Fitness Friday – Push it Real Good

Working out is hard. It is grueling, straining and you go into survive mode faster than you realize. You look at your work out plan for the day and think, “Am I going to be able to make it through this?” You couldn’t possibly do that routine once, let alone three times through. You can! It is all about your mindset, and your drive to want to accomplish something that might seem unattainable.
The world is always going to tell you that you can’t do it. You won’t be able to succeed. You are not strong enough. That is a constant, but our determination to go a little harder, to push a little longer, a little farther, a little heavier and a little more is just as persistent and can be a little louder than that “Negative Nelly” sitting on our shoulder.

To quote my good friends Salt ‘N’ Pepa, “Push it.  Push it real good.”

You can push yourself a little bit each time you work out. That is what it is all about, getting a little stronger each day.

Find your comfort zone. Listen to your body, and do what it can handle, only you know your body and what works for you. Get comfortable using areas of your muscles you didn’t know you had. It took me a couple of weeks to feel comfortable really working my body before I was ready to move up to heavier weights. But you can do it! Remember, you are doing this for you and no one else.

When I was getting started and realized, if I didn’t push myself I wasn’t ever going to see results or feel like I accomplished anything, so I started to make personal goals for myself every time I went to class. In our class we keep a record of our movements and how many each of us does each class, as a way to track our progress. I decided to set small personal goals to meet each class. I don’t know about y’all but I love to cross things off lists, meet or exceed goals set by myself or by other people. So this seemed like a great way to feel good about what I was doing, while expanding my abilities as an athlete while trying to survive the workout.

As I continued to work out, I awoke different areas of my body and pushed a little bit every time, I began to see that I was no longer just surviving, I was thriving. My coach would tell us at the beginning of our program, “Survive not thrive and eventually it will become a thrive mentality.” And he was right. As I became more comfortable in my abilities, the more I saw my body begin to thrive. As I pushed myself to step out of my comfort zone to, try a heavier weight, or do the squats or sit-ups all the way to the end of the clock, or tried push-ups… off the toes, which is a lot harder than it looks, (I am still working on this one ) I saw a change in myself. And now I want to see how far I can go and what my body can handle.

So, push it ladies and gents reading this. Set goals. Work hard to meet those goals. Here are some potential goals you can make that will help you push it a little more:

⦁ Time yourself while doing a movement. Whether it be sit-ups, squats, push-ups, whatever, time it. Record how long it takes you and the next time you are set to do that movement (the same amount of course) try to beat your time!

⦁ Music! Find a song that is fun and gets you pumped and see how many time you can get though a round before the song ends!

⦁ Running! I HATE running, so much, but let’s say you ran a mile, the next time you go out for a run, try to push it a little farther, and then a little farther after that, so on and so on, until you are running miles without even noticing.

⦁ Be positive! When you hit that workout, don’t say “I can’t.” or “I quit.” I am guilty of this myself, when it all seems like it can’t get any worse. Tell yourself “I got this!” “I can do this.” When we have to do burpees, which I hate, I tell myself, “Peyton Manning eats burpees for breakfast!” and I push through them and try to add a couple more before the clock runs out.

⦁ Play beat the clock. Don’t let the clock control you. You own that clock. Take that clocks lunch money. Beat it at its own cruel game. Look at it this way, instead of having 5 minutes until the pain stops, think of it as 5 more minutes to kill it and 5 more minutes closer to those jeans you are dying to get back into.

I know it’s tough, trust me, I want to cry, throw up, yell, and curl up into a ball more often that I want to jump for joy, but it all makes it worth it. I feel good, I feel like I have accomplished something and my body doesn’t hate me so much anymore!
Remember, you are beautiful. You are doing this for yourself, whatever those reasons are. You can do hard things. You can accomplish great things. You can beat your goals and knock them out of the park!