Photo courtesy of Kalen Emsley on Unsplash.
With bikini season upon us, dreams of lounging by the beach or tanning by the pool seem more tangible than ever before. But for those of us who have slacked off in maintaining our New Year fitness goals, how do we get on track and get our bodies in shape in time for summer?
We’ve gathered a some great tips - with a few courtesy of Erin Mahoney, who serves as the vice president of education for the International Sports Sciences Association - on how you change your fitness routine around and sculpt the body of your dreams, just in time to indulge in some of summer’s best activities.
Register for a Race:
It’s easy to say a fitness goal that you’d like to achieve, but it’s harder to follow through on it. When you register for a race or commit to a tangible fitness goal that you’d like to achieve, you hold yourself accountable and make your goals real.
Track your Activity:
While it’s great to push outside of your athletic comfort zones and challenge your body, it’s equally important to keep track of your activity. Being healthy means nothing if you’re not putting in the same amount of mental labor as physical labor. Keeping track of your physical activity is another great way to practice holding yourself accountable. If you say that you are going to work out for one hour, accurately tracking your workout will help ensure that you not only achieve your desired fitness routine, but that you also won’t push yourself too hard in the process.
Our bodies are built like machines, and sometimes it’s all too easy for us to overdo our workouts – especially when we begin to see results that we like. Tracking your activity is the first step in building a healthy, long-term routine that we can easily practice and stick to on a daily basis.
Track Your Eating Habits:
When people think of getting healthy, their mind immediately wanders to fitness routines and working out. Don’t get us wrong, taking care of your physical health is super important. But our bodies can only function and perform as well as we feed them. Staying fit is a lifestyle choice, not a short-term decision. So, don’t be surprised if just working out isn’t delivering the results you might have initially been hoping for. If you want to really change your body for the better, you have to change your eating habits. More importantly, you also have to track them. Similar to holding yourself accountable in your fitness regimens, you also have to hold yourself accountable in your eating habits and tendencies.
Find What Works for You:
Sometimes, it’s all too easy to get caught up in the craze around certain fitness trends. While indulging in Hot Pilates courses with your girlfriends after work or hitting an early Soul Cycle class might seem fun, that doesn’t mean that it’s the most effective way for you to work out. Everybody’s body is different, so it’s imperative that you find your fitness niche and own it.
