KEEPING FITNESS SIMPLE

Medically Reviewed by Dr. Sony Sherpa (MBBS) - September 23, 2024

Physical fitness is important at any age and can improve outcomes for almost all health conditions. It is defined as “one’s ability to execute daily activities with optimal performance, endurance and strength with the management of disease, fatigue, stress and reduced sedentary behavior.”^[1] In this way, exercise is known to be one of the most potent medicines.

Some of the biggest hindrances to being physically fit are over-complicating it and thinking one lacks time or energy. However, if one can’t make the time for physical activity, one loses both time and energy in the long run. Maintaining fitness should be short, simple, and natural.

If you find that you struggle with simplifying fitness, then this article is for you.

Why Simple Fitness is Best

It is better to keep workouts simple for a variety of reasons, the first one being motivation. If your exercise routine is too complicated, there is a greater chance that you will want to skip it on busy days and won’t persist with working out in the long run. Motivation is also important for keeping it simple and making daily exercise easier to adopt.

Simpler exercises are also linked to lower injury risk and better fitness levels overall. Studies highlight that injuries have more than doubled in tandem with interest in high-intensity training over the years^[2]. It is not essential to engage in complex maneuvers with a high physical toll on the body to stay fit and healthy.

9 Tips for Keeping Fitness Simple and Easy

By following these points, exercise can become a simple and effective activity that improves overall health and vitality.

1. Motivate for the Long Term. Simplify your motivation to exercise by remembering that exercise is foundational to your health, rather than to individual health effects. It is important to invest in physical fitness for the long-term benefits. Placing emphasis on the long term helps one to stay on track without worry or guilt even when one is unable to exercise. It also does away with a loss of motivation when the expected effect is not immediately apparent. Exercise can help lose weight, inspire a better mood, reduce body pain, and have more energy. Yet, the results are not always instant. It facilitates better physical fitness, establishings a healthier metabolic baseline and a consistently improved quality of life overall. The benefits tend to accumulate over time. 
2. Don’t Think About It Too Much. “He who hesitates is doomed.” Overthinking it could be the beginning and end of your morning workout. If you are worried about the time it might take to get going, settle for a shorter routine that you can instantly perform without hesitation. When you start, you are already saving time and drawing closer to your fitness goals. Getting started may also remedy your worry about the exercise you skipped, trying to save time.From there, you can work your way towards an optimal amount per day and find out which times of day work best for you. The fitter you are, the more you can do in a shorter space of time as well.
3. Imagine Yourself as Fitter Than You Are. Hesitations aside, there’s a point to be made regarding overthinking your ability to exercise during the activity itself. If you find yourself doing this more often than not, the chances are that your routine does not include enough vigorous exercise or stimulation to keep you going. It may also help to include meditative or visualization techniques as part of the routine to keep it focused and to balance the intensity. Studies support these notions, highlighting better performance in those who make use of such techniques. Many of them revolve around focusing on a goal, a muscle and/or one’s ability as being greater than it really is (yet not overdoing it). For instance, you can imagine yourself pulling up the floor during weight lifting, jumping over a meter in the air during various aerobic exercises or sprinting a set distance in an even shorter space of time while running. These take attention off the self, make it more fun, and can help shorten and simplify the task at hand.
4. Rely on a Simple Daily Fitness Plan. There’s no point in creating an exercise routine that you can’t remember or execute properly. If you don’t enjoy exercising that much, you might prefer to keep it short and to the point. That being said, the exercise should also be mostly enjoyable and stimulating enough so that you persist with it. There are four types of exercise that are important: endurance (aerobic), strength, balance and flexibility. Experts largely focus on aerobic exercise in a routine, suggesting 75-150 mins of intense to moderate endurance exercise per week, averaging 15-30 mins a day. This is merely a rough guideline. Research shows that the length of time may be irrelevant if the exercise is at the right intensity^[3]. Many aerobic exercises can build strength, balance and flexibility across a diverse range of muscle groups while getting your heart rate up. Try to focus on stretches and exercises that work the upper and lower limbs, which also get you breathing heavily, for optimal benefit.
5. Be Prepared for Indoor and Outdoor Activities. Space need not be a constraint, nor does the weather or gym equipment. It is a good idea to develop a repertoire of activities that you can do indoors and outdoors, depending on your requirements and those of the day. If you are used to jogging but cannot due to bad weather, you can revert to your indoor plan. You don’t need much space to develop an indoor routine, although it helps to have enough floor space for an exercise mat or, at the very least, to accommodate your body’s length when doing push-ups.
6. Use Your Body as a Road Map. If you want to work a diverse set of muscle groups but struggle to remember the exercises, then you might like to use your body as a road map to guide the routine. Some people find it useful to work from the feet up to the head, while others prefer to alternate between the upper and lower extremities. You might additionally prefer to work from the periphery back to the core or vice versa, starting with the head, hands and feet, and moving towards the abdomen. This also saves time by using exercises that work multiple body areas at once and helps you to keep track. Follow a sequence that makes sense to you and is easy to remember based on your body.
7. Don’t Go Overboard. As mentioned above, high-intensity training has become more popular across the general population and has increased the prevalence of exercise-related injuries. High-intensity training refers to exercise in which short bursts of physical activity are performed in between periods of low-intensity activity to rest. They are great for improving endurance and strength in a minimal amount of time. However, if you are not sufficiently fit and overdo it, you are more likely to acquire an injury.^[4] Do not try to perform these exercises too vigorously if you are just starting out or don’t have enough space. Take it slow and build up instead.
8. Vary Your Routine Rather Than Adding More. Simple does not have to be boring and overly repetitive. If you find yourself stuck and unmotivated, you might be doing too much of one thing or trying things that simply don’t work for you. Try to alternate exercise types during a workout session and vary it, rather than repeating one thing for simplicity’s sake. As mentioned above, working the upper and lower limbs helps cover various muscle groups and can improve overall endurance fitness. If you find yourself getting stuck or bored during exercise, simply switch to the opposite end of your body. Keeping it going is more important than working the same set every day.
9. Combine Exercise with Other Priorities. Dance or exercise classes (online or at the gym) may help motivate you to exercise daily and simplify the activity by allowing you to follow an instructor. Sporting activities are another good option to increase your weekly activity, especially if you battle to do more than 15 mins a day. Some of these are solo activities that may be incorporated during work breaks or the daily commute, such as going for walks or riding a bicycle to work.

Conclusion

Exercise does not need to be long-winded or complicated and does not require good weather or fancy equipment. Anyone can participate in exercise at any age and benefit, except for those with certain serious health conditions. You can make the most out of exercise by understanding the long-term health benefits, not hesitating beforehand, and setting a simple daily routine that can be performed in any weather. It can help to save time by integrating more physical activity throughout the day or attempting higher-intensity exercise, provided it is suited to your fitness level and not likely to cause injury.

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