Ahoy! 2025 has officially launched! Have you decided to casually cruise into the new year, happy to sail along life’s currents, or are you steering with purpose towards a new way of living or is there a lofty goal looming upon your horizon?
Whatever your approach to the new year, it’s fair to assume you’ll want to give yourself the best chance of making the most of each day. So, this non-guy and non-health-professional has gathered some handy insights from across the web to help you along the way… after all, we’re all in this together.
It’s worth noting that this is just a casual guide, the kind of information you’d share over a coffee with a friend. Please get in touch with a qualified health professional if you have any concerns regarding your mental or physical health and well-being. A list of men’s health resources has been provided at the base of this article to assist you in this process.
Get moving!
Boats, cars, planes, and bikes are made for motion, just like our bodies are. To avoid corrosion, flat batteries and clogged systems, we must rev up our engines and move!
Physical benefits
We all know our bodies need exercise. This is not a revelation. But, you might not appreciate its broad benefits beyond weight loss and muscle gains. It also lowers your blood pressure and cholesterol levels, reducing the risk of a heart attack. Moreover, cardio-intensive exercise also boosts endurance, allowing you to partake fully in your day-to-day activities.
Weight-bearing exercises also strengthen your bones and muscles, increasing your ability to accomplish more physical tasks and reducing the risk of serious injuries, such as fractures.
Mental benefits
Exercise is your go-to natural mood improver. Physical activity triggers a release of dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins (your body’s feel-good hormones) and increases the flow of oxygen supply to our brain, resulting in improved mood and focus. It also registers as a ‘win’ in our brain’s reward centre. The more we exercise, the more receptive our reward centre becomes, leading to an improved capacity for experiencing joy in other areas of our lives.
What exercise should you do?
Whatever works for you! Some of us might prefer the structure and discipline of working with a PT in a gym. Others might be nature lovers who want to walk, run, pedal and swim free amid the elements.
If you want to blend your exercise with social connection (also #mentalhealthwins), then you can join a sports team, have a hit of golf, kick the footy, swing a bat, pull on boxing gloves, score a slam dunk, join a cycling group, or get zen and stretchy in a yoga class… you get the gist.
You can also incorporate movement into your daily routines (aka ‘incidental activity’). Park your car at the far end of the shopping mall car park. Take the steps instead of the escalator. Get off the train a stop or two early. Get outside and play with your kids. Do some push-ups in the TV ads. Go for a walk after a meal (this also helps lower your blood sugar levels).
Celebrate the little wins
Have you ever worked towards something big, and then once you’ve achieved it, you wondered, “What now?”. Sometimes, our goals are so big that our self-driven motivation to keep going after them declines as fatigue and life’s distractions kick in. Instead of waiting to celebrate the big win, map out the steps required to achieve it and celebrate each one.
Want to run the half marathon in the City to Bay Fun Run, but you can barely run for longer than two kilometres now? Instead of stressing over one distant finish line, set yourself a series of shorter runs.
Made it to 5km? Well done! Buy yourself a pair of snazzy running socks (or whatever brings you joy). Just sweated past 10km? Awesome, there’s your breathable running cap. 15km… 20km… 25km… oh, hang on, you’ve surged past the half-marathon finish line. Keep goin’ bro!
Having trained your brain’s reward centre to anticipate the high of another win, you’re more likely to keep winning. You can apply this winning principle to a business goal, a team project, a personal challenge and more.
Fuel your body and brain
Are you regularly fuelling your body with the good gear, or are you intermittently topping up with low-grade slop that’s clogging your system and reducing your power? You’ve got to put the good gear in if you expect to power through each day. You know it’s true.
Hydration
Did you know you can survive up to several weeks without food but only three to five days without water? It makes sense, considering adult male bodies are roughly 60% water.
The benefits of adequate hydration include (but are not limited to), regulating our body temperature, keeping us mentally focused, ensuring our bodies move well through joint lubrication, clearing toxins, maintaining a healthy digestive system, improved skin quality and more.
Adult males should consume about 2.6 litres daily… that’s 10 cups. But this varies according to lifestyle, age, weight and environmental conditions. For a more precise overview of water’s function and how to measure your hydration, check out Health Direct’s Drinking Water and your Health page.
Nutrition
To achieve maximum performance, you need to remain energised with nutritious food. Instead of three heavy meals a day, try breaking them down into smaller, more frequent meals that include lean proteins, complex carbohydrates, healthy fats, fruits, and vegetables.
Smaller, healthy meals will require less energy to digest, meaning you’re increasing the regularity of energy flowing into your body during the day, but you’ll also improve the value of your nutritional intake thanks to the extra energy available for you to use for productivity gains.
Superpower your life with sleep
Sleep is when the body and brain undergoes a full tune-up, including physical recovery and repair. It’s also your brain’s opportunity to process and save memories and lessons from the day.
