How To Introduce Fitness Into Your Weekly Schedule
We all know that maintaining an active lifestyle should be among our top priorities in life. However, more often than not, our schedules quickly become overruled by work commitments, studying or just life in general, meaning working out is forced to take a back seat.
But as we know, exercising can have a huge positive impact on both our physical and mental health, which is why it’s so important to take time out to keep active.
What you might not realise is that you don’t actually need to give up a huge chunk of your time, even 30 minutes a day is enough. So, if you’re wondering how to get into a routine of working out, we’ve got you covered!
1. START SMALL
We also recommend that you identify a time that best suits you. This could be before work or when you get home from a lecture. No one expects you to allocate an hour every day. You could even start with 20 minutes every other day and increase this as you become more confident.
2. CONSISTENCY IS KEY
Fitness is all about patience and consistency and the best way to achieve this is to make a habit of working out. To do this, create a weekly exercise schedule and pin it to your wall. That way it will always be in the back of your mind! You can even tick your workouts off as you go to give yourself a sense of achievement.
Don’t let yourself give in to excuses because you’ll always find there is one! Whether it’s too cold, too dark or you’re too tired. Tell yourself that something is better than nothing. Besides, the only thing standing in your way is you!
3. FIND A WORKOUT YOU LOVE
It’s always easier to motivate yourself to do something when you enjoy doing it, right, girls?
With lots of workout styles to choose from, including running, yoga, the gym and weight lifting to name a few, it’s never been easier to discover a workout you’ll love. The world really is your oyster!
The more you enjoy the workout, the better you will feel about doing it, meaning you’ll feel more inclined to fit it into your schedule more often. Don’t be afraid to try something new, as it’s important to keep your workouts feeling fresh too!
4. TRACK YOUR PERFORMANCE
Tracking your activity is an important way to measure your progress and highlight areas where you may need to up the ante. Soon, you’ll notice that your activity level is improving which will give you the motivation and encouragement to keep going.
Don’t forget to reward yourselves for all your hard work too! After all, there’s no better feeling than giving yourself the recognition you deserve for how far you’ve come.
5. ADOPT A POSITIVE MINDSET
Last but by no means least, when it comes to introducing physical exercise into your everyday routine, you absolutely need to adopt a positive mindset. It’s simply essential!
Negative thoughts, such as ‘working out is tiring’, ‘working out is only for athletes’, ‘my fitness isn’t good enough, or ‘I don’t have time’ will only kill your willpower.
This is just the beginning, girls. It’s likely that you will need to make some other adjustments to your schedule too, such as waking up slightly earlier, especially if you work during the day.
We also recommend having a support system. After all, there’s no one better than your bestie to be the cheerleader you need to encourage you to get up and go, right? Before you know it, you’ll enjoy working out more than you ever did before.
For more fitness motivation tips, see here.