15 Fitness Hacks to Improve Your Health Immediately

We all love a good hack. Feels like a shortcut, but is really just a different way of doing things in order to increase productivity, and get better results. Likely, you’ve already adopted some fitness tricks into your daily routine. But that doesn’t mean there’s no room for more, or a way to optimize on something you’re already doing! These 15 easy fitness hacks are so ingrained in my day-to-day habits that it took me a bit to filter them out. Focus on just 1-2 at a time until you feel comfortable and they’re guaranteed to improve your health!

15 Easy Fitness Hacks to Improve Your Health

1 – Set a “Time to Move” timer.

Long bouts of inactivity are not just detrimental to your fitness goals. Research shows that long stretches of inactivity with chronic health issues such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes, heart disease, obesity and some cancers.

There’s an simple tech-hack for this one: set an alarm to go off every 1-2 hours. When it goes off, take a 5-15 minute break, depending on what kind of time you can spare. A simple stretch and stand is enough to alleviate back pain, shoulder and neck soreness and fatigue.

But if you really want to reap the benefits and improve your health (and maybe even save yourself some clean up time later), with this easy fitness hack, use the movement break to get some steps in, refill your water bottle and do a quick pick-up.

*If you feel pressed for time at work, see Fitness Hack #14. Schedule accordingly.

2 – Schedule screen-down time into your phone.

Did you know that you can access a log of total screen time on your phone? Well, as alarming as that might sound, those kinds of hard numbers might be just what it takes to make you realize that you’ve been spending a littttttttle too much time with this particular piece of technology.

Luckily, you can use that info and your phone itself to improve your digital wellbeing and in turn, your overall health and happiness. Focus mode on your phone will switch off notifications, alarms, and incoming calls. You can schedule them for specific times or when you’re in a particular location. There are multiple benefits in doing this, and they branch across all different aspects of health. Less screen time tends to make us:

• Happier. Once on their phones, most people can’t resist the pull of social media. Taking a break from that inundation actually improves symptoms of anxiety, depression, and mental fatigue.
  
• More productive. Putting your phone away actually helps you stay more focused, work more efficiently without hitting a mental wall so quickly.
  
• More active. Phone down, move more. On surface level, it’s a simple matter of time management. But there’s a deeper-level link between reduced phone time and increased activity levels. Phone usage has been linked to a near constant hit of dopamine. That feel good chemical release can be addictive. If you’re not getting it from your phone, you’re more likely to search for it elsewhere – like from exercise or real human interaction.
  
• Sleep more soundly. If you find that you have trouble falling asleep at night, you might benefit from scheduling this phone down time for the couple of hours before bedtime. Shutting off the stimulation from social media activities and the blue light emanating from your screen allows your brain it’s natural inclination to start producing melatonin and to start winding down near the end of the day.

3 – Keep a time diary.

Have you ever thought “I don’t have time for this”? “This” being your workout, meal prep, a walk, a full night’s sleep?

Keeping a time diary is an easy fitness hack and can dramatically improve you health because it (almost immediately) allows you to see that you do, in fact, have time for these really important, foundational fitness habits. Here’s how it works:

1. Pick a day to track. Multiple days is great, but even just a single day can be super enlightening.
   
2. Track your activities in increments.
   Set up a Google sheet with times listed in 30 minute increments in the first column. Track your activities in the 2nd column.
   
3. Try to be as accurate as possible, but you don’t have to get overly detailed.
   Example: “Ate lunch” as opposed to “Ate a sandwich and chips outside with Joey and Danielle”.
   
4. Review. Look for patterns, “time leaks” and areas that you could perhaps adjust or plan ahead for to create space to improve your fitness and health.

4 – Schedule your workouts just like you schedule appointments and deadlines.

Considering the importance fitness and health goals play in most of our lives, it’s surprising that so few people schedule their workouts into their routine, never mind prioritize that time like they would a doctor’s appointment or work deadline.

Spend some time every week – I recommend Sunday or early Monday morning – planning your workout schedule and blocking off the time in your schedule. Creating this habit will help you:

• Manage your workouts so that there is a good balance between work/rest, strength/cardio, body part focus.
  I highly recommend pre-planning your rest days. Ideally, schedule time off during the times you most need it – busy days or overly stressful days.
  
