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Episode 13 – The Secret To Staying Fit

Stay fit and healthy with this one tip! If you struggle with your workouts and find yourself on and off the wagon frequently, you’ll want to learn this ONE TIP I give to all my clients to achieve results. One tip, it’s that easy!

• Introduction (0.27)
• People Who Hate Exercise (1:10)
• The Secret To Staying Fit (3:06)
• ProSource Fitness (4:04)
• Finding What Workouts FOR YOU (4:53)
• Staying Fit- The Biggest Tip (6:35)
• Workout Intensity (8:21)
• Wrap Up (11:19)
• Mentioned In The Podcast

The Secret To Staying Fit

Welcome to the fit of the mama bear podcast. I’m Shelby, a certified strength coach, nutrition coach, mama too and all-around health nut. This show is about a little bit of everything healthy and national related, so if you’re striving the smash goal, eat better, feel better, and enjoy the occasional mom rant. This is the place for you. You’re listening in to episode 13 today where I’ll be chatting about the easiest way to say healthy and fit.

Introduction (0.27)

I hope you are currently having a butt kicking magical day. I’m recording this post-workout so if I sound a little bit breathless it is because I am!

And thank God you can’t see me because I’m really just a sweaty mess right now. But it was the workout this morning that kind of gave me the light bulb idea for this episode.

So here we are.

As you should know by now, I run a personal training business outside of my blogging gig and that’s called fit just for you. The majority of my clients are actually referral based, which I completely prefer.

So, far too often one of the biggest things I hear during the application process isn’t that people don’t know what to do in the gym. It’s actually how much they hate exercise.

This makes my heart hurt when I hear it, which is kind of funny.

 

People Who Hate Exercise (1:10)

Even in my crazy unfit days, I didn’t despise exercise. I opted out of exercise due to sheer laziness, but I didn’t hate it.

So, whenever someone tells me that they hate working out and they just, they’re not going to make the time for something they hate, I always question what they think of when we say the word exercise or workout.

So, what kind of comes to mind that makes you despise it so much?

And I think one of the reasons that people think that they dislike exercises because they had this vision in their head of a bootcamp style stereotypical trainer screaming at them to do more burpees and they’re working hard and everything hurts and they’re sweaty and they’re breathless and they feel like vomiting.

And that is the workout life. That’s what you’ve got to do in order to get results.

And when I think of that, I kind of hate exercise too to be perfectly honest because that doesn’t sound fun at all.

However, I think it’s more or less similar to the trainer stereotype.

So again, people have this idea that personal trainers stand with their arms crossed, very proud chested and basically just look down on you and yell at you and tell you to do more things. And some trainers do train that way.

It is definitely not my style and it’s also a very big stereotype.

So, I’d like to remind everyone when I chat to people during the application is that there’s no one perfect fit style of exercise that works for everyone.

In fact, there’s a lot of different styles of workouts, surprise, surprise, right?

So one thing I really want to impress, and I hope you take away from this podcast, especially if you are one of those people that just don’t enjoy wearing out working out is that fitness can be whatever the hell you make it, your workouts can be whatever you want to do.

 

The Secret To Staying Fit (3:06)

The secret to staying fit is finding a style of workout that you actually enjoy.

Let me repeat that.

Find a workout you enjoy.

Yes, certain types of workouts are going to be more suited towards your goals. If you want to master pull-ups, for instance, going for a run twice a week probably isn’t going to get you there, so you do have to think logically.

But if your goal is to just generally be more fit, be active, be healthy, be able to keep up with your kids, you can do that in a lot of different ways.

You can do that with body weight training or sprint training because kids are really fast. Or weightlifting or CrossFit workouts. You can do that in so many different ways that there’s not one particular weekly routine.

 

ProSource Fitness (4:04)

Just cutting in here for a minute to give a shout out to today’s sponsor Pro Source! Pro source is a fitness equipment company that has just about everything you’re looking for.

By now, you should know that. I fully believe that being able to workout at home is essential. And while you don’t need a crazy setup, I do recommend resistance bands, especially a red strength band and a mini green band for all my gym clients.

This allows you to target your postural muscles much better than with just your body weight. Bands are simple to use and extremely cheap. I am Dutch after all. So if you’re getting yourself set up to stay consistent by working out at home, head over to pro source fit.com and because you’re an awesome listener, save some money using code mama bear 15 then stay consistent and smash some goals.

You can kind of mix and match and you can do what suits you and your body. So, I think people tend to forget that all of us are completely different and we all enjoy different things and our bodies respond to different things.

 

Finding What Workouts FOR YOU (4:53)

So, I know for me personally, my body responds amazingly when I stick to just lifting. It actually doesn’t respond as well as when I’m putting running in, but I kind of like running right now.

Whereas other people’s bodies tend to respond better to sprint training versus really heavy lifting or just moderate lifting or any other thing you can come up with or body weight training and gymnastics.

So, I think part of the equation is not only finding workouts that suit your body type, but also finding workouts that you don’t hate. That you really love.

I always use Zumba for an example here and I’m not 100% sure why because I do not do Zumba, but if you love Zumba, go do Zumba. There is nothing that says you can not be healthy and fit if your workout consists of dancing around, go freaking rocket.

