It was the last week before the summer break of my second year when I realized I had lost control of my health. I am unsure how I ignored my shortness of breath walking from the LRT to class or the growing mountain of Cheeto bags for so long. It was time for me to reclaim the energy I had back when I was cheerleading, training, and eating clean throughout the week. I also wanted to feel confident in my skin again! But I am here to make sure you guys do not make the same mistakes I did last summer.
The expensive option is not necessarily the best.
I started at Orangetheory Fitness. My membership was for two classes a week, and I was paying more than $200 biweekly. But it’s not only the membership you have to pay for you have to buy a heart monitor and they start at $60 and go up from there. Being a university student thinking of the fact I was draining my account that much makes me cringe. I was desperate to get healthy, so I paid the price for about 4 months. I stopped because I began to realize I was doing a workout that was not moving me toward my personal goals. I wanted to develop muscle, and this is something the mix of cardio and the use of light free weights was not giving me. That being said, if my goal was to lose weight, I think I would have sworn by Orangetheory. Luckily if this is your goal and you like me hate the cost, you can find the workout plans for each day on the subreddit Orangetheory and copy it at a more affordable gym or even at home if you have a treadmill and weights.
What you see on Instagram probably won’t help.
I am not going to say that all fitness girls on Instagram are feeding misinformation, as that’s not the case, but a lot are. We live in a time where someone can get a Brazilian butt-lift, then go on Instagram and promote a booty based fitness program. For months I was doing these girls’ workouts and seeing little to no progress because I was missing the secret ingredient of going under the knife. If you are going to follow a guide on social media, make sure to do your research and trust the person you follow.
Extensive cardio might be working against you.
What works best for me is an hour and a half workout, with half an hour being cardio. For months, however, I was doing equal parts cardio to weight training, and I was doing the cardio first. At the time, I was withering away, and I felt as though my strength was deteriorating. By doing cardio first and for so long, I was burning myself out. How are you supposed to challenge your strength? If you don’t even have the energy to walk from the treadmill to the free weight section? It is also essential to think about what your goal is when deciding your cardio routine. You need to have a caloric surplus if you want to gain muscle, so you do not want cardio to eat away those calories!
You need to enjoy the atmosphere you workout in.
If you are uncomfortable in your gym, naturally, you will try to avoid it. I need a gym with natural light and a large amount of space. If I feel like I am in a cramped cage, I do not push myself I do some ab workouts in the corner and call it a day. When I found GoodLife West Granville, I started working out 4+ times a week and moved from my corner into the open. Finding a space, I felt welcomed in really did change how I worked out. So it may not be that you hate all gyms, just your gym.
Have a plan and stick to it.
This is something I need to do. If I do not know exactly what days I am going to work out and what exercises I am going to do those days, I am probably not going to do anything at all. Right now, I am using Hanna Oberg’s summer shred guide. Her plan comes in the form of an app with videos on how to do each exercise, and they usually are 2 months long. She has different plans for different goals, and she provides workouts full of compound movements that I find most effective. I am also currently doing the Chloe Ting Ab challenge from youtube, and I have already seen a huge difference in just a week. I never worked out ABs until I found her program simply because none of the ab workouts I had learned over the years brought the changes her exercises did. So I highly recommend finding a guide or program that works for you.