• Make steady progress towards your goals. Pre-planning let’s you visualize how your long-term goals can be broken down into short-term goals and daily action steps.
  
• Stay accountable. Those “Oops, I ran out of time” days can add up. Scheduling (and tracking) increases accountability.

5 – Level up your lift.

One of the most effective ways to level up your fitness and improve your health, strength and physique is to lift heavy weight. Maybe you’ve heard this before, but if you haven’t yet adopted it as a part of your code, or you don’t (yet) understand what it really means, now is the time.

Your body only changes/progresses/improves when forced to. Which means if you aren’t consistently challenging your body by lifting heavier weights, you aren’t seeing that change, progress or improvement.

The last few reps of your set should be very challenging. There are a few ways to do this. These are the simplest:

1. Volume – if you have been completing the same number of reps for the same number of sets for too long to count now, try bumping up your rep range or add another set.
   Example: Perform 8-10 reps per set for 2-3 weeks, then perform 10-12 reps per set for 2-3 weeks.
   
2. Weight – increase the weight that you have been lifting by 5-10% until you find a weight at which you are really working hard to finish your set. Stick with that weight until it’s no longer such a challenge. Bump it up again.

6 – Take advantage of the first 15 minutes of your day.

The first moments of your morning can set you up for a successful day. They set the tone, good or bad, energized or lazy. And when taken full advantage of, a healthy morning routine is a really simple hack for health and happiness.

• Set an alarm and don’t snooze. Fight the urge to snuggle in for “just a few more minutes”. This can actually mess with your sleep cycle, making it harder to wake up and increasing feelings of grogginess. 0 minutes…or maybe even adds some time to your day?!
  
• Brush your teeth and grab some water. Downing a couple of glasses of water (I like to start my day with lemon water), immediately is the best way to rehydrate after a long night of what is, essentially, fasting. Plus, giving your body some time to wake up naturally before plugging in the coffee IV will actually give you more, longer-lasting energy! 2 minutes
  
• Step outside and move a little. This is a 3-bird, 1-stone piece of the routine. Early sunshine helps to reset your body clock which will not only wake you up, but help you fall asleep easier at night. Nature has a way of being both calming and uplifting. And a little gentle movement on top of all of that will get your blood pumping and set a tone of movement for the day. 10 minutes
  
• Finally, if you have time, gratitude. Take a moment to consciously appreciate the good things in life. Sometimes those appreciations will be huge and philosophical. Other times they will be small and perhaps about the aroma of coffee drifting your way. Either way, take the time to soak it up. 3 minutes

7 – Create an “if this, then that” list.

Despite your best efforts and meticulous planning, life doesn’t always follow your rules. There will be days that the 60 minute gym session just doesn’t happen. Or the healthy, homemade dinner just doesn’t fit the schedule. Imagine how helpful it would be on these kinds of days to have a contingency plan already in place? Enter: if this, then that.

If I miss Spin class, then I will go for a 30 minute jog around the block instead.
If I can’t get home in time to cook dinner, then I will grab a rotisserie chicken and pre-made salad at the grocery store on the way home from work.
If I don’t get up in time to do my workout in the morning, then I will take an extra 15 minutes at lunch to go for a walk.

Fact is, the days that things don’t go to plan can be stressful. So alleviating that stress ahead of time – not adding another question or dilemma to your plate – can be the deciding factor between “does this help me, or hinder me?“.

8 – Sneak in mini workouts.

On the days that you have low energy or little time, try mini workouts! Spending even 5-10 minutes exercising, 2-3 times a day, can be super beneficial to your overall wellbeing.

In fact, sometimes mini workouts can turn out to be more effective than longer sessions. We tend to approach smaller chunks of time with more energy, since we can already see the finish line. That means we perform better, push harder, and stay focused all the way through. Plus, even one, 10-minute workout is better than nothing!

>> 10 Minute Workouts for When You Don’t Have Time

>> 15 Minute HIIT Workouts (fast fitness!)

>> Quick, Total Body Workouts for Your Busiest Days

9 – Use a steps reminder.

Approximately 3.2 million deaths are contributable to inefficient daily activity every year.

Read that again.

