Fitness Friday: My Fitness Routine & How to Find a Routine Fit For You

It’s Fitness Friday! You’ve done it-you made it through another week! Now it’s time to enjoy yourself and have a fabulous weekend. How did you stay fit this week? I’d love to know! Comment below!

This week for Fitness Friday I am discussing my fitness routine, due to popular request! 

When it comes to my fitness routine however..I have to say it is always changing; but that’s part of what makes my routine work for me! Whenever I do the same workout at the same time for too long, not only do I begin to get bored but my body does too! After a while I find the workout begins to be monotonous, my body begins to stop feeling the benefits from the exercise, and I am no longer challenged-this is when I know things need to change! 

My Routine Growing Up..

Growing up I was a competitive swimmer with practice every single day. Last year, I finally quit swimming because it took up too much time in my schedule. With school, my blog, and several other jobs, I knew swimming was not a sport you could give half-effort, and I didn’t have the time to give my full. However, to this day I still believe swimming is the all time best workout for my body! The combination of strength training and cardio is the perfect workout to slim and tone your entire body.

Along with swimming, Freshman year I became addicted to pure barre! I went every single day and swear it made a huge difference. Never have I felt more fluent with my body, been more flexible, or had better abs than when I was addicted to pure barre. Today, I still try and squeeze in a class every chance I get but only make it to the studio 1-4 times a week due to my busy schedule.

With swimming and pure barre being my staple workouts I did almost everyday, I was always going to occasional classes with my mom at the gym. Whether the classes were spinning, strength training, intervals, a mix of both, or just your average bootcamp, I loved them all! 

SO, moral of the story..fitness has always been huge aspect of my life and I believe that is a huge part of why it is so important to me today!

My Fitness Routine Today..

In the past year, I have found I have my best days when I sweat early in the morning. Setting my day up with a good run is the perfect way to ensure the rest of my day will be efficient and I will have ample energy all day long! So everyday my alarm goes off at 4:45am and as soon as my feet hit the ground, I throw on my favorite running shoes, have a small cup of coffee, and head to the gym for a nice long run on the treadmill before school. 

Most days after school, I then do an additional workout but this time just for strength training. Whether I go to a weight lifting class, pure barre, or sometimes even a spin class, I believe it is so important to incorporate strength training in with your cardio! While I prefer cardio over strength training and do skip my strength training sessions when I’m too busy-strength training is so important to keep your metabolism going all day long and so you’ll burn calories even when you’re sitting on around your house! 

Now onto stretching…honestly, I am not a fan of stretching and this is definitely where I need to improve. As I’ve said, I am a huge of cardio and yoga is far too slow and boring for me but I envy yogis because I believe yoga is so good for you! Yoga lengthens your muscles, relaxes your body and mind, and is an amazing workout. Without yoga or stretching, you are much more likely to pull or muscle or injure yourself-setting you even further back from your fitness goals. Since I don’t love stretching and yoga though, this is why I try to go to pure barre as much as possible! With the faster paced isolated movements followed by stretches, I believe this begins to make up for the component I am missing by not going to yoga. I even hear meditation is going to be huge this year too so if that is for you, I urge you to practice it ! 

While I try and say I do cardio and strength training everyday, I wish that was the case. I try my best but with a busy schedule like mine, I can’t pull it off 100% of the time! Everyday I sweat in some way (right now it’s with running but next week it may be spinning!) and I try to add something else when time permits. I like to switch up my workouts to keep my body guessing and always changing, and I find this is what works best for me! While my fitness routine is always evolving and therefore not a straightforward answer, this is how I like to keep my relationship with fitness and how I make fitness possible in my everyday.

MY ADVICE For Your Fitness Routine!

Sounds like a lot? I know, it is! As I said in my last post, I urge all of you to find what works for you. Start with something small! Maybe it’s going on a 30 min. walk and building to a run, but try something, and then something else. Don’t be afraid to go to a spin class even if you’ve never been, you have to start somewhere! See which workouts you like best, what is working for your body, and stick to it-even if you’re sticking to an ever changing fitness lifestyle like mine!