Many of our members come to us with health goals, ranging from reducing pain, to improving health metrics like cholesterol or blood pressure, to managing specific conditions. Strength training can help with all of these, along with offering tons of mental health benefits! In addition to strength training, there’s a variety of health promoting behaviors that can contribute to your overall wellbeing.
Your health is impacted by both nonmodifiable and modifiable factors. Nonmodifiable factors are things you can’t change (or at least can’t change easily), like your age, sex, race, genetics, physical environment (air quality, access to green spaces, housing conditions), socioeconomic status, and more. These are things that are difficult for you to personally change.
At Power Plant Gym, we focus on supporting the pieces you can influence. In particular, we can support your strength training, nutrition, and community! While you can’t control everything, taking consistent steps in a positive direction can make a big difference in both the short term and the long term. Modifiable factors that you can affect yourself include:
- Eating a nutritious and varied diet
- Getting regular exercise
- Prioritizing quality sleep
- Building positive social relationships
- Staying hydrated
- Accessing healthcare services
- Managing stress
- Limiting alcohol use
- Avoiding smoking
Working to improve on these factors can pay big in your overall health and wellbeing. You don’t have to do it all at once, though! Start with one small, manageable change, and give yourself a few weeks to practice it. Once it feels solid, you can build from there. Maybe the place to start is getting more sleep, so work on getting to bed 30 minutes earlier most nights of the week. That “most nights” allows some room for life to happen! Sometimes you’ll be burning that midnight oil, and that’s okay, but if you can get to bed 30 minutes earlier, even just four nights a week, that’s two more hours of sleep a week!
Your health is personal, so there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, but small, consistent actions can make a big difference over time! Health is a lifelong journey, and you’re allowed to move at your own pace. Start where you are, use what you have, and do what you can. We got your back!
