Bringing Sexy Back: 6 Tips for Men to Get Their Bodies Summer-Ready

Let’s face it: the “Quarantine 15” has a lot of mens’ self-esteem in the toilet right now after a long past year of sheltering in place and social distancing. 

Approximately 64% of men said their current state of health or appearance negatively impacts their confidence, according to a recent survey of 1,000 US men ages 30-65 conducted by Vault Health. In addition, 90% said their current state of health or appearance could be improved.

But that doesn’t mean it has to remain that way– especially with a post-Covid return to normal on the horizon as we settle into the beautiful summer months. 

Dr. Myles Spar is the Chief Medical Officer for Vault Health, the first men’s telehealth startup to offer direct-to-consumer prescription treatments such as testosterone replacement therapy to optimize their physical, sexual, and cognitive health.

He has some sage tips for shedding unwanted belly fat, gaining lean body mass, and getting in shape for what will hopefully be one of the best summers ever. 

1. Diversify Your Workout. Incorporating different training styles into your routine can help you achieve better results while avoiding the boredom that comes with a stale and repetitive workout plan. This means changing-up your workouts with activities like HIIT training, cycling, lifting, hiking, or yoga. Whatever workouts you enjoy, make a plan to rotate between four specific types of activity throughout the week: cardio, core, flexibility, and resistance.
2. Incorporate Cardiovascular Exercise. Studies show that combining cardio and strength training, sometimes called cardiovascular exercise, into your regimen has proven not only to have the best effect on cardiovascular and overall health but to be one of the best techniques for fat loss.
3. Listen to Your Body. Not every day is for breaking records. Your stress, sleep, diet, and emotional health can affect your workout readiness for the day. If you wake up feeling tired or drained, pay attention to those signals. If you haven’t had a rest day in the past week, consider taking the day off from strenuous activity. Otherwise, you can try jumping into your regular workout routine—but if you’re not feeling re-energized within 10 minutes of the workout, there’s a good chance your body needs to take it easy. Wearables can also offer important metrics when it comes to registering your body’s recovery and readability.
4. Prioritize Nutrition. Though exercise is key, supporting your workouts with a healthy and balanced diet will enable you to achieve better—and longer-lasting results. Whether you’re already a healthy eater or starting from scratch, now is a great time to refocus on your nutrition. First, establish your goals. Is your top priority to build muscle mass? Then you’ll need to ensure that you’re consuming adequate calories and plenty of healthy protein. If your top goal is losing body fat, you may want to experiment with intermittent fasting or reducing simple carbs and sugar from your diet.
5. Celebrate Small Wins. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your body is no different. Losing fat and building muscle mass will take time, determination, and follow-through. It’s not uncommon for people to get discouraged when they don’t see immediate results, but just remember that it usually takes much longer to get your body back into shape than It does to fall off the bandwagon and get out of shape. The key is to celebrate the small wins like completing your first full week of training, losing 5 pounds, gaining a half-inch of muscle, and so on.
6. Boost Your Results With Performance Kits. If you’re hoping to burn fat and obtain lean body mass, Vault Health has two customizable performance-based personalized plans just for these purposes. The Body Kit relies on the power of peptides, which are naturally-occurring chemicals that can boost key hormones inside the body and, in turn, burn through fat while making it easier to pack on muscle. It can also improve things such as sleep, mood, energy, and endurance. In addition, Vault also has the popular Vitamin B12-MIC Fat Burner Kit. By increasing metabolic rate, Vitamin B12-MIC can help burn through fat while regulating sleep, mood, and appetite. The MIC stands for Methionine-Inositol-Choline, and it’s a combination of nutrients that can boost liver function, lower cholesterol, help with allergies, regulate appetite, and rid the body of toxins, amongst other things.

But with all this exercise, don’t forget to rest. Remember it is possible to overdo it when it comes to exercise, and working out too hard may actually decrease testosterone. So don’t skip those rest days!