NIFS Healthy Living Blog

Starting your fitness journey is always an exciting step forward, but it is essential to make sure you are listening to your body and prioritizing your recovery and self-care. Many people tend to neglect their bodies' needs and push themselves past their limits, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The importance of recovery and self-care play a crucial role in ensuring your long-term success in the gym, and one mistake can lead to a possible injury that can take away and/or limit that progress.

The Importance of Recovery

Recovery is one of the most important aspects of any fitness regimen. Giving yourself enough time to recover helps your body repair and strengthen itself. Without giving the proper recovery your body needs can lead to a higher risk of fatigue, decreased performance, and increased risk of injuries. Here are a few key components to ensuring you have an effective recovery period:

• Rest Days: Incorporating rest days is essential in allowing your body to heal and grow your muscles. You typically want to aim between 1-3 times a week depending on your fitness level and intensity for your workouts, so it may vary from person to person.
  
  
• Sleep Quality: Quality of sleep is a must for effective recovery. Anywhere between 7-9 hours a night is optimal to support muscle repair, hormone balance, and overall mental and physical health. Maintaining a consistent sleep routine will help manage your body's recovery each day.
  
  
• Hydration and Nutrition: Proper hydration and nutrition play a significant role in your body’s growth and recovery. Ensuring that you are drinking plenty of water during the day, and focusing on a balanced diet with protein, healthy fats, and complex carbohydrates will keep your body properly replenished and aid in muscle growth and repair.

Self-Care Practices

• Mobility and Stretching: Practicing stretching and focusing on mobility work regularly can help enhance flexibility, reduce muscle soreness, and prevent injuries. Incorporating dynamic stretching before workouts and static stretches after workouts helps maintain your muscle's elasticity and joint health. This can help with knee pain, lower back issues, and posture over time.
  
  
• Mindfulness: Mental wellness is just as important as physical wellness. Practicing mindfulness can help reduce stress, improve your focus, and enhance your overall well-being. Focus on relaxing the mind for a few minutes a day to help clear your head, such as deep-breathing exercises to calm the mind and body. This can be paired with your static stretches to help your mind and body at the same time.
  
  
• Active Recovery: On rest days, engaging in active recovery activities such as swimming, biking, yoga, or walking can help promote blood flow, reduce muscle soreness, and aid in muscle recovery without straining your body. Ensure that you are keeping a low intensity when engaging in these activities.

Prioritizing your recovery and self-care can play an important role in enhancing your performance, maintaining a balanced lifestyle, and helping prevent injuries. These practices will not happen overnight and will take dedication and time to achieve but will help you in the long run. Embrace, motivate, and stay consistent, and embark on your fitness journey prepared and ready to take on any challenge.

If you're unsure where to start or want to ensure you have the right balance between your fitness goals and recovery, or if you're simply looking to work with a professional, NIFS offers personal trainers who can help guide you every step of the way. Take the next steps with the support you need!

Starting school can be exciting and overwhelming. Whether it is meeting new people, trying to manage a demanding class schedule, handling new responsibilities, or facing academic pressure, balancing everything can seem challenging. Many students also want to focus on their personal fitness goals but struggle to find time to manage with everything else going on. However, finding a balance between academics and health can be extremely beneficial for you, both physically and mentally. Here are some tips on how to manage both your academics and fitness goals. 

Prioritize Your Schedule

This is a key point when creating that balance between academics and fitness. Start off by planning your class schedule with your free time, and implement time for both your study hours and exercise. Use a planner or calendar to track your commitments, blocking off time for classes, studying, and your workouts. Prioritizing your exercise time should be as important as a class or meeting, treating it as a non-negotiable to hold yourself accountable.

Optimize Your Workouts

Your workouts do not have to be hours on end at the gym, especially if you are already pressed for time in your schedule. Focus on short, effective workouts, such as a 30-minute high-intensity interval training (HIIT), a 2–3-mile run, or a heavy lifting day with low rest time intervals. Consider your workout type when deciding your workout space, such as your local gym, dorm room, or the outdoors.

