Hitting The Wall

Happy Monday Morning Folks! (Yes there is such a thing).

It’s definitely a happy one for me with all these good endorphins roaming round my body. I’ve taught my 5:45am Body Step class and I was surprised at the turn out- these people are dedicated to their Body Step, I love it!

Today was not ideal for working hard and getting sweaty (it can happen!). It was humid, sticky and hot. Which makes ‘hitting the wall’ a lot more likely. If you’re unsure what I mean by this term, it’s like when your reach that point when your mind wants to give up. You feel like you can’t come back from this point and either stop completely or crank down the effort. Whilst hitting the wall can also be a physical sensation and not just a psychological one (see here), it’s my favourite kind of stuff- the stuff most of us overlook, the mental side of hitting the wall that I want to discuss today.

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Mind you, that your hitting the wall could feel and look completely different to mine. As an instructor I don’t allow myself to get to that point because I will admit it’s tough to bounce back from- plus I’m too preoccupied instructing my butt off to notice anyways. However, as a participant I know I’ve hit the wall when I start to doubt myself, shake my head, technique drops and negative thoughts run through my mind.

Thank goodness it doesn’t happen often. Plus I exercise enough that I know how to push through it (practise makes perfect), and I’m pretty competitive and prideful so I don’t like to give up or in (ha, I have an ego).

However, others might be slightly less determined, perhaps they are new or maybe they’re just not as exercise-enthusiastic as I (this is not me pumping myself up just explaining others feel differently about exercise and obviously have different personalities).

How do you break that wall down and push on to do bigger and better things?

• Psyche yourself UP not out.
• Block out your mind and listen and respond to your body. (It can often keep going. Your body usually out runs your mind).
• Have a few motivational and inspirational quotes handy. (If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you).
• Think about how you’ll feel after.
• Remind yourself of past experiences and successes.
• Look at someone who is still going and tell yourself you’ve got to keep up or beat them. (If you like a competitive edge).
• Maybe taking a couple of minutes to breathe, shake it off and grab a drink is all you need to jump right back into it.

Last night as my partner and I were watching an Arnold Schwarzenegger documentary Pumping Iron- Arnie talked about how the last few reps are what makes the difference. It’s in the state of muscle fatigue that changes occur. (Ps. He is an amazingly dedicated and motivated man).

This same analogy can be applied with hitting the wall. When we make it past that wall we achieve greater things- better fitness, greater lung capacity, higher heart rates, bigger and stronger muscles, and so much more!

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• When do you typically hit the wall and what happens?
• What do you do when you hit the wall?

Daily Healthy Thought: I can do it, if I WANT to.

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Loving The Weights! But Not Breaking Up With Cardio

After writing that post this morning I already feel better. I guess it really helps to write down your goals and allows you to zone in and focus on what you want to get done, and where you want to go with your life. So far..

I’ve drunk plenty of water…and consequently had a million pee breaks- oi Lindsay, here’s another tip to move more– Drink more water and you’ll have to get up more to go to the toilet. 2 birds, 1 stone people!

I’ve loved how my body looks and mentally told myself this.

Ate enough for my body. Usual savoury breakfast, handful of walnuts (6-7?) + 2 strawberries, delicious toast, protein packed lunch, fav current savoury snack- wheat thin, vegemite, some cheese & an apple with nut butters so far. Omg, I am an eating machine.

Took it easy around home- not rushing. Had a chuckle at my mother trying to foam roll. Oh the agony= entertainment.

Indulged in some Body Balance- yay for relaxation time.

I’m pretty pleased with my efforts and hopefully this has given me the momentum to keep it up. I guess I never really stop doing these things or veered off my healthy lifestyle course (+ recovery) but every now and again we get side tracked or life happens and we just have to kindly (or blatantly over the internet) remind ourselves where we want to be headed.

