Last year, I was going to the gym five to seven days a week with my boyfriend, either swimming after work or working out together on the gym floor lifting weights. I gradually got more and more bored of the same exercises, seeing the same faces, getting up and getting home at the same time, and ended up packing it all in instead of making any changes.
Bcos I’d burnt myself out doing the same things for so long, not doing any of them anymore was bliss, and my brief break from the gym lasted on and off for nearly six months.
Four weeks ago, the morning after a particularly big (but delicious!) chinese takeaway, I woke up feeling dehydrated, exhausted and generally really rubbish. I stepped on the scales to find out what my time away from the gym had really done to my weight, and was horrified to discover I was the heaviest I’d been in my adult life. (This might not technically be true, but it’s the highest I’d ever weighed in at – I’ve probably been heavier, but also blissfully unaware..)
I decided then and there that I’d get back in the gym, and took my kit to work with me with no real plan or idea of what I’d even do once I got there. By chance, that evening there was a Sports Relief event at my gym the very same day, which was a class combining circuits and boxing. It was honestly like a lightbulb had switched on in my head the moment I stepped into the sports hall.
From then on, I’ve not looked back from classes. Having only used the gym floor for the duration of my year long membership, I’ve moved to solely group exercise, and it makes so much more sense. Growing up, all the exercise I did was team based. I was on a swimming team, a hockey team, a netball team, a rounders team – the list goes on, and they’re all group based.
Whilst my previous gym routine worked a different muscle group each day, I’m now working my whole body, but in a different way, each day. I used to take tuesdays off from exercising bcos my boyfriend is out at hockey training and it was the one night a week I’d have the house to myself to watch terrible tv and eat biscuits. I’ve now replaced that with a running club, and instead take fridays off to keep myself sane and give myself the opportunity to still have a sort-of social life.
[I’m also walking home from work again, so every evening kicks off with a 5km walk to the gym, doubling up as a warm up. Weekends happen as they happen, but every sunday starts with a breakfast date at Gails as a treat.]
The new routine:
Monday: Circuits
Tuesday: 5km Run Club
Wednesday: Step
Thursday: Circuits, then Yoga
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Boxing, then Yoga