Combine Studying and Fitness

Using stationary bikes or treadmills can also be a great exercise to be able to study, take notes, and listen to recorded lectures, or audiobooks. Try to find ways to implement studying time with different exercises so you don't have to sacrifice any studying time.

Fitness Classes and Social Time

Most colleges offer a wide variety of fitness classes, such as here at NIFS! These classes can range anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, giving you some direction if you are unsure of what to do. This is also a great opportunity to meet new people and create new relationships and open new doors to things you may not have known beforehand.

Adjust Accordingly

Your schedule will change as the year goes on, so you want to make sure you can be flexible with it and make adjustments as you see fit. Consistency is key, don't let a few hiccups in your schedule take away from your motivation to stay on track.

Balancing your academics and fitness may initially be challenging, but once you start to create that consistency, you will notice a significant improvement in your overall health and lifestyle. Learning how to do this early on will help you achieve a much healthier, well-balanced lifestyle that you can follow all through college.

Stretching promotes relaxation and stress relief. It can help calm the mind, improve focus, and reduce mental tension, making it a beneficial practice for both physical and mental well-being.

Use these five stretches to relax the body and help reduce stress.

CHILD'S POSE

Your lower back is a prime place for the body to hold tension. Stretches like this one, which elongates the back, release low back tightness and stiffness. This stretch can also promote healthy sleep, according to Harvard Health Publishing. 

How to Do It:  Kneel on the floor. Bring your feet together and open your knees to create a V shape. Sit back, keeping your butt on or reaching toward your heels, and walk your hands in front of you so that your chest lowers to the ground. Breathe deeply through your diaphragm. Add cushioning (such as a pillow) under your lower body if you’re having discomfort with kneeling. You can also limit how far you move your head and chest toward the floor to make the pose easier. 

HAPPY BABY

How to Do It:  Lying on your back, lift your knees toward your chest. Grab the bottoms of each foot with your hands and pull your knees toward your chest and armpits. If you can’t reach your feet, grab your lower legs. 

ROTATIONAL NECK STRETCH

Reacting to stress by tensing up your neck and scalp muscles can trigger a tension headache. To keep healthy flexion in your neck and let go of tightness, this simple and effective neck stretch targets the muscles in the back of your neck. 

How to Do It:  Bring your chin to your chest and rotate it toward an armpit. If you need more stretch, try placing your hand on the back of your head and pushing your head closer to your armpit. Repeat, rotating your chin to the other armpit. Be mindful not to elevate your shoulders, keeping them relaxed throughout the stretch. 

WIDE-LEGGED FORWARD FOLD WITH CHEST EXPANSION

This stretch targets your upper and lower body, making it a perfect do-it-all move. It’s especially great for tight hamstrings (common in walkers and runners), as well as tight chest and shoulder muscles (common if you often sit at a desk typing).  

How to Do It:  Stand with your feet 3 to 4 feet apart. Softly bend your knees. Hold one end of a small towel in one hand with your palm facing behind you, then reach your opposite hand back to grab the other end of the towel. Inhale and roll your shoulders back and down. Exhale and slowly fold forward (focus on hinging at your hips). Move your arms forward to draw your knuckles toward the ceiling (and downward toward the floor if you can). For more stability, keep your hands at your hips as you bend forward. 

CHEST OPENER

This is a great at-your-desk stretch when you need a quick release. This stretch promotes proper posture and releases tension through your chest to maximize oxygen and circulation. 

How to Do It:  Clasp your hands behind your back, squeeze your upper shoulder blades toward each other behind you, and push out through your chest. Keep your core straight and avoid overextending your back

Interested in an individual stretching session? Contact Chris to schedule a session.

This blog was written by Chris McDonald, NIFS Health Fitness Specialist. To learn more about the NIFS bloggers, click here.