Starting out the New Year is usually a new start in all of our minds, especially for fitness minded individuals. Its a time to reevaluate our goals, set new ones and enjoy our past accomplishments. Most of us want to push harder than we did last year and add more workouts, more reps, more days...well as much as I encourage exercise I want to tell you now DON'T DO IT! Assuming you have a significant workout regimen right now including at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise 5 days a week, my suggestion is don't stop it. My new focus this year is flexibility and form. Take the exercise that you've been doing and perfect it. Watch your form when performing those reps, concentrate on the muscle group that you are working at that very moment. Up your intensity, not your frequency! Consider exchanging some high cardio time with some flexibility exercises or calisthenics. Try to see how many sit ups you can do in one minute, strengthen your core, exchange some cardio for weight training, add variation.
At some point in your fitness journey, you're going to get tired. The biggest thing is don't quit. If you feel overworked, take a few days off, maybe even a week to jump start your mind and body, but don't STOP! Visit www.Livestrong.com and search "over training" read a few articles to determine if you may be over doing it. Just remember the longer you take off the harder it will be to start again. Now I'm not saying spend a week on the couch, I'm saying maybe take a couple days off your high cardio and maybe just take a walk on those days or pop in one of those old Jane Fonda videos (yeah you know you've got them) and change it up. Make sure you do some form of activity just maybe not all out sprinting.
Look at your diet as well. Trying to lose weight we get it stuck in our heads that we need to eat less and move more. Although if you're moving more but not eating enough, you're going to hit a wall! You need carbs to fuel your workout and protein to repair your muscles. Now that doesn't mean to eat a plate full of pasta before you go to your cardio class and then come home and eat a steak afterwards. You need just enough carbs to fuel your body but not so much that it stores it as fat for later use...theres a balance. Shoot for around 30g of carbs about 30-60 minutes before if you're planning on an hour long aerobic session. (information gathered from livestrong.com) Unless you are weight lifting you don't need a large amount of protein after an aerobic workout but a boiled egg or a small protein shake would aid in your muscle recovery.
People have said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Don't be insane, if what you're doing isn't working, make some changes. Do some research, come talk to me, talk to your doctor, your friend, whatever you can do, I want you to be happy strong individuals who meet their goals, sometimes the path that we take to get there just needs a little work.
Love ya!
Faith
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