1. Save the date
The key to staying on track with your workouts is planning – schedule your sessions at times that suit your daily commitments so you can’t use them as an excuse to not train. If you’re an early bird, book a morning workout to kick start your day. You could try a 45-minute total body blast, followed by your favourite post-workout protein shake and snack and you’ll be all set for your day. Meanwhile, if you’re more of a night owl, try an evening run or an exercise class after work if that works better for you. If time really is tight, try squeezing in a lunchtime session – you could do a short routine or run around the block.
2. Make a change
Mix up your weekly regime! Try to include as many different exercises as you can to challenge your different muscle groups and energy systems. This will optimise the effectiveness of a HIIT (high intensity interval training) workout and, most importantly, will make sure that you won’t get bored. Alternate cardio and resistance based training sessions so that you work on both cardiovascular fitness and muscle strength and add exercises to build your agility, core stability, speed and explosive power. Give everything a go – although you may need to make some exercises simpler at first. For example, if you’re struggling to complete a full press-up, start by performing the move resting on your knees, ensuring full range of motion and a good rate of repetitions, before building up to the complete move.
3. Put the fun back into fitness
Exercising shouldn’t be a chore – instead it should offer a happy escape from daily commitments and be a place to set goals, challenge yourself physically and mentally and re-energise. We’re all guilty of feeling we have to work out, but why not change that mindset and choose an exercise or group training format that puts the fun back into fitness? Whether you’re doing burpees and bunny hops or sprints and bear crawls, use it as an opportunity to release your inner child, let loose and play. Once you find something you enjoy, you’ll barely notice that you’ve been burning calories at the same time.
4. Turn up the tunes
Grab your headphones and create a playlist to take with you to the gym, blast your music at home, or choose a group class with a live DJ. Pumping music will create an energising, infectious and inspiring atmosphere and it’ll push you through the hardest of workouts. Sing along and work to the beat – you’ll have made it through your training session before you know it! If you’re heading out for a jog, try Spotify’s running playlist – it features specially designed songs that speed up or slow down according to your pace.
5. Work, rest, repeat
It’s important to remember that rest days are vital when you’re training – not only does your body need time to recover, refuel and rehydrate to avoid injury and illness, but your mind needs time to refresh, too. You might decide that your rest day is in fact a day of zero physical activity. On the other hand you may benefit from a light stretch, a gentle walk or a bike ride. Listen to your body – you’ll return to training stronger, ready and raring to go!
6. Challenge yourself
Why not rally your friends together and challenge yourselves to an eight-week, full body transformation? Try to re-take control of your daily nutritional intake and reassess your levels of physical activity. Competing against your friends will keep you motivated and you can help each other to stick it out. It’s important to remember that full body health looks further than just the scales – focus on improving your body composition by reducing body fat percentage and building lean muscle and make sure that you drink plenty of water and get eight hours of quality sleep each night.
7. Get connected
Becoming part of a community through group fitness sessions will not only encourage you to push your boundaries and challenge you to try new things, but it’ll also motivate you to commit to your training plan. A fast paced, 45-minute workout will fly by with a partner or team by your side – you’ll motivate each other through the hardest sets, high five to the final rep and leave with the biggest smile on your face.
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