Brief Workouts Will Help You to Stay the Course

For many of you, you have been working out for about 2 months after making your New Years Resolution towards exercise.   This 2-3 month period now is a very critical time in terms of reaching your goals and staying the course.  This is actually a time when many people drop off because of reasons such as boredom, fatigue, burnout, injury, different schedule, and misguidance.  

            To stay the course, here a few suggestions:

            1.)  Are you fatigued?: When you shorten the time of your workouts you allow your body to recover.  It is called active recovery.   Your workouts were very long before and your body cannot keep up throughout the whole year going 4-5 days a week spending an hour or more in the gym.   Cut your time in half for a month and then see what your body feels like after that month.  I guarantee you will feel a lot better.

            2.)  Bored with your workout?: This is a good time to change it up.   Instead of using the treadmill for 45 minutes, go for a brisk walk outside or a bike ride for 20 30 minutes since the weather is gradually getting warmer.   There are many other activities as well.   This allows you to be active while trying different things.  

             3.) Do you feel burned out?: Athletes get burned out from competing and keeping themselves in shape.   They need a break and have to cut down on their training.   They are human and so are we.   They know that when they come back their bodies are stronger.   Again, cut down on the time for a month then see how you feel.

            4.) Has your schedule changed?: At the beginning of the year, everyone had exercise as a top priority.  Now there are work issues, family issues, and maybe unexpected events as well.   Short workouts allow you to maintain your fit level while you get through a busy time.

            5.)  Have you experienced an injury? : Most injuries from exercise happen from overuse.   People spending a lot of time running, biking, weights, or whatever it might be that your are doing.   And the only way to alleviate the pain is to shorten your routine and let your body catch-up.   Try to  cut down for about a month and see what your body feels like.  This will give you time to recover.

            Remember, the idea is to maintain an exercise routine for the course of a whole year.   It is ok to reduce exercise for a month or two to let your body rejuvenate.   You will be surprised how much better you will feel after you cut down on your exercise. 

Jeremy Workman, Personal Trainer at FACTS Fitness corporate facility, Motivation Fitness