I decided to dedicate this week of blogs for a fitness update and to share some new things I learned during the time I have not posted any updates. In the previous post, I shared some of the new things I learned and tried to make a list of tips which beginners probably are not aware of. My initial idea was to publish one blog with all the things I learned and how I have changed my routine but it turned out there is much more to say than I imagined, so I divided the post into two parts again. In this one, I will talk about mostly personal changes in my routine and again include some tip I think will be useful for beginners.

The very first two blogs I wrote on the topic were focused on the objectives, body types, food habits, and actual routines. If you missed them you can catch up here and here. In this post, I will tell you what I changed and what additional information I discovered around those areas.

What changed since the last update?

I am happy to say my persistence and dedication haven’t changed. Not much at least. Naturally, I had a certain period in which my motivation was going low and I was questioning the point of going to the gym and working out in general. Fortunately, I kept reminding myself why I am doing this and about the negative effects of the lack of Physical Activity. This helped me find the necessary motivation to keep going and not stop being acitive.

In regards to my routine, I did not change that much. I keep doing my “warm up” exercises and I increased the complexity. I found a really good suggestion for abs work out from home and I incorporated some of the exercises in my “warm up” routine. Also, during the days in which I decide I will be focusing on the abs only I just stay home and do a full set of the example exercises. They are really fun to do, challenging and definitely rewarding. Check them out, you can find some good suggestions for sure.

An example of one of the many abs work out suggestions

There are tonnes of examples, which will suit everyone’s preferences for sure and the best part is you do not need much equipment to do them. I usually choose two or three of the examples exercises and combine them with a biceps, triceps warm up to get my body ready for the gym.

In this context, when I started going to the gym it became a routine for me and I really focused on not skipping days and sticking to the plan. To be honest, I got kinda obsessed, which is not really a great thing to do. I tried to take it easy and remind myself that I am doing this in order to be more active and get a healthier lifestyle. So instead of obsessing over the idea of being at the gym and working out, I focused on being active at least one and a half hours a day. Exercises at home or going to the gym – it all depends on how much time and energy I have, the important thing for me is to have enough physical activity during the day. And I have to admit I feel way better if I move enough and break away from the constant sitting in front of the computer screen – as weird as it sounds physical activity recharges me with energy and helps me focus more on my tasks afterwards.

In regards to the food habits – I explained most of what I learned and what I am going for in the Proper Fitness Post Part 2. I am still focusing on this and getting enough carbohydrates, fat (the good one), and proteins and eating the right food at the right time. The necessary change was to start consuming more calories since I started burining a lot more during work out. I know this is obvious, but I often forgot about it and I was so focused on following the right eating habits that I didn’t allow myself to increase my claorie intake. This had a negative effect and it could have gotten worse, but fortunately, I got reminded that I need to be careful about it and if I want to get a positive effect from this challenge I need to eat properly. So, yes, I increased the amount of calories, but I stayed focused on the right nutrients. I also did the no fast food April challenge (I broke it one day before the month was over, but I really had to, okay). And, of course, I am still keeping fast and junk food to the minimum.

Another positive thing from my fitness experience was making new friends. Sort of. First of all, unlike the hard beginning when I was extremely uncomfortable and anxious going to the gym, now I feel accepted and welcome there. The people who visit the gym every day now recognize me and greet me, and most importantly I managed to make a new friend there. One of the regular visitors once saw me doing an exercise completely wrong and came to me to explain how it should be done in order to get maximum effect and prevent damage. This really made me happy since I don’t have an instructor and even though I was reading about the exercise my body automatically tries to do the easier thing and does the exercise wrong. This is quite dangerous since it is hard to keep an eye on yourself while focusing on the exercise and you can easily stray from the right way of doing it.

So, this guy showed me how to keep track of if I am doing it correctly or not and gave me a lot of tips and tricks for better results(check the previous post). And the best part is we now have a chat about various stuff every time we see each other there. Yes, I do realize I sound like a happy kindergarten kid who made his first friend.

I think this kinda sums up what has changed and (hopefully) improved in my fitness experience. I hope you find some of those tips useful, it is really hard to keep all of the factors on top-level while working out, but once you learn to focus on them it gets easier. Thanks a lot for reading and stay tuned for more blogs on various topics.

Instagram     LinkedIn     Portfolio