Boost Your Immunity with These Useful Fitness Tips

With the current situation, everyone is doing their best to stay healthy and fit. And one way to be healthy is by increasing your immunity so that you have higher chances to fight any kind of viral infection.

Now, this is not a solution for COVID-19. However, you still need to make sure that your body is healthy enough to fight moderate infections like cold and flu.

The winters have almost started and that means that chances of catching a cold or flu are higher than usual. In such conditions, it gets even more important to keep your immunity high and yourself healthy.

So, in this blog, we will be discussing some tips to boost your immunity and stay healthy this winter.

Fitness tips to increase your immunity

A healthy lifestyle is what makes you a healthy person.

However, as your daily work increases, your lifestyle deteriorates. Decreased amount of sleep, eating junk food, working overtime, and many other factors play a role in decreasing the quality of your lifestyle. Taking a few steps towards self-care can drastically improve your lifestyle. Along with that, it will also boost your immunity to fight winter infections.

Eat healthy foods

Proper and complete nutrition is very important for a strong immune system. A complete diet consists of necessary nutrients like proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and other nutrients like vitamins, and minerals.

Foods rich in Vitamin C, D, and Zinc are great to increase immunity naturally. Vitamin C (citrus fruits, banana, kiwi, etc.) increases the rate of protein synthesis in your body so that the protein that you consume gets absorbs into your bloodstream easily. The blood then later carries it to the different parts and organs of your body.

Vitamin C also has amazing antioxidant properties that fight the damage made by free radicals and keep your cells healthy and immune to disease-causing viruses and bacteria.

A little higher than the required amount of dietary Vitamin C (90mg/day) is also beneficial for preventing and treating respiratory infection and will be very helpful to stay protected from seasonal cold and flu.

It is a well-known fact that sunlight accelerates the absorption of Vitamin D in your body. However, you need to eat food rich in Vitamin D (Fish, mushrooms, yogurt, eggs, etc.) for the sunlight to help it absorb in your body. Vitamin D deficiency is can lead to increased chances of infection because of decreased immunity. Vitamin D is also very beneficial against safeguarding your body against autoimmune diseases.

Minerals like Zinc help your cells to develop and function normally. Its deficiency can adversely affect the cells responsible for immunologic functions. The antioxidant properties of zinc protect the cell membrane and keep your cells healthy. Zinc can be found in shellfish, nuts, seeds, legumes, and dark chocolate.

Other minerals like selenium and iron are also helpful in keeping your immune system strong and healthy.

Get better sleep

Sleep is just as necessary as eating the right food. Unfortunately, with work and constant interaction with blue light-emitting devices like smartphones, televisions, and laptops, your body’s sleep cycle may mess up. So, it is wise to reduce your screen time before going to sleep.

A clinical review in the Sleep Medicine Reviews suggests that people sleeping for less than 6 hours a day are more susceptible to the reduced immune system as compared to those who get more than 6 hours of sleep daily.

Avoid consuming coffee and other drinks containing caffeine so that it does not affect your sleeping schedule. Smoking and alcohol can also disrupt your sleeping pattern.

You need to create a strict sleep routine so that you can go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day. This will allow your body to set a natural sleep clock. After a few days, you will naturally fall sleepy at your regular timing of sleep.

With better sleep, your immunity will also get that much stronger.

Exercise Regularly

Exercising regularly has many health benefits but more importantly, it helps to keep your blood flowing. With better blood circulation, the nutrients that you consume everyday reach different organs faster.

If you have taken a vaccine to increase your immunity, exercising increases its effectiveness to give you better results. In older adults, this is especially important as immunity vaccines take a longer time to show effects in elderly people.

Studies show that exercising can also delay the onset of immunosenescence, the phenomena when a person’s immune system starts declining after a certain age. The same study suggests that regular moderate exercising enhances the immunity of aging people.

This however does not mean that exercising does not have any effect on the younger population. As mentioned earlier, exercising can increase nutrient absorption in the body. This leads to better health, fitness, and increased immunity.

With busy schedules and increased workloads, a gym near you becomes a better option to ensure that you get to exercise regularly. The personal trainers there will also help you to create a suitable diet plan that includes food and nutrition to increase your immunity naturally.

Live a stress-free life

Stress is an inevitable part of everyone’s lives. Whether it is about your future, your work, or your family, stress can play a huge role in decreasing your immunity.

It can be extremely hard to not stress out about things at all, however, the key is to manage the stress in a way that it does not affect our health. Studies suggest that chronic stress can potentially damage the immune cells thus decreasing the overall immunity of your body.

There are several ways to reduce stress. Getting enough rest, journaling, meditation and mindfulness, and healthy food, all play a role in decreasing stress.

Do what makes you feel happy, whether it is watching a movie, singing a song out loud, or dancing to a catchy song. The main thing is to distract your mind and give yourself enough time to find a solution to what is stressing you out. Exercising every day also plays an important role in maintaining your mental health. Sneak in some moderate exercising in your busy schedule to feel refreshed and rejuvenated.

Drink enough water

Water is essential for our sustenance along with food and air. Now, it may not directly affect your immunity but a decrease in drinkable water consumption can have some serious complications to your overall health.

Dehydration can decrease your body’s performance in terms of your thinking capability and physical performance. This decrease may further lead to more health complications.

Hence, drinking enough water every day can keep you healthy and fit from within. There are several ways with which you can track your daily water consumption. One way to do that is to get an app to keep track of hydration levels and how many glasses of water you are drinking every day.

Conclusion

Your immunity is what keeps you healthy and free from many diseases. You must take the required measures to make your immune system strong and robust.

There are different ways to strengthen your immunity. To say it shortly, healthy food, a proper lifestyle, and regular exercising to keep your body and mind strong will be advantageous for you to boost your immunity.

In this blog, we have discussed some of the ways to strengthen your immunity naturally. They are as simple as:

• Eating healthy foods

• Getting better sleep

• Exercising Regularly

• Living a stress-free life, and

• Drinking enough water

These measures will not only boost your immunity but also promote a better and healthier lifestyle. However, we would like to reiterate that the above-discussed are no measures to treat a disease like COVID-19.

What measures do you take to boost your immunity? Do you go to a nearby gym? Or do you practice Yoga at a fitness center?

Let us know in the comments section below, and don’t forget to check out the blog for more interesting topics like this.