Do you wish you had more energy to keep up a fitness lifestyle? Do you feel like you have to drag yourself to the gym some days? What if I told you there was a different way…
You’ve probably heard that varying your workout routine will give you the best results. To most, this means, performing different types of exercises to target the same muscle groups so you don’t hit a plateau.
For weight training, this is a must and a core component of the training program most certified fitness professionals will integrate into their programs.
Experts say varying your workout will help you to avoid a fitness plateau, prevent injury, build new muscles, and beat boredom.
I like to take it a step further…
Beyond just varying your workout every month (or more). I recommend switching up your fitness modalities altogether on a daily to weekly basis.
When I started down my fitness path 7 years ago, I was lifting weights 5 days a week. I split up my routine into the traditional leg and abs, chest and triceps, back and biceps days. Or sometimes just threw on some P90X and followed along. I did yoga maybe once a week but not consistently as it wasn’t convenient with my schedule. If you know me, you know I need convenience!
A few years later I added Muay Thai kickboxing classes to my workouts. When I started Muay Thai, I was a regular almost every day Monday – Saturday. This kept me busy.
When you work full-time, working out in addition becomes like another part-time job. The more convenient I can make it for my schedule the better and more likely I will go.
By no means was I able to maintain lifting workouts out in the gym and going to kickboxing every day. So kickboxing usually won, as that was a far more fun exercise modality.
After going to Muay Thai for six months I started to catch on to what people were doing. The first class started at 4:30PM, the next class (boxing) started right away at 5:30PM. The more seasoned strikers opted for a two-a-days.
I thought they were bat-shit crazy.
Two classes a day? Why does one need to workout that often?
Until…
Sure enough, the coach started to put on the pressure, as coaches do. All the sudden, I found myself considering staying for another class. It also helped that I got to know some people and it became a “if you do it, I’ll do it” kind of conversation.
Somehow, someway, I ended up being the two-class-a-night person.
Boxing/kickboxing back to back. I’m a badass, I thought. I’m going to be so freaking fit, ripped, skinny, and sexy.
But that’s not what happened…
My skill got better, sure (my kick was getting really good), but ripped and skinny? Not so much.
I was doing a lot of the same stuff – cardiovascular based workouts. I didn’t do the two-a-day every single day, but still, enough to feel like I should be shredded.
My body stayed relatively the same, but I was killing myself.
I know this was a highly unhealthy mindset. I struggle to this day, in times of doubt, thinking I’m a huge “Amazon woman” as I’ve been referred to. I’m 5’9” 155lb. I’m not a small person. But I’m by no means “fat.” I’m tall and therefore, bigger than most women around me.
I guess you could say I was self-conscious of being already taller so I didn’t want to also be wider…
Where It All Changed
After a year at that gym I switched to a similar martial arts gym (same coach) but the new gym also had some weights and cardio equipment a traditional gym would have. I started following a new weight routine on bodybuilding.com (when it was free) that I’d do during the lunch hour at work or post kickboxing if I couldn’t fit it in during the day. Then go to my Muay Thai kickboxing class at night. I continued with the occasional yoga class sprinkled in weekly if I was feeling especially tight or sore.
That’s when the transformation happened. I’d never felt better about the way I looked.
I was eating pretty strict with my paleo low carb high protein/fat diet 80% of the time, which ultimately ended in a demise. I finally looked as good as I felt on the inside. I don’t mean that from a vanity/ego perspective. I generally, finally felt like I looked as fit as I was. All the hard work had paid off.
Then I got off the bandwagon.
The martial arts gym started to lose its novelty and convenience for me, so I cancelled my membership. I went back to using the work gym and just doing some yoga weekly for a few years.
As you can imagine, my fitness level also decreased. I lost my “shape” and toned-ness, I guess I was taking a break from all that hard work I just couldn’t maintain with a full-time job.
Fast-forward a couple years later, I was engaged to my husband with 7 months until walking down the aisle, fed-up with the way I looked and felt, and decided to join a CrossFit gym that my husband had been begging me to do since we met.
I’ve now been going to CrossFit for almost a year.
When I started, I was terrible as everyone is. I stuck it through and it’s become so much of a fun challenge. I quickly realized how intense the workouts were and that I couldn’t maintain a 5-6 day a week schedule.
I thought back to my days with the kickboxing, weighttraining, and yoga mix and something clicked.
I began a new workout regimen: CrossFit as my main workout, running when I have time and feel like it, and hot yoga when I’m tight or in need of a counterbalance to the intensity of my other workouts.
To get in shape, I didn’t need to only do CrossFit(weights and high intensity cardio). Ihad to mix it wayyyy up. That meant even morethan CrossFit already mixes it up.
I had to start listening to my body and really employing the mind-body connection.
If I felt so sore from lifting the day before, maybe it was time to go for a distance run. If I had completed three days of weights or cardio-based workouts, maybe it was time for a rest day or yoga, if I still had energy.
Every morning I wake up, I assess what my body is feeling and what fitness activity sounds most appealing and appropriate based on that assessment.
My current fitness modalities include running/sprinting, CrossFit, yoga and the occasional yoga sculpt (yoga with weights).
I figured out the key for me was finding a balance in listening to what my body needs and to keep my body guessing. I couldn’t just do different types of lifts and resistance training or multiple cardio-based martial arts classes. But, I needed to vary the function of exercise and movement via alternating the modality of fitness altogether.
This has helped me maintain my weight and fitness goals without over-working my body and feeling like I need to workout twice a day to achieve my goals. On top of that, I AM NEVER BORED. It is a true miracle!
How many times have you given up on your workout routine because you were sick of doing the same old thing?
Diversifying my workout modalities gives me motivationto be active because it’s always changing. I’m always learning, adapting, and engaged.
When you are learning, adapting, and engaged,your neurons are firing, you are fueling your brain to keep your energy levels high. What a win-win!
This plan is a triple threat of a fat-burning, strength building, and flexibility generating workout program. Diversifying my workouts has helped me to maintain my energy levels, keep me from getting bored, and has transformed my body.
-Shay
Disclaimer: All opinions are my own. This post is intended for educational, inspirational, or entertainment purposes only. I am not a doctor, the content on this blog is not intended to be substituted for medical advice.
