THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO CHOOSING A NEW WORKOUT ROUTINE
When is it time to do something different?
When is your old routine no longer serving you?
If you are bored with your workouts, finding yourself skipping more than showing up, find it difficult to follow any structure because you're randomly using YouTube workouts and calling it a plan OR if you're no longer seeing results in your body like you did when you first started - congrats you are officially in a RUT and have plateaued which is your first downward spiral toward quitting.
Don't quit. Just shift. Just because "you've always done it this way" doesn't mean you have to continue with a certain gym, class, style or intensity. In fact, changing what you do every 6-8 weeks is one of the best things you can do for your body. You'll never get bored and your body will never stop responding to the different types of movements, aka you're fool proofing your plateau! And teaching yourself that you are looking forward to exercise again - that is what creates the healthy lifelong habit friends!
HOW TO PICK A WORKOUT PROGRAM
Are you someone who needs to belong to a gym? Or do you prefer to workout at home? If the in-class style is the way you like to roll, then there are actually virtual options now that allow you to log into a live class from home - best of both worlds. Here's my favorite virtual gym class option.
The next 2 questions you'll need to answer are:
What style of workouts do you enjoy doing?
What style of workouts do you intuitively feel your body might need right now?
Number one, you've gotta like the style or else you'll make excuses and not show up. So, picking a program that has a mix of some of what you like to do as well as some of what your body needs in this season of your life are the most important factors, in my opinion. Since I like weight lifting, but know my body absolutely needs more flexibility, I recently picked a program to complete that had a combination of BOTH. This is the one I chose.
Maybe you're someone who loves cardio, hates weight lifting but knows that in order to gain the strength you want and change your body shape you have to strength train. You've got options like pilates/barre that uses body weight training, bootcamp style workouts that also uses body weight training and HIIT moves, or a traditional strength training program with running built in.
Some of my other favorite strength training programs are LIIFT More, MBF and 9WCF.
WORKOUT OPTIONS: IN PERSON OR AT HOME?
There are so many options available so where do you find a program?
In person workouts are for the women who have plenty of time to drive to their class, hang with some of their girls and like the real life vibe. My favorite spots are Barre 3, Cyclebar, The Yoga Shop and Tyler English Fitness. I get that! And if I didn't have kids at home, I still might be doing that like I did in my 20's. Personally, as a mom with 2 little kids, I couldn't get there 5-6 days a week, which is what I know my body needs to stay in it's best shape. So I had to choose an at-home option.
For a split second I thought about stringing together some of the free YouTube workouts and coming up with my own plan. But that meant I had to come up with a schedule of all the different workouts working different body groups on my own. And somehow figure out how to not work the same part too often, trying to avoid injury, try to figure out how to most effectively work each body part in the shortest amount of time with the most effective moves... and I realized I was missing that level of expertise because - we aren't the experts. I felt it was well worth a small investment in buying an actual program so that I knew a professional has designed it and all of those variables are taken care of for me.
My personal preference that I've been using for 6 years is my annual membership to streaming on demand workouts. I have been able to change up my program every 6-8 weeks, tried different styles and trainers until I found what I liked the best. It actually keeps me excited as new programs become available and I've built a community of like-minded women who love doing these with me! We hold each other accountable, kinda like showing up for your trainer in person except we also share recipes and the ups and downs of our obstacles, accomplishments and life in general. It's called a Fit Club and you can apply here.
If you need any help figuring out what is best for you, I encourage you to fill out the application here so you can share your personal answers with me, including where you're at with your current fitness level, and I will get back to you asap with my recommendations for you!
xo,
Jen