No one enjoys going to the doctor, especially men. According to a comparative study, men in the United States visit their primary care doctors at lower rates than women. Regular screenings for prostate, blood pressure, cholesterol, and BMI are extremely important for prevention and early detection. Make June 30 your deadline to schedule your next checkup.
Check out these important health screening guidelines from Top Line MD:
Men love their pizza, hot wings and beer, and it is perfectly fine to indulge on occasion. But, a clean diet is important for health and longevity. Men typically have more muscle than women and require more calories throughout the day. These calories should come from whole, nutrient-dense foods.
According to The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, a healthy diet for men includes:
- At least 2 cups of fruits and 2½ cups of vegetables each day for vitamins, minerals, fiber and phytochemicals.
- Whole grains. Eat at least half of all grains as whole grains each day. Replace refined grains with whole-grain bread, cereal, pasta, brown rice or oats.
- At least two to three servings of fish per week.
- At least 38 grams of fiber per day for younger men; 30 grams of fiber per day for men older than 50.
- Unsaturated fats such as oils, nuts, and oil-based salad dressings in place of saturated fats including full-fat dairy foods, butter, and high-fat sweets.
- 3,400 milligrams a day of potassium from fruits, vegetables, fish and milk.
You have to get moving and your blood pumping for a minimum of 30 minutes each day. If you can’t get a traditional workout in, stand or move while you are working at the computer, do yard work, or take a walk at lunch break. Life is busy, but you have to make time for physical activity.
Sunlighten CEO, Aaron Zack, shares that he combines active fun and family time in order to get everything in. “I love to run, bike and swim, and I do my best to maintain a regular training schedule. But with work, home, and community responsibilities, life gets busy fast. Some days it’s just too hard to squeeze in my own workout. On those days, kicking the soccer ball around the yard with my two boys, going for a family walk, or taking a quick trip to the park are great substitutes and still keep me moving,” says Zack.
Appropriate recovery from a workout is equally as important as the workout itself. Even the buffest of dudes understand that rest is physically necessary so that the muscles can repair, rebuild and strengthen. Fitness expert and creator of the best-selling fitness series P90X, Tony Horton, aids his muscle recovery with foam rolling, Yoga, massage, and infrared saunas. He loves the mPulse® 3 in1® pain relief program for post-workout recovery.
Tony Horton talks Recovery with his Sunlighten sauna.
Another great tool for muscle recovery is the lumiSPORT hand-held, LED device with near infrared and red light therapy. It allows you to apply light treatment to a targeted area to reduce inflammation and joint pain and accelerate muscle recovery.
Manage Your Stress
Men tend to internalize their stressors; therefore, stress and stress-related illness are of great concern. Ongoing chronic stress can cause or exacerbate many serious health problems, ranging from depression to sexual dysfunction to high blood pressure and even heart attacks.1
The important thing for men to do to take charge of their own health is to ensure they find ways to cope with stress. Celebrity fitness trainer and health coach, Jorge Cruise, takes regular sauna sessions to manage stress. “For someone like me who has a lot of stress going on, it is one of my favorite things to do. I recommend it to anyone in your life who needs to calm down and feel life again,” explains Cruise.
Jorge Cruise On Sunlighten Saunas for Muscle Recovery
Whether it’s relaxing in a Sunlighten sauna, incorporating exercise into your daily routine, or simply taking a 5-minute “anti-stress” break, we encourage all of the special men in our lives to take charge of your health this June. Stay tuned for more tips from men we love!
