Ok friend how is your journaling going?  Are you working on becoming aware of the stories you tell yourself every day?  Are you shifting your mindset out of a diet/ fat loss one and into an athlete’s?  Be patient and enjoy the journey as this will not happen over night.  Let me know what questions/ challenges you are running into!  Today we are going to move onto the second tip.  More movement please! And your exercise/ tools of choice to build some muscle.

What do I mean by more movement?  Well, most people I work with live and work pretty sedentary lives.  They sit at a desk  all day and come home and sit in front of the television in the evening.  We are going to try adding more movement into your daily routine.  And your 30 minute work out DOES NOT COUNT.

Movement is walking leisurely, playing with your kiddos, having a dance party in the kitchen while making supper, parking at the end of the parking lot and walking to the store (craziness here in the midwest right now as it is super cold), or taking a couple laps up and down the stairs.  Just move more please! Our bodies are built to move!

My intention is to make it easy.  Easy is doable and gets done.  Let’s start with 10- 20 minutes of added movement a day. You taylor it to your day/ week.  Ideally it would be every day but again taylor it to YOU.  What is easy and doable for you! Good enough is your friend here.  Ditch the all or nothing mentality.  SOMETHING IS BETTER THAN NOTHING!!!

I struggled with this a lot!  I  l grew up  with a perfectionist parent:) “I don’t know” and “good enough” were not to be uttered in our house.

Now let’s talk about the exercise part of being an athlete.  I think the number one most important thing about your exercise is that you LOVE to do it! When you look forward to your  training sessions and they leave you feeling strong, inspired and empowered it is going to be way easier to be consistent.  Again athletes are consistent! You will be much more successful if you train 2 x week for 12 weeks than 5 x week for 2 week and burn out because you are tired, sore and  your body is telling you “NO MORE!” You are in this for the long haul so again focus of easy/ doable and being consistent.

Next I would focus on compound movements.  Big movements that use lots of joints and body parts are going to give you the biggest bang for your time.  Movements like push ups, pull-ups, squats and dead lifts are preferred over bicep curls or tricep extensions.

Lastly I would make sure you are progressing and overloading the movement with every  session.  Invest in a Dollar General notebook to track your sessions. What weight you used, how many reps and sets you did and how long it took.  That will ensure you do not to the same workout over and over with the same weight, same reps or same sets, same amount of time.   Your body will adapt and come to a stand still doing the same thing over and over Do a little bit more work with each session to ensure overload and progress.

Let me know if you have any questions!  I can be reached at my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/KettlebellSynergies or email [email protected]

P.S. For extra tips on mindset, movement and nutrition please sign up for my newsletter.

Have a great day and go out and do something for someone who can not repay you!

Rock on!

Coach T