Tired. Stressed out. Anxious. Annoyed. Exasperated. Tense. On edge. Restless. Apprehensive. Unnerved. Have you used any of the above words in the past 4+ months? I think I’ve probably used all of them. Many, many times. Life during a pandemic is not easy. It’s totally okay to feel all the feelings and more. However, all of those feelings sap your motivation. It is difficult enough in the best of times to build up enough motivation to go workout – how are we supposed to build up that motivation during our current times, during a pandemic when we are feeling so out of sorts? I want to share with you 10 ways that have helped me stay motivated to keep moving these past few months in the hopes that maybe one or two of them will make sense to you and you will be able to get motivated to get up and start moving that body of yours! 1. Set a goal. No matter what your goal is, use that goal as something to work towards, something to get you motivated. A goal I set back in March was to do some kind of yoga at least 5 days a week. I love yoga, but never had much time for it pre-COVID. I now had the time and I was motivated to use that extra time to be kind to my joints and to my mental health. Depending on your goal, you may want to set an end date by which you want to reach that goal and maybe even have a reward waiting for you once you reach your goal. New workout leggings? A mani/pedi? Choose a reward that will keep you focused on your goal – something that you really want and that you won’t get for yourself unless you reach your goal. 2. Make yourself accountable to someone. One reason group fitness classes are so popular is because you form a community and friendships through taking these classes. If you miss a class, you know you will get a text or phone call from one of your classmates wondering where you were, or the instructor will call you out when you come back wondering why you were missing. Basically, you know you will be held accountable for missing that class, which gives you more motivation to get to class! If group fitness classes aren’t your thing, find a workout buddy. You don’t have to workout with this person, heck your workout buddy could live on the other side of the world. All you have to do is share your goal progress with him or her every day. Knowing that you have to email your workout buddy your workout of the day or what you ate that day, will keep you accountable and motivate you to stick to your goals. If your workout buddy does live close, even better – you wouldn’t want to leave her standing on the street corner waiting for you to show up for your workout date, now would you? If both you and your workout buddy aren’t so good at keeping your workout commitments, hire a personal trainer! You will set appointments with your trainer and he or she will charge you whether you show up or not, so if you don’t want to be throwing away your money, you will show up for that session! 3. Write your workout schedule in your daily planner, calendar, phone app, etc. I am a list person. I like to write down in my daily planner everything that is scheduled for that day. I’m not worried that I’ll forget something, I just like to see my days scheduled out. And I like to cross things off my lists – who’s with me?? In fact, once I’ve posted this blog, I will cross it off my list. I know some of you are just like me and write down something after you’ve completed it, just to be able to cross it off! We may be crazy, but it feels so good to cross things off! Anyways, back on the subject. Consider your workout as you would any other appointment. Write it down on your calendar and don’t allow yourself to schedule anything else at the same time as your workout. Your workout should be considered just as important as anything else you have to do. Put it on your calendar and cross it off once it is finished! 4. Music, music, music. (or audiobooks)
Music is SOOOO motivating! You will most likely not come across a group fitness class that is running without music. Music makes us want to move. Put together several playlists of your favorite, upbeat, motivating songs and only allow yourself to listen to those playlists when you’re working out! If you don’t have the time to create your own playlists, you can subscribe to Spotify, and find a number of fun, motivating workout playlists created for specific types of workouts, like running, walking, weightlifting, yoga, etc. Another take on this idea is to listen to audiobooks or podcasts while you are exercising. Again, only let yourself listen to them during a workout. If you’re reading a super exciting book, you may end up working out several times a day just so you can continue with your book! 5. Put on your workout clothes If you workout first thing in the morning, have your workout clothes all ready and waiting for you to put on as soon as you wake up. If you workout after work, change into your workout clothes before you leave work. Once you are in your workout clothes, you have no excuses to not workout! How silly would you feel if you just came home instead of going to workout and had to change out of your workout clothes before they even got sweaty? It seems silly, but it does the trick! I truly hope one of the above tips will help you with your motivation! What creative things do you do to motivate yourself? Share below in the comments. You might just be doing something that could really help motivate someone else. Stay healthy & active, Christina
