better. This is generally more important and impactful than how much you exercise and move around, although that of course should also feature in your efforts. But as long as you are eating well, you will find that maintaining your weight is so much simpler and easier, and it is going to make you feel a lot better about yourself in no time too. This is probably the single most important goal for most people to have.
Get Your Heart Rate Down
As you get older, you might start to notice that your heart is simply not dealing with things as well as it used to. That is a real problem, and something that you need to make sure you are keeping on top of. After all, if your old ticker is not working well, that’s a big problem, and could mean that you suffer profoundly in later life, and could even be the cause of your death if you are not careful. Heart disease remains the most common cause of death in the developed world, so avoiding it is going to mean you are extending your life more than you might assume.
In order to do this, getting your heart rate down is a great goal to go for. There are many ways to do this, but it all comes down to two essential aspects: being more careful about what you consume, and exercise. In the former case, you need to limit how much fatty food you eat, especially saturated fats, and keep an eye on your cholesterol. When it comes to the exercise, you need to be doing exercise which gets the heart rate up and keeps it up for a while. A perfect example of this is HIIT, or even just going for a run. If you are doing that every week, you will be helping to keep your heart in shape for longer.
Another thing worth noting is that alcohol consumption can be very bad for your heart indeed, as can drinking too much coffee. If you can keep both of these to a minimum, you might find that your heart is a lot better indeed, so it’s important to think about.
Lower Your Stress
If you find that you are frequently very stressed out, then that is bad for you in so many ways. For one thing, it is going to mean that you are much less likely to deal with things well, such as the normal comings and goings of your life. Stress also has a profoundly negative effect on your health too, and that is the main reason you need to try and keep an eye on your stress levels. If you can make 2021 the year that you finally put your stress to bed, you will find that it brings about so many amazing changes for you, so it really is worth thinking about.
In order to achieve that, you should drink less coffee and alcohol, and keep a good diet generally, ensuring you are getting all the necessary vitamins. You should also make sure you take up some kind of meditative practice, or at least practice some deep breathing on a regular basis. And remember that exercise is one of your best tools for managing stress too. Do all that, and there is no reason why 2021 can’t be the best year you have ever had, especially when it comes to being healthy and fit.