For 10 years, half of my workouts, we’re teaching pole dancing and strength training with pole dancing. And I promise you I was extremely strong and fit. I also loved it. It worked me at that time.

Anything can be made into a workout, but the only way you’re going to actually achieve goals is if you stay consistent to that and you will not stay consistent to a workout that you despise.

So my current training split in the summer, it’s always a little bit heavier than say winter, but I lift three days a week. I do cardio one, I run once a week and then the other day is up in the air. It’s normally some sort of ring gymnastic, body weight training or Ninja or an extra day of intervals.

It’s kind of my wildcard workout where I can just hang out and enjoy the workout versus keeping it too, too rigid.

That works for me. I actually enjoy walking into my workouts and that is why I tend to achieve the majority of my goals is because I don’t hate the process.

 

Staying Fit- The Biggest Tip (6:35)

So, my biggest tip for you is to stop doing shit you hate. You can make just about any kind of workout work. That sounds funny.

You can make just about any kind of fitness routine work for you and you can achieve a variety of results on a ton of different workout routines.

But the trick is staying consistent and you will not do that if you walk into a workout dreading it.

So, when I am chatting back and forth to a new client, we’re kind of getting the ball rolling and I ask them what they expect from a workout program. I don’t want to hear the fear or the dread or the sheer revulsion, the hatred in their voice of, “I guess I’m going to have to go to the gym three times a week”.

Okay, well why don’t we switch that? It goes back to changing your mindset.

Why do you have to be in a gym? Why can’t you work out at home to make an easier? Why can’t you grab TRX straps, throw them up outside and rock that or grab some resistance bands head to the park and smash it, work it that way outside.

All of those little changes that might make you enjoy your workouts more. Embrace them, rock them. That’s how you truly maintain your fitness and become fit and healthy is because you are going to want to do your workouts.

You’re going to show up every single time because you actually enjoy what you’re doing. So, if there is one tip, I could impart on just about everyone is to find something that you love, whether that is strength training or running or gymnastics or interval training or CrossFit or Zumba or cycling.

I don’t care, just don’t hate what you’re doing because that just causes more stress and it just ruins the entire point of using fitness to boost endorphins and be happy and improve at your body and your mindset. Love what you’re doing.

 

Workout Intensity (8:21)

The other thing that I quickly wanted to touch upon today is just how intense your workouts have to be.

So again, it comes back to that stereotype that workouts need to basically make you vomit in order for you to progress or if you’re not crawling out of the gym, your workout was clearly ineffective and that is just bullshit.

It drives me bat crap, crazy listening to that stuff.

If you like those kinds of workouts, kudos to you. Rock it, go with it. I’m not sure how long you can maintain that intensity life-wise but honestly go for it.

For me personally, I like to be able to walk out of the gym and actually walk the next day.

That’s kind of a big thing when you have kids is to be able to be functional the next day after your workout, and I am a true believer that your workouts should compliment your lifestyle.

So, if I go to the gym, spend two hours slaughtering my arms and can’t pick up my kids the next day, it’s not exactly a practical situation for me, which means that you don’t need to have the most intense of intense training sessions every single day.

Again, a lot of this comes down to your goals, but also your preference. If you don’t like that feeling of nauseous inducing or getting a little bit too breathless, lightheaded, half to sit down, don’t work out that way. No one is telling you that you absolutely have to.

I’m telling you the exact opposite. In fact, the majority of my sessions, my training sessions are awesome.

There’s about two to three minutes rest in between my lifts and yes, I struggle during those lifts and I get a little bit breathless, but I am by no means crippled by the end of that workout.

Ironically, it’s my runs that leave me a little bit more shaky at the end of them because I tend to push harder than anything. Running is just really freaking hard to me still after five years of rocking it.

But I tend to push differently in those workouts. My lifting workouts, I walk out, it’s awesome. I do some stretches and I’m still good to go the next day. There’s a difference between muscle fatigue and full on muscle soreness and if you are a busy mom, having crippling muscle soreness really doesn’t get you very far the next day.

So, keep in mind that part of doing something you love means being able to do the other things you love for the other 23 hours of the day.

Okay.

There is nothing that says you have to go all out every single workout session, but you do need to move.

You do need to find something that you enjoyed that moves your body because our bodies were meant to move. And that’s how you stay fit.

So once again, find something that you love, that works with your lifestyle, and that gets you out of bed and excited to move for the day and just freaking rock it.

 

Wrap Up (11:19)

So, I guess that sums up my rant for today, friends. I was a little quick, so that’s always fun.

Once again, I thank you for listening to me spewing my opinions, knowledge, and all-around random thoughts at you. And I do hope you gained something from listening in.

As always, if you’re in need of fitness tips, workouts, and amazingly healthy recipes, don’t forget to check out my website at www.fitasamamabear.com

And if you know someone who hates exercise, or if you just want to spread the word that fitness doesn’t have to be horrific, please share the podcast if you have time, give it a rating too, because both of those things allow me to continue doing what I love.

And clearly that’s ranting.

Chat soon friends.

Note: this transcription has been edited for better reading experience.

Mentioned In The Podcast

• My personal training business
• How to master pull-ups- A Podcast
• Red strength band- Use code mamabear15
• Mini green band- use code mamabear15
• My current training split- A blog Post
• TRX straps