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When you make the decision to work out, what type of activity is your go to? Running on the treadmill? Taking a Body Pump class? Getting on the elliptical? Talking a walk outside? Of the four above options, most women will opt for the cardio options - treadmill, elliptical, and walk. Now, there is nothing wrong with a cardio workout - there are TONS of benefits, however, if the only thing you do when you workout it cardiovascular training, then YOU. ARE. MISSING. OUT! I totally get why you want to focus on cardio - I mean, when I look at my apple watch after a spin class and see how many calories I've burned, it makes all of the sweating, breathing hard, and jello legs worthwhile! I spent years working out and focusing on cardio. I would get to the gym, hop on the elliptical, place my book or magazine on the console, and go for an hour. Not only was I bored out of my mind, but I found that reading while working our really sloooowed me down. It was definitely a waste of time! After my 60 slow minutes on the elliptical, I would hop on a few selectorized weight machines and lift. I most definitely did not lift heavy enough or often enough to really make a difference. These 90 minute, long and drawn out and yet very un-challenging workouts had to come to an end when I became a mom! What mom has that much time or energy to dedicate to working out???? Definitely NOT me! After having my babies I knew I needed to continue to work out (it was the ONLY thing keeping me sane!) but I also knew I had to make some changes. I decided to focus all of my time on cardio and complete 3 challenging cardio workouts for 30 minutes each every week. Great idea, right?? NOPE. I was burning quite a few calories during my short workouts, but after the initial baby-weight loss, I stalled. I tried working out harder during those 30 minutes. I tried adding in additional workouts and was up 7 cardio workouts a week. Still no changes. Plus I was always tired again! Right around that time, one of my supervisors mentioned that there was a Body Pump training in the area coming up and she was looking for more Body Pump instructors. I thought, what the heck? I've never taken a Body Pump class, but I've seen them and they looked super fun, plus I'd love to add more classes to my schedule. This was one of the BEST decisions of my life! For those of you who aren't familiar with Body Pump, it is a full-body weight training class using bars and plates that is set to amazing music. I took the grueling 2-day training over a weekend and was hooked! This class was amazing! And my muscles - I felt my muscles working hard, REALLy hard for the first time maybe in forever! After the initial training, I had to practice, practice, and practice some more in order to film myself teaching a class. I would then have to submit my video and pass a rigorous rubric in order to officially get certified to be a Body Pump instructor. I worked my butt off and had a blast doing so! I submitted my video, passed, and started teaching a Sunday morning Body Pump class. A few months later, I started getting so many compliments on how I looked. I started paying more attention and realized that, yeah, they were right - I looked great! I could see muscle definition everywhere. Not only that, but I felt great too. With practicing and teaching Body Pump, I had really lowered the amount of cardio I was doing and I had tons more energy than I used too! Plus I was fitting better into my clothes, and the scale started moving again. No more plateau for me! Anytime someone new comes to my Body Pump class I tell them that this class out of all of the different classes I teach, created the biggest changes in my body, and I'm not lying. Ladies, we all NEED to do some type of strength training. I'm not saying every single one of you should run as fast as you can to a Body Pump class. There are so many different types of strength training we can do. It doesn't matter what kind you do, all that matters is that you build muscles. Even yoga builds muscle strength. Once we hit the ripe old age of 30, we start losing our muscle mass. WHAT?? I know - scary isn't it? We can lose 3-5% of our muscle every single decade. How can we stop this loss of muscle mass? Ding ding ding - you are correct - STRENGTH TRAINING!
The benefits of strength training are numerous:
You don't have to completely give up your cardio, because it too has many benefits and it's tough to beat the feeling of a runner's high, but grab those dumbbells, resistance bands, TRX straps, plates, bars, kettlebells, yoga mat, or hop on some equipment at the gym and start lifting - I promise you will not regret it! If you have any questions regarding strength training or cardio or how to fit this all into your busy schedule, don't hesitate to reach out to me. I want to help you find the time to get into the best shape of your life - even if your time is limited! Comment below with your favorite form of strength training! Stay healthy and active, Christina |
CategoriesAuthorChristina Brown. Mom. Personal Trainer. Fitness Instructor. Archives
September 2020
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