Learning how to build good daily habits is a great place to start, especially for building overall fitness, happiness, and wellbeing. There are, believe it or not, plenty of things that you can do every day to help you on the right track towards your long-term fitness goals. In this article, we are going to share some of the top advice from weight loss and fitness experts to help you learn some simple and doable fitness tips to commit to every day.

Whether that’s a number on a scale to work towards or another target, setting that goal first will help you stay on track.

 “So how do I build a habit? How do I make my brain like exercise?” Well, it works by having a trigger, action, and response/reward. Your trigger, in this example, is wanting to feel or look better. Your action is exercise, eating well, or any other number of activities we are going to discuss. The reward is the release of serotonin or feeling good. To make your brain respond to and enjoy this loop, you’ll need to hammer it home for around four weeks. Most experts agree that 28 days is enough time to form or break a habit. Small, daily changes are, in fact, the best way of forming new longer-term habits.

So, the question begs, what can you achieve in a day? What daily habits can you form to actually improve your fitness? Below, we have some of the best daily activities you can undertake to help you improve your long-term fitness and help you reach those goals.

Many of us struggle with aches and pains. Bad knees, hips, and lower backs are all common problems amongst adults today. However, not enough of us do the right things to try and combat this pain. Often, we just live with it and assume that “this is just the way it is. I must be getting old!” It doesn’t have to be like this, though. All it takes is to build a daily habit of doing 5-15 minutes worth of stretching to cure most of our daily aches and pains. We’ve all got 5 minutes a day to lay on a mat with a foam roller or do some static stretching, don’t we?! The joint and pain improvement can change your life with a small change like this.

If we’re talking about squeezing in daily fitness tips, you may worry we’re telling you to visit a gym for 90 minutes every day. Obviously, this is not ideal for most of us. What we can do, though, is build exercise into our daily routine. In the morning, after your stretches, just a few rounds of press-ups, sit-ups, and squats are enough to fire up all your muscles. Then, if you have time, a 15-30 minute HIIT session 3-5 days a week will keep you in shape. Those morning stretches and mini-workouts keep your mind and body exercise-focused, making the longer workout days easier and more enjoyable to face. 

In this day and age, it is easier than ever to keep track of your activity. Every phone, watch, or smart device can track your distance, steps taken, and even calories burned. A large consensus of doctors advises that healthy adults walk a minimum of 10,000 steps per day. So, make it a challenge! Use a FitBit, Apple Watch, or any other device and try to hit that 10k! Science suggests that tracking the data to challenge ourselves is one of the best ways to keep fit.

A final tip surrounding physical activity. When we commute, we often see escalators and lifts. Deciding they are the norm, we all just hop on and let a machine take us where we need to go. Well, much like we aren’t designed to sit all day, we also aren’t designed to be lifted everywhere all day! Whenever you can, simply taking the stairs is a great little habit to form. Climbing stairs will do wonders for your heart and cardiovascular system. Think of it as a few more mini-workouts throughout the day!

These simple activities will help you form habits to last a lifetime. Do these and watch your fitness develop, your strength grow, and your desire to keep fit get stronger. Remember, stick to them for a few weeks and they will become second nature.

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