When it comes to working out the only magical pill for success is called consistency. Whether you’re a seasoned athlete or just starting your fitness journey, maintaining consistency is crucial for achieving your goals. Lifes demands and distractions often get in the way, but we must stay committed and stick to the plan we’ve created for ourselves. This is easier said than done though. We’ll explore some tips to being consistent in the gym to make goals and ensure that you reach your fitness aspirations.
Set attainable goals and realistic expectations. Everyone has different goals; whether that be to lose weight, build muscle, or just be healthier overall. It’s important to lay down the groundwork so that we have a clear path of the direction we want to go. By setting goals and breaking them down into smaller goals we can build our progress over time. We can’t be discouraged when we don’t see the results immediately. Our transformation isn’t going to happen overnight, but it is going to get a lot easier as we continue to put in the work. Jeff Cunningham is an endurance fitness coach in the Austin area with multiple accomplishments and successful athletes, but he said it best:
“It’s better to be consistently good rather than occasionally great.”
Find something that you enjoy doing and keep doing it. Things can get repetitive and monotonous in a traditional gym. Engaging in exercises and activities you enjoy will significantly increase your chances in staying consistent. At thrivXR we offer a fully immersive eXtended Reality experience that combines kickboxing, yoga, cycling, running, and core stability training in an HIIT based experience. The last/ worst thing we NEVER want to do is to get burnt out on exercising. Remember, consistency becomes effortless when you genuinely look forward to your gym sessions.
During high intensity interval training (HIIT) your muscles make energy anaerobically, or without oxygen. This is because oxygen can’t get to the muscle fast enough to keep up with the energy the muscles need. No matter how sore we are we can’t let rest days compound into rest weeks and longer. After a hard week of working out we get sore and tend to relax thinking that our body needs an excess amount of rest. Although it is true our bodies do need to recuperate, it’s not for as long of period as we think it is. Continuing to work out while sore can provide several benefits such as increasing blood flow to muscles, prevent muscle stiffness, and flush out lactic acid thus reducing discomfort. Additionally working out while sore can increase our body’s tolerance to exercise making our muscle fibers stronger and future workouts less painful. A key thing to remember during your fitness journey is that motion is lotion and it’s important to keep the body active. At the end of the day motion is lotion!
By: Michael Tapia
