Finding the motivation to put on your gym kit and do a workout when you know you’ve already got a manic day ahead can be a tough task, but staying fit doesn’t necessarily mean spending an hour of your life in the gym every day.
Here are my top fitness tips to start adding exercise into your weekly routine.
- Planning:
We’re all busy with work and social lives, so if you’re unorganised you’ll never find time to tone those glutes or pump those biceps. On a Sunday, take a look at the week ahead and find the gaps in your diary when you know you’ll have time for some sweating. Plan it as you would your social life, and then you’ll be much less likely to get to the end of the week and think “oh crap, that’s another week of no exercise”.
Lorna Jane Diary: Active in Style | Photography: Tom Miles
- Variation:
It’s very easy to get bored of doing the same exercise day in, day out. Just going for a 45min power walk through the park on your lunch break can offer great benefits to your body, but even more so when you mix it up with other forms of exercise like high intensity interval training and resistance training.
- Use Your Time Wisely:
On top of planning your fitness for the week, spot gaps in your daily routine where you think you can add a little stretch or a few squats. For example, one of my favourite things to do is to use the minutes I spend brushing my teeth everyday to either hold a squat against the bathroom wall, do 50 ankle raises at the sink or even stretch out my leg muscles which are normally sore from working out the day before. Obviously this works best if you use an electric toothbrush, as it times you for two minutes and you won’t get toothpaste all down your top!
I actually did a YouTube video with a very mini workout for this! CLICK HERE TO WATCH.
- Tell Someone About It:
When you’re the only one who knows that you’re supposed to be in that Body Pump class at 7pm on Tuesday night, it’s very easy to just ignore it and pretend that you never made the arrangement in the first place. One of the reasons Imperfect Matter started was to motivate me – I knew that if I was telling the internet about my fitness plans and all the things I’ve been doing, then I was much less likely to give up. Tell your mum, tell your best friend, tell your partner, just be sure to let someone know. When they next see you and ask how the Body Pump class went, you’ll feel great when you can actually be honest and say you sweated your guts out and loved every second!
- Enjoy It:
This is by far the most important factor when adding exercise into your daily routine. If you don’t enjoy it, then you’ll resent the time taken from your day doing it. There are so many new classes launching on a weekly basis, many of them offering the first session for free. Shop around and find what works for you. If you love it, then you’ll begin to find that you won’t mind getting up at 5:30am in the rain to take part in it… maybe!
I hope these fitness tips help you on your quest for an active & healthy lifestyle!
Love, Cat x