Six fitness habits to follow in your 30s

While age might be a mindset in many ways, a decade can make a world of difference to physiology and metabolism. Moving from your 20s to your 30s can be a dramatic shift, and based on your food and lifestyle habits before, you might find yourself sailing through or struggling with some challenges.

The 20s can be a lot about drive, ambition, confidence, empowerment, and you working towards your higher education and goals. It is usually the time that some people miss taking care. If so, you might find that you have some metabolic challenges when you enter your 30s.

What is your 30s all about?

Usually your 30s are a time to really focus on building your work, your vision for yourself, sometimes your relationships and really depicts passion. This can cause a shift in priorities for many people and I often come across those who do not prioritise the right eating, exercise, sleep, and stress reduction.

These sudden shifts towards professional responsibilities and personal relationships can result in ignoring fitness and food, causing the down shift in metabolism and an increase in weight accumulation. There is a lot that you can do alongside building these different facets of your life.

1. Food is the foundation for a strong fitness routine

A lot of people struggle to increase fitness regimes and end up just adding some sporadic exercise simply because they do not have a strong food foundation to support a strong workout. If you do not get optimal protein and antioxidants for energy, you simply cannot push the boundaries of a fitness routine. You require at least a gram per kg of body weight in protein, if not more when you increase exercise.

If you find yourself sore and unable to recover from strength training for several days, that is a sign that you need much more protein. Antioxidants come from rich colors in vegetables and fruits. Having several cups of colored vegetables with your meals and including potent antioxidants like pomegranate every day can help recovery and the damage from exercise.

2. Add strength training to your routine in simple ways

Even if you do not have a trainer during these times, start with some simple weight training with light weights, body weight, or dumbbells. It can be as simple as beginning with 3-4 kg weight on each arm and following some qualified professional on their channel. It could also be a workout with free body weights, where you bear weight on large muscles including the legs and the arms. It can also be that you start with light dumbbells at home, which weight as little as 10 kg, and follow a workout.

Always be cautious of individual vulnerable areas such as sensitive knees.

Strength training is very key in your 30s, as hormones like testosterone starts to lower and this can impact muscles. If you have low testosterone levels on your labs, it is a sign that you need strength training.

3. Add slow fat burning aerobic exercise thrice a week

This should range from the slow aerobic ones such as biking, swimming, and walking, which are good for cardiovascular movement. You also need stretching, which you can get from yoga. It can be as simple as walking 10,000 steps a day as a start and gradually adding some days of 15,000 to 20,000 steps. With walking or running, achieving, and maintaining a maximum heart rate can be beneficial. If you are running, always phase it out with initial stretching, walking, running, colling down, and stretching once again to avoid damage to your knees.

4. Burst training or HIIT

Burst training or HIIT sequences include workouts at 90 percent of your maximum heart rate for 30 seconds to a minute and then taking a break. It depletes stored blood sugar and body gets better with glucose metabolism.

These require burst interval exercises such as jumping, squatting, lunges, jumping jacks, and running.

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5. Restorative movement

It can also be a full yoga practice guided by a qualified teacher so that you do not injure yourself. These can include yoga, taichi, qigong, and pilates. Most of these movements are very necessary as part of a wholesome fitness routine to give your body an opportunity to restore itself.

Benefits include balance, agility, lymphatic movement, fascia release, and muscle recovery. It is something that every single person must include as a part of their fitness routine in the 30s, which will also allow you to optimise hormones, reduce stress, and improve metabolic health overall.

They improve mindfulness especially with the scattered mind of professional life, and let you shift towards a parasympathetic state where you can benefit more from other fitness routines.

6. Start somewhere

Don’t be overwhelmed reading this. What matters is that you are aware of metabolic shifts in your 30s where hectic professional schedules and personal relationships might take time away from your fitness routine. If you begin by adding any of these into your week, and give yourself several weeks before adding another one, it will not seem daunting.

Eventually, you can build yourself a great routine where you include aerobic, anaerobic, and restorative movements into your week, by simply having a different approach each day of the week. Invest in some time for yourself for fitness and make it a non-negotiable part of your day. Nothing and no one should come between you and this.

Your 30s should be the time that you shine and come into your space in every way. A great fitness routine will prevent the lowering metabolic shifts to make you pile on weight and not feel good about yourself. Take this time every day, and embrace all the good things that it brings your way with your health, looks and energy!

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