Fitness

Lack of time, work, family, and responsibilities can get in the way of achieving peak physical fitness—and it’s healthy to realize that that’s just life. Exercise should be something we fit in to our routines in order to aid overall well-being—not something we do to fit into a certain size or look a certain way. Making time to move your body a few times a week—whether it’s walking a baby stroller around the block or training for a marathon—is key for not just physical health but mental health as well. Sure, we love the lean muscles and strong bones that come with it, but exercise also has positive effects on mood, body image, depression, and stress. We offer some easy ways to sustain physical activity throughout your life.

In Your 20s
Physical activity often takes a back seat to life factors, especially in your twenties when new careers, social lives, and relationships can leave little time to hit the gym. Yet establishing a consistent workout routine when you’re young makes staying fit throughout life an easier task. Once exercise becomes part of your weekly routine, it’ll be a hard habit to break. “Think about your body as a car,” says Max Sagert, personal trainer at

Sagert advises focusing fitness in the following areas: resistance, cardiovascular training, flexibility, and functional core training. Joining a gym makes it easier to cover all the necessary areas, and if you're a fitness newcomer, Sagert has one suggestion: Get involved. “Everyone is a stronger person with more education,” he says. “Join a class, or schedule a one-on-one session, so there’s no more guesswork involved.”

Even with healthy exercise, the most common problem Sagert sees among twenty-something clients is an unhealthy diet. “Young people are used to eating unhealthy foods because they could when they were young, and that carries over to their twenties,” he says. “I would say that exercise accounts for 30 percent of physical fitness and diet is 70 percent.”