Over 25% of adults worldwide do not get enough physical activity. How can we even no doubt that this fact is a major contributor to the rising percentage of people with chronic disease, depression or anxiety?

There is one, very simple and immediately effective thing that you can do to prevent yourself from becoming part of this statistic: move more. You don’t have to take up power lifting, or marathon running, or cross-country skiing. Just. Move.

A step tracker – with a reminder – is highly effective in terms of it’s ability to get you up and moving more often. There are plenty of apps out there (like this one, and this one) that do exactly that.

Try this:

• Download a tracking app or invest in a pedometer.
• Change nothing about your day-to-day activity for 1-2 days. Just track.
• If you are logging fewer than 2,000 steps a day, aim to add 1,000 steps to that count every day for 1 week. Then add another 1,000 steps.
• Once you hit 5,000 steps/if you are already logging 5,000 steps, try adding 500 steps every day for 1-2 weeks.
• Once you hit 8,000 steps, you’re in a good place but see if you can challenge yourself yet again to reach that 10,000 step mark!

10 – Switch one cardio workout for a strength workout.

Cardio is good for your overall health and can burn some extra calories but if you’re not strength training regularly, you’re missing out on major fitness and physique benefits. Strength training boosts your metabolism, reduces the risk of chronic disease and death by all causes, preserves muscle and bone mass, and improves balance, coordination and function.

11 – Track, and then progress, your workouts weekly.

First, why am I considering this a fitness hack? Because tracking allows you to set, see and move along the path to success succinctly – no repeats, no going in circles, no leaving it up to chance. And if straight forward isn’t the best fitness hack, I don’t know what else is!

So, if you don’t already track your workout, that’s the first step to this fitness hack. Track the exercises you do, the sets and reps that you complete, the weight you lift and the rest you take. Bonus points for tracking subjective feedback on your workout, too.

Now, progressions. The key to consistent, effective progression is to be strategic and diligent. You don’t want to progress too much, too fast or you risk burn out or injury. But you also don’t want to progress too little, or you risk not progressing fast enough to see results.

1. Track your workouts for a week.
2. At the end of the week, sit down with your notebook and circle all of the sets that you easily hit your rep goal on.
3. Write up your workout for next week. For those circled exercises, increase either the weight you lifted by 5-10%, or add reps, or add a set.
4. Repeat.

*A good lifting program should include variations of the same lifts every single week. So the above strategy should work pretty much forever. If you find yourself getting bored, you can add variety by switching your grip, the equipment you’re using, the angle at which you lift, and accessory exercise.

If you have no idea where to start with all of that…click below.

12 – Habit stack.

At it’s simplest, habit stacking is simply the act of taking a new habit that you want to adopt and attaching it to one you already have. Habits are powerful. Because they are behaviors that you don’t have to think about, they save you time, energy, and focus. Take advantage of that!

For example:

• If you’re in the habit of drinking coffee every morning, set your water cup out in front of the coffee maker and drink 2 glasses while it brews.
• Do you always brush your teeth before bed? Do some leg lifts while you brush for 2 minutes (dentist’s orders).
• Have a habit of watching a show after dinner to wind down? Try committing to packing tomorrow’s lunch before you let yourself sit down.

13 – Ankle weights.

You’re going to have to do the chores anyways, right? Why not burn a few extra calories while doing it? Grab some ankle weights and wear them whenever you do house work. Get your steps, build those legs!

14 – Walk and talk, no exceptions.

Want to add some steps without taking up any more time? Commit to getting up and taking a walk (outside, around the house, around the office), any time you take a call – no exceptions! There’s no magic number of walking-and-talking steps you should hit. But simply making this commitment will sneak in a few hundred (or even thousand), steps in multiple times a day. That adds up!

15 – Sign up for a 5k in a town you’ve always wanted to visit.

Signing up for a 5k – walking or running – is more of a motivational hack than a straight-forward fitness hack. But let’s be honest…sometimes motivation is more than half the battle! Level up this particular hack by making an adventure of it!

When I decided to train for a 1/2 marathon last year, I chose a race in Asheville, NC. I’d run my goal miles and get to explore a very cool part of the country that I’ve wanted to spend more time in. My travel plans ended up falling through but guess what? I still trained for, and completed, my 1/2 marathon goal!