Have you ever just felt so overwhelmed? You feel like you are doing everything right and you are just not seeing the results you should be. Where do you turn? What gets you through that wall or over that plateau?
For me it is the inspiration of others. Seeing what they have had to over come to get where they are is what keeps me moving. Like me, you may not have someone to go to the gym with and set goals with, but that doesn't have to slow you down.
We are so lucky to live in a time where there is inspiration right at our finger tips. Social media is such a great tool, Instagram in particular. Now don't get me wrong, there can be a down side to social media also! I think you need to go into it with open eyes and a hard skin.
There are so many people just like you out there fighting to reach and crush their goals. I don't think it's good idea to become their stalker but it is nice to see their progress and give a little friendly cheer every now and then. It also helps you to feel better about some roadblock that you are having, if you share and get it out there. You never know if someone else is going through the same thing and feels better just knowing they are not alone.
@girlswhopowerlift
I LOVE their Instagram account. It is a community of like minded women who are all about being strong and lifting weights and each other. If I am ever in need of inspiration this is the first place I'm going to go. The women n here are not afraid to show they things you can accomplish when you fight for it....it doesn't always come the first time.
@coloradopowerchics
This Instagram has two creators that you can follow separately but this site they created to share all about the bad-ass women of Colorado. Now I don't live there but I have family there so I support. Who couldn't use a group of women from your area who are doing the same thing you are. Maybe look into if your state or town has started something like thins.
@deadliftingfordonuts
A lovely lady named Tiffany has created this great profile. I was drawn by the name and am inspired every time she posts. She is very real and also posts some pretty funny stuff. There are videos of her doing her thing along with her husband. I also LOVE her hair! You should follow her.
@_cleeea
Cancer survivor!! What else is there to say? Clea is such a bad-ass that I'm so glad I found her profile. She is so positive and a great inspiration to everyone. To be going through cemo and still have a smile on your face. She makes me smile and she will you too.
So, other than having to have the internet, you can create a motivation wall/board. My gym has a motivation wall and on it I have some of my favorite quotes. You can get magazines and cut out fun inspirational picture. You are only limited by your imagination when it comes to creating a motivation wall.
Do whatever it takes to get yourself in a better place. Being down on yourself is unhealthy, emotionally and physically.
*how do you find inspiration?
Do you feel guilty if you miss a workout? "I feel just fine working out every day," you say to yourself. I just have an active rest day.
Those are fine and all but to avoid injury sometimes you need to take care of yourself and have a rest day or two.
What happens when you take a rest day?
It gives your body a recovery period, meaning that your tissue that was broken down during your activity, will have time to repair itself. You are also able to build back up your energy levels.
Having scheduled rest days also help burnout and overtraining from not taking hold. There should be no reason to feel like you need to workout every day. It's healthy to take a break, for your mind and body.
How often should you take a rest day?
I would say that this question can not be answered just one way. This depends on the person. If you are lightly active than I would say you could easily get by with one rest day but if you are a highly active person and your workouts are intense, one is a must and two might even work.
Sometimes when you are going hard for an extended amount of time then maybe a week of light activity/rest would do you some good.
What are some things to do on a rest day?
You may think that a rest day means you have to lay around on the couch eating ice cream but it doesn't have to. You could try Yoga and stretches. Depending on where you live, you could get outside and do yard work. If you have a dog, take them for a nice walk. Rest days don't have to make you feel like you're missing out.
*What do you do on your rest day?
If you have just started on your fitness journey or have been at it for awhile, I'm sure that you have heard how wonderful squats are for your butt, but why do you really need to do squats?
1. Improves circulation
2. Great for your core
3. Helps with back strength
4. They work for your digestion also
Those are just a few benefits that you wouldn't think of, that squats do.
There is so much information out on the web about squats so I thought I would touch on questions I had when I started out.
can you get the same results from other exercises
There are plenty of exercises out there that target the muscles in the legs and glutes, usually you have to do multiple sets of different kinds in order to accomplish what you can with squats. A squat targets multiple muscles all at once. Not that you shouldn't do those other exercises, you need those to build a strong foundation. Just start your leg day with squats!
how low and what type
Have you ever heard the limbo song? "how low can you go?" Well, you wanna go as low as you can while being able to keep your form. The saying "ass to grass" helps me to remember how low I should be going. Now when I first started working out I would do a lot of videos and honestly they were not doing full squats, so I didn't realize that I was doing them wrong. I have since lowered my weight and have had to re-teach myself proper form.
I try to do a few different types of squats. Goblet squats and Plie squats. It really doesn't matter what type of squats you do as long as your form is good. Good form keeps from injury.
with weights or without
You don't want to lift heavy weights because you think it will make you look like a man, well,that is OK. Squats are still effective you just use your bodyweight to do them. I can say that you would have to lift really heavy for a long time to start to look manly so I advise that after getting your form down that you should add in a little bit of weight. The weight will help to better build the muscles.
*Do you make sure to do squats?
When I first started lifting, I was so excited when I was able to see muscle definition. It meant that I was achieving the look I thought I wanted. It meant I didn't need to kill myself doing cardio anymore...right.
Then I stopped seeing results because I had so much fat that still needed to come off. How was I going to get rid of some of the fat without getting rid of all the muscle I had managed to put on already?
I would need to get back on the cardio machine again in order to get my heart rate up to burn some fat.
What kind of cardio?
If you are doing cardio it should be something you enjoy or you will be miserable doing it. You will want to so it 2-3 times a week. Say you like to run, well go for that run, just don't go for over 45 minutes a couple times a week. You don't want to put too much stress on your body, that is when it will turn to burning up your muscle.
How do you gain muscle?
By having enough calories and protein for growth. The digested protein like mentioned in this post is needed for muscle growth, so over doing cardio will leave you at a deficit.
Don't forget diet
In an attempt to limit muscle loss when getting in cardio you need to remember that what you fuel your body with matters. Also making sure to start the recovery process right after a workout will help stop the breakdown of muscles.
My takeaway from this is that I need some cardio to be healthy but not overdoing it is the key. Everything in moderation. Helping to drop the fat also needs healthy fuel.
*How much cardio do you do?
There are so many quick fixes out there for everything you could imagine, so why not weight loss too.
You can eat just grapefruits or drink lemon, honey, and cayenne. Then you have your detox's and the diets with the crazy names. What can that kind of extreme dieting do to your muscle gains?
The closest I have come to extreme dieting was doing Keto. That is restricting your carb intake. So what I am sharing is what I have learned because I had been interesting in trying what was called a "Shock Diet" and wasn't sure that it would be worth it.
I did learn that when your extreme diet includes cutting your protein intake then you will for sure affect your gains. You can't even begin to put on muscle until you take in enough protein because our muscles are built from digested protein. If you want to learn more about the right protein read this post.
Extreme caloric deficiency is hard not only on your muscles but your metabolism and hormones as well. People seem to think that if they take in less than they burn you will lose weight and it's all good. Well, really you are just losing water weight at first and then if you keep with it then you will end up losing three times more muscle than if you ate the calories you needed.
Basically, you should not go for an extreme diet if you care about keeping your muscles. There are plenty of healthy ways to lose the fat and keep your muscles. Then your gains will be more predominant when the fat is gone. Losing the fat should be done before trying to grow your muscles.
*Would you try an extreme diet?
