Excercise. Love it of loath it there seems to be things everywhere to get us fit, healthier, thiner and leaner. Instagram is full of models showing us their wonderful bodies and making us maybe think twice about the double cheese burger we’re about to scoff…
I personally love exercise. Well maybe love is strong word, I do it regularly and I enjoy doing it. The reason for me is that it helps my mental health and I also find I get to eat what I want if I exercise. If I got the gym before work I find it helps me to concentrate better and if I go after it helps me to wind down.
Now gym’s can be a bit of a scary place, sweaty grunting men staring at themselves in the mirror with all that equipment and no real instructions on how to use it. There was a time where I would do a few thing on a few machines and not really know what I was doing so I invested in a personal trainer too at one point but I have a thing about paying someone to telling me what to do (secret: I’m not a fan). However what I actually found best was having a gym buddy (this is down to the fact I’m super competitive). We’d go before work and it would be an unspoken rule that everything we did was actually competition about who could lift more, who could squat more and who could do more burpies without puking (I would always loose). I hated loosing so Id try harder next time. telling me I can’t do something only makes me want to do it more.
However I now no longer have a gym buddy (collective awwwww) but I have found an app to replace them! Its called Sweat. Ok well its not quite a replacement but it has done me well so far! It was designed by a wonderful lady called Kayla Itsines She is an Australian fitness person who created the BBG program. The app has several different types of program on in from yoga to weight lifting. Some of them can be done from the comfort of your own home too.
Last year I followed the PWR program which is created by Kelsey Wells and this is a minute of cardio and weights. I did that for 12 weeks and I really noticed a difference in my strength, I was able to pull ups by the end of the 12 weeks. I honestly was over the moon!!
I dipped and out of it until January of this year. Which is when I took on the 12 week challenge the app sets with its users. For this I followed the FEARCE program by Chontel Duncan (that woman is a machine). I really liked that one however I felt there wasn’t enough cardio in it for me. So I got stronger again but my fitness wasn’t what I wanted.
Ive now started the BBG stronger program and I must say it turns out I might be able to lift weights but my cardio isn’t great. Those 7 min circuits can be the longest 7 mins of my day. It’s well worth it though, Ive managed the gym 3 times this week and Hockey too so I’m feeling pretty smug about stuff (I have 4 weeks before I head off on my sister hen doo to Magaluf so want to be the best version of me, cheesy I know but if my head and thoughts feel good I feel good).
However the app I have found really focuses me. It has little videos of how to the expertises, it times you when you’re doing the sessions and gives you helpful reminders when your session/cuircut is done (handy if you mid burpy and dying but can’t see your phone.) It also has an app for the apple watch which again is super handy however not all the programs are accessible on there as of yet.
I honestly feel that the app is like having your own pocket fitness instructor, I think the only way this would be better for me was if I had a gym buddy again who wanted to compete train with me.
A lovely little bonus is that they have a 4 week beginner section for each program that eases you into the main one. really hand for those people just starting out or for you to slowly increase your strength/fitness before the main event.
I’m by no means a fitness guru or a health expert or even have the foggiest about what supplements you should or should not take. I just try to eat healthy, I also eat what I want and don’t feel guilty about it; why have one rich tea when you can have the whole packet?? (I live on my own so they’d just go soggy and no-one likes dunking a soggy biscuit, they’re a bit limp at the best to times).
You have to appreciate that as well as the gym I have two daft labs that need walking twice a day, I play hockey and my job makes me walk about 10km a day!! I also have it on reliable information that there is now evidence that some weight lifting a a brisk walk is enough to increase/boost your metabolism which helps you eat more but stay slim. Which is basically what I do everyday even if I don’t go the gym.
I do recognised now though I previously have ended up being caught a vicious circle of going the gym to feel better in my head but end up knackering out my body out and physically being so exhausted I can’t do anything. Its proven that exercise makes you feel better but you need to eat right and sleep well when you’re putting your body through that much of a battering. Last summer was not a good time for me, trying to get out of my head and calm the noise lead me to hammering the gym but add in no sleep and little food and undue stress was not a good combo. I saw a pic of me from last August today and I was tiny. I mean I looked painfully tiny. I didn’t realise until now what everyone else around me was saying.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that if you want to follow something but you’re not sure what and you want to improve your fitness then this app will help. It’s helped me anyway.
All this talk of exercise has made me hungry…..I wonder if just eats has arrived at my Mcdonalds yet…?
NB this random babble is all my own and the lovely people of SWEAT haven’t asked me to do it. I just wanted to share my experience.
Tales of Grace 
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