16 January 2010

Busting Out of a Fitness Rut

Doesn’t that guy look like he would be a great personal trainer?

Anyway, not too long ago, I bit the bullet. I signed up for three months of personal training. No matter how much you think you know about fitness (and not to brag, but I know a lot), sometimes, you just fall in a rut.

I feel like I’ve been in a rut ever since my half marathon. I’m not training for anything specific, I’m bored of the programs I’ve done in the past (Global Fitness, Jillian Michaels’ Making the Cut, etc.), and I feel like I haven’t really pushed myself in a while. Enter personal training.

Is it expensive? Yes, definitely. Is it worth it? I think for many people, yes. I had my first session with my trainer today, and it absolutely kicked my butt ten times over. If it hadn’t been clear to me already, today made it doubly obvious that I’ve been slacking in the gym. I’m only seeing my trainer once a week (I can’t afford any more than that!), but I think it will give me that extra boost I need to get out of my rut.

If you’re in a fitness rut, here are some suggestions that hopefully won’t clean out your wallet:

• Have a friend “train” you. Just having someone else tell you what to do is often enough to help you push yourself. If your friend really doesn’t know what they’re doing, have them look up a workout online and use that. Just make sure you don’t know what’s coming!
• Train your friends as you work out. This involves you telling other people what to do (who doesn’t love that, right?) and it has a similar effect as having someone train you. You’re going to be pushing yourself to complete the moves you’re having your friends do, so you won’t be tempted to slack.
• Hire a trainer for just ONE session. I definitely got enough ideas just from my session today to jump-start my workouts for the next few weeks. You don’t need to commit to months of sessions to get some knowledge from a trainer. Alternatively, if you see a trainer at your gym who looks bored, ask him/her to show you around or give you a 15-30 minute sample of what they do with clients. Most are happy to do that.
• Do some googling to find 5-10 great workouts, print them out, and then take them with you to the gym. You can randomly select one each time you work out for a constant surprise.
• Head over to Trainerpack or a similar site and download free workouts for your iPod!
• Alternate cardio and strength training more frequently during the course of your workout. Sometimes, 30 minutes on the elliptical can put you right to sleep. Break it up by doing 5-10 minutes on a cardio machine, then doing 2-3 different strength training moves, and then hopping back on the cardio. By switching it up, not only can you avoid boredom, but trust me, you’ll be working harder than usual and keeping your body guessing.

Trainers are a great luxury, but they’re certainly not a necessity. My boyfriend and I have worked up a good sweat just training each other in the basement with zero weights (seriously!). You just have to get creative to prevent boredom. I’ll try to post some of my trainer-inspired workouts on the blog more often to give you ideas.