Fitness is basically like life - one long journey where different things fit us at different times... and as we learn more about ourselves, we realise we need to add in new things that have been missing all along.
We come along to our first ever fitness class (quite often dance fitness or something similar) and we learn to love that sweaty vibe. The uplifting music, the excitement, the endorphins and feel good factor afterward. We gradually feel fitter, we can do more things with ease and we are chuffed with ourselves. And so we bloody well should be.
For those that stick with this new exercise regime, somewhere along the road we realise that we are missing out on something. We FEEL fitter and healthier, but we aren't actually much stronger... we have lost a bit of weight, but we don't necessarily look much more toned. We love the sweat but we think we could push ourselves a little bit more. So we start looking around for what we could add into our new workout regime.
We start looking at toning classes, but we don't really know where to start. We DM or email the instructor and get a response... but we don't book in? Why??
Trying something BRAND NEW is scary - and it's outside of our comfort zone. We've been doing our cardio for a while and we feel good at it, we're not in the back row any more, we have made some friends, we feel pretty confident we know what we are doing. And it's not very often in adult life that we have to move outside of our own comfort zone. We don't remember what it was like to be child or a teenager and every day to be learning brand new things and being thrown into social situations that we were not all that comfortable with.
Maybe we even try a class, but we don't know what we are doing, we feel like a knob and we go home feeling proud of ourselves that we made ourselves go.... and we leave it there. It was hard work, we ached after it, we didn't really know what we should eat afterward, the instructor helped us with our technique but we weren't as good as the other folk in the room. So we contemplate trying it one more time, but then Mary asks us to the pub so we ditch the class in favour of a cheeky soda and lime on a Thursday night.
But that was 8 years ago. And we STILL go to our cardio class.... and we still gaze through the door before and after at the 'beasts' who are throwing around 80kg barbells like they are twigs.... and we think to ourselves 'wow, they look cool. I could never do that. They must be so dedicated. I wouldn't even know where to start. I would feel stupid. I wish I'd started doing that when I was younger. There's no point starting that now. I'm kind of fit, that will do for me'
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.... every single person in that room doing a full body press-up, once landed on their chin trying to do half a rep. Every single person you are looking at thinking 'wow, I wish I could do that' once looked at someone else and thought the exact same thing. Every single person EVER (including the instructor) once learnt how to lift a weight. They weren't born with a dumbbell between their teeth.... they learnt to do it. They were nervous on their first session. They were nervous on their second session. They had weeks where they laid on the sofa instead of coming to class. They felt out of their depth for the first few weeks too. BUT they stuck with it. Because the excitement of learning something new, the feeling of success, the results they felt and they saw, the friends they made, stopped them from feeling like it was too much for them. They came to understand that every journey takes time. They came to understand it was a long road, but every step of it was a building block for the next one.
And I am telling YOU, right here and right now, that you will never ever ever ever feel more confident or more excited about what you are capable of when you achieve something that you never thought you would be able to do. You might think resistance training is boring... and yep it's definitely not as exhilarating as a cardio class, but magical things happen inside of you when you lift those weights.... and I'm not just talking about gaining muscle. I'm talking about the incredible sense of achievement and the feeling of pride that you will feel within yourself. That shit is priceless.
Do something amazing for yourself today... book in that class, that bootcamp, that PT sesh, that outdoor training session with your mate and make every muscle in your body feel like it's just had a party.
Training does more that just make you look more toned.... it will give you a confidence that you never thought you would feel. And that is no lie.
To join in an AMF resistance class, check out Rave Tone, Body Tone and Booty Blast on www.annamartinfitness.co.uk or to PT with Anna, email annamartinfitness@hotmail.co.uk
