Many people start a fitness journey to look better and improve their self-confidence, but often, the reasons are deeper than that. These reasons are having a hugely negative effect on their life, to the point where they decide to do something about it.
One of those reasons is pain and aching within the body. This can be a wide range of issues from lower back pain to gut discomfort, and this can cause huge issues to a person’s day-to-day life.
So, how can you solve or prevent this problem? How do you ensure that your body is consistently healthy and functioning well not just throughout your fitness journey, but for the rest of your life?
Get Stronger
Many people get aches and pains because they are not strong enough in key areas of their body. It can be common for people to start training ‘abs’ because they want them to be more visible, but then often complain of lower back pain and are more susceptible to injury, especially when playing sport.
If your muscles are not strong, areas such as your lower back tend to take more of the workload in the positions you get into. As a result, most pains come from poor posture due to not having strong enough glutes, quads, hamstrings, shoulders and back. So, training these muscles in isolation will strengthen them and shift the pain away from areas, such as your lower back, that are unable to take the pressure being placed upon them.
Clean Up Your Diet
One of the first things you need to address is your nutrition. You will have likely come from a diet that included foods that are highly processed, high in sugar, high in trans fats, and low in nutrition. Not only does this drastically increase your calorie intake, but causes inflammation in the body, leading to more water retention and therefore more body fat being stored.
By cleaning up your diet, you will be able to see noticeable progress in the first one to two weeks due to the lowering of inflammation levels in the body and therefore less water retention. It will also reduce cortisol and improve energy levels, which can lead to better performance. Make sure you are adding high protein options, more green vegetables, and more slow-releasing carbohydrates into your meals. This is a great starting point to relieve less stress on your body and get you off to a great start.
Increase Your Movement
Although training and diet are both vital, they are not the only things that will help you reduce pain and aching. Increasing your movement in general throughout the day is going to also be a key strategy. This will help move more fluids, blood, and nutrients into your joints so that they can stay healthy, which will decrease your chances of suffering from muscular or even bone-related pain.
This does not mean you have to jump on the treadmill every day. It means finding a form of cardio that is low intensity, enjoyable and easy on your body. The most popular form is walking a minimum of 9-10k steps per day, which can burn anywhere between 300-400 calories, depending on the individual. Aside from the fat loss benefits, going out for a walk is great for your mental health and allows you time to de-stress from certain situations. Make this part of your daily routine and it will hugely benefit your body.
Find A Sustainable Plan
When you are on a fitness journey and looking to get in shape, one of the most important things you can have is a clear plan and simple structure. For so many people, resistance training is an intimidating prospect because you don’t know where to start, what exercises to do, how to do them, what muscle groups you need to be training and how long you should be training for. As a result, you do the wrong exercises with poor technique and you increase your chance of having more pain and aching.
However, if you have a clear plan in all of these areas with your training, this is a massive improvement and something that is going to have a positive effect on your results. The fastest, safest, and most efficient way of achieving this is to hire a coach who can take away the stress of planning your routine and give you a plan to follow that is effective, enjoyable and sustainable. Once you have this, you can then focus your efforts on giving your all during your training sessions.
Reduce Stress
This is another area that can negatively affect your body. High-stress levels can be caused by several things, such as lifestyle, poor sleep, poor emotional health, work, and a poor diet. The issue with increased stress is that it releases high cortisol levels, which can trigger a glucose intolerance in the body, which can encourage inflammation – something that is harmful to progression and overall health. Some of the areas that stress can affect include your immune system, neuroendocrine system (sex hormones), blood pressure, blood glucose levels, and the increased risk of developing metabolic syndrome.
So, it is very important that you manage stress levels so that you can stay calm and positive throughout challenging life situations. There are certain supplements you can use to support lower stress levels, such as Rhodiola, Ashwaganda, Magnesium Glycinate and L’Theanine, but one of the best things you can do for your stress is work on your personal development and organisation. Find out what inspires you, what motivates you, and have as much structure to your day as possible. Once you do that, you will be able to deal with challenges much better, leading to a healthier body and more progression towards your goals.
Summary
Pain and aching are common problems people face, but there are ways of dealing with it effectively. Make sure you start resistance training to strengthen your body, clean up your diet to reduce internal stress, increase your movement, have a sustainable plan, and aim to reduce stress as much as possible. If you can make improvements in these areas, you will give yourself a much better chance of being pain free in years to come.
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