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Fitness is for all ages – find out the steps you need to take to create a healthy lifestyle.

COVID-19 caused a lot of us an unwanted “COVID 15.” The fact that a lot of us experienced a decline in physical activity, we found ourselves having a bit more to love. The good news is, after a year of sitting in the house, we can reclaim our fitness goals and channel our inner badass.

Age ain’t nothing but a number but sometimes the signs of aging affect our ability to reclaim or actualize our fitness goals. We spoke with a few experts to determine some easy ways on how to get back in the groove. Literally.

SHEEN Magazine caught up with Chicago Martial Artist, Community Activist, and fitness expert Marquinn Martin and Chicago fitness guru Mary Younger aka the “bitty beast” to learn how.

Please describe in your words why fitness is important when creating a healthy lifestyle. 

Mary: Fitness is important because you need a balance in every part of your life, you have to have a balance, like work versus play or school versus party time. Well, you have to have a balance in your life and look after health and wellness as well. So fitness plays a nice part in the balance against food and rest. You have to have all the three elements to attempt to achieve a healthier lifestyle, all those things must be present. Fitness is about activity. It’s about moving the body, it’s about getting your heart rate up and building a stronger vessel so that you can handle anything that life throws at you – mental, emotional, or even spiritual, the physical health grounds you just like all those things do in all other areas as well.

For those of us who aren’t as active as you, do you have any advice on how to get started? 

Marquinn: Sure, just start by walking. Set a time for yourself to get up, go outside and just go for a simple walk. Set a distance, doesn’t have to be long – then build up from there.

For those of us who aren’t as active as you, do you have any advice on how to get started? 

For Teenagers:

  1. Since they’re married to social media and all these popular figures and influencers have come up with these TikTok teens and dances, it prompted me to get a few friends together that are like-minded and make their own little crew where they’re doing some Tik Tok dancing now that keeps them moving.
  2. Make better food intake choices, so don’t ever eat the food you enjoy. But let’s bookend  that with some vegetables and put something in the mix that we know we need to have.

For the 20 something: 

We have to find a way to show them that surgery is not the answer. You can get all this work done by working your butt out, instead of getting work done on your butt. We’re gonna have some fun, go for walks, and do things that are interactive! You like drinking, okay, great. The bar is about six blocks away, let’s challenge ourselves, let’s walk to the bar. Let’s go dancing after we leave the bar.  Another thing would be competition. You know, I like in office settings, a lot of camaraderie, you know, going against your friends. Let’s say you both like a dress and it’s a size smaller than your regular size. How about the two of you split the cost of the dress, compete on who will lose 5 pounds the fastest, and the person who wins, gets the dress?

For All Ages: 

Get the family involved. Even if you physically can’t do a lot. Or if you don’t have any new home equipment. But you have stairs in your house, take those stairs up and down, up and down. Give yourself a goal. “I want to do four flights in 30 minutes. And then from that goal, expound on that.”

As our bodies change, what are some of the things that you’ve found are more challenging in maintaining a healthy life?

Marquinn: For me, the most difficult thing to maintain has been diet. As a matter of fact diet is just as important as movement. It’s all connected.