Some of us are just getting started with our activity routine, but some of us have been at it for a while, and are eager to renew, rev up, and re-energize our work out routine. We talked a little bit about that with the "Get Unstuck" meeting this last week, but maybe it's worth looking at a little more closely.
How do you know if it's time to renew, rev up and re-energize your routine? Hopefully this might help you give it another look:
Renew: Is your activity routine very, well, routine? Do you ever feel like you are in an endless cycle of "Get up, get dressed, hit the machine (pavement, bike, whatever) take a shower, get on with your day"? Has the fun leaked out of your routine?
Rev up: Are your work outs easy? Have you stopped coming home, or going back to work, feeling like "Woah, I really worked it"? Did you have a fitness goal set and now see that you have stopped seeing significant results? When you first started, you improved almost with every workout, now months later you've been at the same distance/intensity/duration/weights for weeks.
Re-energize: Have you sort of forgotten why you are doing this? You are working out because you are working out, but the driving force behind somehow has lessened. You know what to do, how to do it, but you've sort of forgotten why?
OK, now what? If any of these sounds about right to you, that's ok, we've all been there! The solutions really are simple:
Diversify your routine: You don't have to reinvent the wheel every week. Make a list of a few activities that you would like to try and see how you can incorporate them to your routine. If you are a member in a gym, add a class to your week. If your week is very booked up, add a weekend activity; a hike, a bike ride, go kayaking on the bay, go climb the stairs with Michael on the 11th! Bring some friends, you can have fun and burn calories at the same time!
Increase Duration/Intensity: For your work out to be effective, it has to be challenging. That doesn't mean that you have to work until you fall apart, but that you have to come out of it feeling like your muscles are tired.
There's only 2 ways to make your work out challenging: Add time, or boost up the intensity. If the time constrain is a big issue, you want to add weights, add inclination, increase the resistance on the machine so that your body has to work harder to do the same work. If you have a little more time, or if you can't add intensity because of physical issues, then you want to make your work out a little longer. Either ways will add the number of calories burned, and force your body to improve with each workout.
Be wary of over-training! You want to rev up your work outs progressively and listen to your body. If you added weights and your forms are suffering, back up and lower your weights a little, you're lifting too heavy. If you added 2 miles to your run, and your ankle (or knee, or back) are suddenly hurting, take a break and start with a smaller distance, you might have overdone it.
Here's information about over-training: http://www.brianmac.co.uk/overtrn.htm
Find a motivator: This might be the simplest and yet most difficult part of this, figuring out what it is that makes it worth the effort for you. You need to sit down and really think hard about why it is worth it to you to get up in the morning and work out. What are you working for? Are you training for a race? Running away from a medical condition? Looking forward to wearing a sexy pair of jeans or a swimsuit and feeling great in it? Or are you trying to build up the stamina to keep up with the kids?
Whatever the motivator is for you (and it is as personal as it can get) it has to be powerful enough for you to be willing to work for it. Yes working out can be fun, but nobody I have ever met is enthusiastic about working out every time they hit the gym, or go out for a run. Your motivator is what is going to make you go ahead and do it on the mornings (or whenever in he day you work out) when you really don't wanna.
