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People will try anything to improve their health. In fact, 2024 lifestyle trends are marked by an increased interest in everyday practicality and outdoor adventure.
Start Simple
For many, practicality and the outdoors go hand-in-hand when you take a daily walk. It is fun, provides socialization, a glimpse of nature, fresh air, and no gym membership required. One of the most-searched questions on Google is, “What happens when I walk every day?”
Dr. Dalia McCoy, Cleveland Clinic family medicine specialist, answers: “Walking every morning reduces the risk of heart disease, lowers blood pressure and LDL (the “bad” cholesterol), and strengthens the heart. Walking helps the heart be more efficient. As your fitness improves, your heart becomes more effective.”
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in America and is blamed for nearly 860,000 deaths each year. To combat that danger, people attempt to improve their fitness in a number of ways. McCoy says walking not only supports heart health but also reduces stress, aids in weight loss and improves the immune system. That sounds good.
What’s Hot?
Spending 15–25 minutes in a hot sauna, either wet or infrared, at least three times weekly may assist in numerous health issues. The heat from a sauna increases the heart rate. It expands your vessels, improving circulation and reducing the risk of high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and stroke. Sweating flushes toxins and impurities from the skin. Heat can also help with pain in arthritis, fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis.
Daily time in a hot tub provides many of the same benefits. A bonus is that the buoyancy of the water can take weight off painful joints. Floating in a tub of hot water is said to help your mental state. Length of recommended time depends on the temperature of the water.
Hot stone massage has similar benefits with the advantage that comes from touch. The stones’ warmth, combined with the therapist’s massage, can create a sensory experience and encourage your body to release endorphins, improving mood. Another lesser-known benefit of hot stone massage is that it can help reduce anxiety in cancer patients, making them feel more comfortable during treatment, relieve depression and promote sleep.
For the more energetic, hot yoga might be the ticket. Hot yoga burns calories, builds bone density, and improves cardiovascular fitness and flexibility. It also helps ease depression and reduce stress. Doing Yoga in a studio at 95-100 degrees and 40% humidity, however, may be uncomfortable for some.
Preparing for ice bath in tub
What’s Not Hot?
Some people swear by the cold plunge! One man near the ocean started doing it in March when ocean temperatures average 55°—that’ll make your teeth chatter! He claims immediate elevation in his depression with a daily run, then a five-minute cold dip. You can create the same conditions at home by adding ice to the tub or taking a cold shower.
Benefits touted include:
• Reduced inflammation; help with swelling and muscle soreness
• Improved mood; temporary mood boost and long-term reduction of anxiety and depression by increasing dopamine and endorphin levels.
• Improved sleep and increased focus
• Restored balance to nervous system
• Improved cognitive function
• Reduced risk of type 2 diabetes
These are all researched by the Mayo Clinic, Dartmouth Health, and Healthline. There are cautionary notes, such as cold plunging is likely safe if you’re reasonably fit and have no history of heart issues, arrhythmias, diabetes or high blood pressure. Doctors warn you to stay in the water no more than three minutes and not to plunge alone.
What’s Shakin’ in the Name of Health
You can shimmy and shake a LOT of things while you work up a sweat in Zumba. Founded in 2001, Zumba combines cardio workouts with Latin dance moves and quietly flies under the radar. Still, it has more than 15 million people taking classes in 200,000 locations in 180 countries every week. All that shakin’ going on can boost metabolism and burn up to 700 calories in an hour.
Vibration wave machines, also called vibration plates, claim to provide benefits that include weight loss, increased muscle strength, blood flow and lymphatic drainage, and increased bone mineral density. It can also relieve lower back pain while improving balance and coordination. However, Dr. Edward Laskowski with the Mayo Clinic states: “Whole-body vibration can offer some fitness and health benefits, but it’s not clear if it’s as good for you as regular exercise. Comprehensive research about whole-body vibration is lacking. And because whole-body vibration can be harmful in some situations, check with your doctor before using it.”
Bounce Your Way to Health
There is a reason children jump on beds. Instinctively, they know it is good for them! You can rebound in the comfort of your home on a mini-trampoline. Someone with poor mobility can place their feet on the trampoline’s edge, and another person can bounce, achieving two-for-one benefits.
Even though rebounding is low-impact, as you bounce, your body works hard to push down onto the mat and then jump up off the mat. That means you burn some calories. Rebounding forces the one-way valves of the lymphatic system to open and close during each bounce, removing toxins and bacteria. Bouncing reduces impact shock by 87% compared to a hard surface.
Another way to bounce is Bokwa. Yoga instructor Hope Bray is certified in this and says it is often called the Bokwa Bounce. Bokwa is a fitness program based on South African music and dance that follows no structured choreography. Instead, the instructor gives hand signals to keep participants moving by drawing letters and numbers with their feet.
Rolling, Rolling, Rolling
Ooh, there are so many possibilities. There are bicycles, trigger point balls to roll out muscles, bouncing on exercise balls, and even roller skating—all ways to roll your way to a healthier body.
As with any advice, you must remember (1) you need to do your research and talk with a doctor you trust, and (2) you get what you pay for. Then there’s the Italian concept of Dolce Far Niente, “the sweetness of doing nothing” — embracing leisure time without guilt or productivity pressure. It sounds like the Italian version of the Scarlett O’Hara philosophy, “I’ll think about that tomorrow.”
Text by Jo Clark
Freelance writer, photographer and podcaster Jo Clark enjoys guzzling down her ice water while walking and doing yoga on a hot beach. Instagram handle @JoGoesEverywhere and www.haveglasswilltravel.com