Plussssss I have something which I’m oddly super excited about. I love fitness right? Yes, broken record. But I never thought I’d love lifting weights and doing my own workouts. I mean fitness is my thang and I do group fitness like nobodies business, but I always found it a bit lack-lustre doing my own workouts outside of the group fitness room. But maybe that’s because I was in a terrible mindset (ED hell) and my aim was to punish myself run on a treadmill to burn plenty of calories even though I hated it. But this, oh this is different. I’m so glad that those few (million) gentle pushes from my good friend Tara (from Sweat Like a Pig) finally made something in me click; because this has opened up a whole new alleyway of fitness passion for me, and I’m so excited to get into it and learn more about it.

This also came about because last Wednesday I was just not feeling my usual Fitbox class. I think it’s a combination of the slow progression between exercises and the fact that, to be honest, it wasn’t challenging mentally or physically for me. I enjoyed the social aspect but it was a struggle to go to that class a lot of the time. I also think this will help in changing some of my current ‘sometimes’ feelings about my body. Plus I just know from looking at all the amazing ladies who already do plenty of weight and strength training that my body will love it, and I’ll love what it does to my body too.

My workout was a bit all over the shop and I didn’t carry my phone or a notepad to jot down my weights. I have a pretty good memory so I’ll be able to remember most of them and then just feel it out I guess. Here’s a rough plan of my workout (I included the weight selection more for my sake and hopefully this doesn’t impact anyone negatively or in any other way than it is intended to be- just another source of information, nothing more.)

• Warmed up for 5 or so minutes on the elliptical.
• Got my leg press on. I started at a weight for 12 reps, then I increased and did 10, increased again and did 8 etc etc, all the way till 4 reps. The only issue is the machine only increases in 7kg (or 9kg- I can’t remember for the life of me) increments so it’s a big jump. I think I started at 52kgs and increased from there.
• Lat Pull Downs. I did 12, 10 and 8 rep sets, and increased the weight as I decreased the reps. I started at 18.3kgs and added on 2.3kgs for the 10 reps and went to 23 kgs for the 8. I like to maintain proper form so for the last set of 8 I had to take small breaks in between each pull- as it was tough.
• Abductor inner & outer. Same 12, 10, 8 pyramid and started at 52kgs for the inner and 59 for the outer.
• Chest Machine. Same pyramid format as the Lat Pull Downs. Starting at 16kgs and ending at 30.
• Chair Straight Leg Raises <—can you say ouch.
• I did oblique twist crunches on a declined bench <– note to self: head feels odd when blood rushes to it- don’t stay down for long.
• I also used a stupid machine which I won’t use again and I don’t even know its’ name. What it does it twists you from the waist up and works the obliques <– note to everyone else: Don’t use.
• Smith Machine for Squats! This was fun and I liked that I felt safe and supported with the assistance of the hooks and doo-va-lackies (not the technical term..). The bars are like huge compared to Body Pump so I was a bit iffy with the weight I should do and the amount of reps. To start I did 20 kgs on each side and did 8 reps. Then I added another 10 kgs on each side to give me a total of 60kgs plus the bar and did two sets of 8 reps (or was it 6?- what has happened to my memory?! I refuse to be that girl in the weights room with a phone or notepad + pen ha).
• Dead lifts with a weird bendy bar with 15kgs on each end. 3 sets x 8 reps.
• Chest press with the big massive bar and only 5 kgs on each side. 3 x 8 reps. I’m not overly strong in my chest and didn’t want to go too heavy on my own and with the massive chode type bar haha.

I definitely think it’s an improvement on my last impromptu workout and I actually had so much fun doing it. I loved seeing myself lift heavy weights and felt like I was loving myself more and more as I checked myself out subtly in the mirror during the deadlifts and squats haha. But that doesn’t mean I’m breaking up with cardio. I’ve got a double teaching of Body Step tomorrow! What it DOES mean is that I’m going to start doing these weekly weight sessions every Wednesday morning before Body Balance and try to get it in on Monday sometime also.

What was your last fitness ‘break through’?

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