Achieving a solid seven-hour block of sleep daily maintains healthy cognition (including learning and memory formation), cardiovascular health, improved mood, energy, and immunity. You’ll lower your risk of serious health problems like diabetes and heart disease.
Establishing positive sleep habits is your best chance to score those sleep superpowers. Here are a few easy tips.
- Set a sleep schedule in which you fall asleep and wake at around the same time each day. Keep in mind that you’ll need to be in bed about 30 minutes before your body relaxes and goes to sleep.
- The blue light from screens keeps your brain active when it should be winding down. So, put down the screens, turn off your notifications and give your eyes and brain time to disconnect.
- Avoid caffeine and heavy meals or high-sugar foods before bed. Also, avoid too many liquids close to bedtime to minimise interruptions to your sleep.
- Avoid daytime naps.
- Create a cool (as in temperature), calming, environment to sleep in.
If you suffer from insomnia or stress, please check out LIfeline’s Sleep and mental health page for advice and resources.
Stress Management
Stress can be incredibly debilitating and can be triggered by a myriad of reasons. It could be related to a big life change, issues in your relationships, work, health, environment, confusion surrounding self-identity or a mash-up of all of these elements.
Many of the resources we’ve linked below are well-equipped to provide effective and qualified insight and guidance into managing life’s stresses, particularly those experienced by men.
As you’ve already read, exercise, nutrition, hydration, sleep and celebrating progress all lower your stress levels and improve your mood. Other general, day-to-day stress management strategies that you might consider, include:
Connecting with others
Social media connections are handy for life updates but don’t provide a feeling of true connection. Having a phone conversation, visiting friends or family, or joining a social or support group can really help alleviate stress and loneliness. Connecting with nature can also help calm emotions and provide mental space to process thoughts and emotions.
Foster an empowering social feed
Have you ever considered the impact of the term ‘social feed’? Just as nutrition feeds our bodies, the stuff we listen to and watch literally feeds our minds. If you spend a lot of time on social media, then the new year is as good a time as any to audit who you’re following and connected to. Reflecting on your interests, values, and what you know will benefit your sense of self-worth and help you determine who you stop following, continue following, or start following.
Deep breathing
When stress starts to build, or we find ourselves in a stressful situation, we can experience the physical expression of stress hormones rushing through us, such as a pounding heart and faster breath. This primal “fight or flight” response serves us well when we’re in immediate danger of injury, but not when we’re in a boardroom, driving, or by ourselves, thinking about our obligations and pressures.
Taking some deep breaths in, then slowly exhaling, signals to our brain that we’re not in immediate danger, which can help us calm down. Guided breathing can be done anywhere, anytime.
Learning the power of controlled breathing via meditation and yoga can help you manage these moments better, and regular practice will also help limit them. Hypnotherapy and Somatic therapies can also help in identifying deeply embedded stress triggers.
Men’s Health Resources
Here’s a sample of just some of the many men’s health resources available for you to use.
Australian Men’s Shed Association (AMSA) provides practical support, specialised services and resources, and men’s health programs and initiatives.
Beyond Blue provides mental health support and information for anyone and everyone in Australia.
Black Dog provides information on how best to identify, prevent and treat depression and bipolar disorder
Fat Farmers is a rural health initiative that inspires and encourages farmers and those living in rural areas to improve their overall wellbeing through physical activity and community connection.
Lifeline: provides all Australians experiencing emotional distress with access to 24-hour crisis support and suicide prevention services. You can talk on the phone, text or chat online at any hour, so you don’t have to face your darkest moments alone.
Call Service: Lifeline’s 13 11 14 crisis support service is available 24/7. Anyone in Australia can speak to a trained Crisis Supporter over the phone, any time of the day or night.
Text Service: 0477 13 11 14 confidential one-to-one text with a trained Lifeline Crisis Supporter
Online Chat Service: Jump onto Lifeline’s website to chat with a trained Lifeline Crisis Supporter
MensLine is a free telephone and online counselling service offering support for Australian men anywhere, anytime.
MindSpot provides Australian adults with free, confidential psychological assessments and treatments and access to qualified therapists
QLife provides anonymous and free LGBTIQ+ peer support and referral for people in Australia wanting to talk about sexuality, gender, bodies, feelings or relationships.
SA Brothers is reducing the stigma surrounding men’s health by creating an open, non-judgmental platform that supports and promotes positive outlooks and behaviours, creating a bond between mates.
SA Health provides a list of physical and mental health resources within South Australia.
SANE is for people with recurring, persistent or complex mental health issues and trauma and for their families, friends and communities.
SMS4Dads supports dads & dads-to-be in their role as carers and increases awareness of their influence on baby’s brain development. You can register to receive regular free text messages, support, info & tips
13YARN is a free and confidential 24/7 service offering support by trained LIfeline Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Crisis Supporters for First Nations people.
Since this is not a full list of the services available, we encourage you to search “men’s health South Australia” or “men’s health Australia” in your search engine.
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