The 20something woman's fitness guide: how to stay healthy and future proof your body

Ah, there's no time like your twenties. It's the age when your body is at its most resilient: a fully grown, efficient machine that can handle a lot of punishment and recover quickly. And I'm not just talking about your ability to deal with alcohol.

In terms of your health and fitness, in many ways your twenties are actually about preparing for the future. The main thing you want is to get out of the decade unscathed, ready for the years to come. So, avoid anything that can leave scars: no rapid over-exercising, no crash diets, no extended bouts in the sun, no abuse of toxins.

In many ways, the biggest challenge here is mental, not physical – you have to be grown up enough to know how to resist pressures for that 'dream body', and to not go OTT in your social life. These are formative years, particularly when it comes to establishing who you are and the kinds of beliefs, habits and standards you’ll carry with you for the rest of your life. Your task is to establish a healthy relationship with exercise early on, viewing it as something that you do for yourself, to feel good and nurture your health, not to meet anyone else’s standards or expectations of you. 

That's not to say that you shouldn't work hard in the gym or demand a lot of yourself in your workouts. You should – but you should do to become a better version of yourself rather than someone who compares well to others. As they say, comparison is the thief of joy.

Nutrition

Nutrition wise, as we’ve already established, it's almost inevitable that you'll consume some less than perfect food and drink during your twenties. Life is for living, after all.

To balance the scales, invest time in learning how to cook nutritious meals for yourself. It will be a great self-education in healthy eating and will help to ensure that you get a diverse intake of healthy vitamins and minerals.

You’ll also want to make sure that you get plenty of water – mainly because it's a good habit to form for the rest of your life.

Additional considerations will depend on the person. If you have acne or any kind of gastrointestinal problems, try abstaining from dairy and then gluten and see if it makes a difference. Equally, if you suffer from heavy periods, make an early habit of getting plenty of iron in your diet. Legumes, red meat, broccoli, pumpkin seeds are your friends here.

Training

In general, you can push quite hard: your body will need less recovery time now than in 20 years. I know it's difficult to appreciate something that hasn't already happened, but you'll have to take my word for it: after 40 it becomes much harder to recover and for your body to hold on to muscle mass.

For that reason, it's a good idea to gain the mass now, particularly in the lower body. Your hormones are primed for muscle mass at this time of life.

A typical training week might look like this:

3 x total body resistance training sessions. For example:

KB swing – 3 x 10 
One leg DB deadlift – 3 x 12
Goblet squat – 3 x 12
Knee press-ups – 3 x loss of form
Bent Over DB row – 3 x 12
Seated Shoulder press – 3 x 12
DB bicep curls – 3 x 10
Tricep Kickbacks – 3 x 10
V-ups – 3 x 30s 
Hanging leg raises – 3 x 12

Leave rest periods of one minute between each exercise

1-2 high-intensity cardio sessions each week

Try the following 10-minute circuit, performing each exercise at full intensity for 60 seconds and giving yourself 10-15 seconds of rest between each.

• Bodyweight squat
• Jumping Jacks
• V-ups
• Plank
• Squat & Press
• Skipping
• Superman L+R
• Burpee 

1 x longer moderate intensity cardio session

For example, 5-10k slow run, or 60 minutes on a cross trainer or exercise bike.

Other considerations...

Always – always – warm up before exercising. Issues with mobility typically arise a little later in life but you can lay the groundwork to avoid them now. 

The twenties should be a fun time with plenty of adventure and a varied social life. Having said that, the way you treat your body throughout your twenties will inform the rest of your life, you don’t need to be too careful. Your body is at its strongest and most vital. Enjoy it and try to make it last!