Taking control of my food and nutrition has proven to be the easiest area to focus on while embarking on my fitness journey. I’ve been able to master the art of managing my hunger and controlling how much food I eat throughout the day. Keeping track of everything I’ve been eating and weighing myself daily has allowed me to become confident in knowing that I have complete control of the number on the scale. However, the hardest roadblock I have been running into is finding the perfect fitness program that works for me.
Over the last few months, I have been in a constant battle with back problems which resulted in having a herniated disc. This setback caused me to be out of the gym and in recovery mode for weeks at time. A combination of chiropractic treatments, massage therapy, and rest helped me recover in a couple of weeks. However, once I made it back into the gym, it wasn’t long after my back issues started to arise again which sent me right back to where I started. After going through this cycle many times, I found it hard to build the momentum of sticking to a fitness program on a consistent basis.
Recovering from a back injury highlighted the importance of protecting my body when following any fitness program. Many people rush into going all in with the expectation of seeing immediate results. However, I’ve learned that pushing your body too hard to get immediate results can often lead to injury and end up taking you longer to reach your goals. The best approach I find is to listen to your body and make small and manageable increments to the activities you are doing.
What I have been focusing on is taking things slow and enjoying the process along the way. Over the past few weeks, I started with basic stretching and yoga classes to improve my flexibility and reintroduce more movement to my body. There are many movements that are natural to the body that you can apply to your daily life, which is why I am a huge fan of functional training. Once I started to feel my back improving, I worked with a personal trainer and focused on body weight exercises, incorporating resistance bands and light weight dumbbells only when I felt comfortable to do so.
I’m fairly confident there are many people like me who don’t want to spend excessive amounts of money on a monthly gym membership. In addition, being someone who works from home, I appreciate a workout that I can do almost anywhere – even if I’m on the road or travelling. In my opinion, following a fitness program that is cost effective and requires minimal equipment such as resistance bands or dumbbells is a win in my book.
When it comes to what exercises to perform, I recommend focusing on compound movements that work multiple muscle groups at the same time. Push-ups, pull-ups, squats, and crunches can all be done using your own body weight. If you have resistance bands or dumbbells, you can incorporate bench presses, shoulder presses, and deadlifts which will target every major muscle group in the body: chest, back, shoulders, legs, and abs.
