2020 was a challenging year to say the least. Some used the isolation as an opportunity to focus on their fitness, but many of us (let’s be honest: most of us) ended up putting on the “Covid 19 (pounds).”
It’s easy to get discouraged when something like that happens. You’ve been taken out of your routine, your mental health is strained, and fitness can slip. We’re a fitness company, but we want to tell you that if this is you: It’s okay.
Slipping is easy, getting back into it is hard. That’s why for this New Year’s Resolution season, we want to promote healthy fitness. It can be frustrating to compare your current fitness levels to where you were pre-COVID, which is why it is important to focus on incremental steps to get you back to where you were instead of trying to do everything at once.
Here are some tips we had to working fitness back into your daily routine while putting your mental health first:
1. Bring the joy back into fitness!
Exercise should be a form of self-love, not punishment. Whether you’re shredding half marathons every other week or struggling to get off the couch, working out should be enjoyable! Make sure you’re exercising because you love your body, not because you hate it. Reframe how you see exercise. Tell yourself, over and over, like a mantra “This is me time. I’m doing this for me because I love myself.”
Your body is powerful and complicated. Nourish and take care of it so it can take care of you.
2. Work it in when you can!
Lots of people have had it tough this past year, working parents especially. Suddenly, you’ve been expected to work from home and be a primary caregiver all at once. Your issue may be finding the time or finding the energy.
If you can’t make the time right now, work it in when you can! Here are some ideas:
Follow us on social for more: We’ll be posting these all month!
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If you’re having trouble finding the energy, this next tip is for you:
3. Make exercise fun again with music
Getting back into the swing of things is often met with a lack of motivation. In fact, according to a recent study, we discovered that,
If you’re not using music to motivate your workouts, you’re likely not seeing your best performance. More than that, music makes exercise fun, and will help you reframe your mindset around exercise being a chore vs exercise being “me time.”
RockMyRun has the best fitness music that adapts to your heart rate or steps, and has no ads or breaks, just seamless music that takes you through your routine, whatever it may be! (Even if it’s just dancing in the kitchen while you meal prep, that counts!)
We’re having a New Year’s Sale during the month of January! This is a $20 discount on our annual membership, bringing the price to $59.99 per year (or less than $5 per month!) for unlimited fitness music.
Not ready to commit? Try Free for 14 Days.
4. Celebrate Your Progress, but Be Kind to Yourself
Set measurable and attainable goals, and do a little happy dance when you hit them!
Start small, maybe try to exercise 20 minutes every other day. At least something to get yourself back into the swing of things. Not ready to run again? Take your dog on a walk and set a daily distance goal. Both your body and your furry friend will thank you for it.
If you miss a goal, accept it and move forward instead of punishing yourself for not hitting your goal. Time that you spend being mad at yourself for not reaching a goal is time that could be used to reflect on why you didn’t reach your goal and what you can do to reach it.
If you miss the goal, don’t be afraid to readjust if you need to! It is better to readjust your goals than to keep trying and get frustrated, which can cause people to get demoralized and stop exercising altogether. Make your goals attainable so that you enjoy the process.
You Can Do It!
Getting back into a routine is hard, but we believe in you, and you should believe in yourself and all that you are capable of. If you need to, start small – remember that you are exercising for you, so your goals should be your own. Progress is a marathon, not a sprint (unless you’re actually training using sprints), so be patient with yourself.
Now do us a favor? Give your body a big squeezy hug and thank it for all it does for you. Even if you don’t love the shape it’s in right now, you’ll get there, but don’t forget to appreciate all it does for you.
Love yourself. And if you ever need any added motivation, we’ll be here to rock your socks off.