By Ondrej Grulich, Co-Owner, Body Fit Training Newmarket

It is common to experience less motivation and stress following a lengthy lockdown or after a long holiday, especially if you haven’t exercised much and have lost your routine. Slowing down and taking stock is also an opportunity to reflect on the importance of communities.

Our technology is great for a bit of down time, but it is face-to-face communities that are crucial in our long- term emotional and physical recovery, and that help us weather future crises. This might mean reconnecting with communities we’ve neglected or connecting with new ones.

Here at BFT Newmarket we fully appreciate the vital role of inclusive and supportive culture in maintaining a healthy, strong and sustainable fitness routine, and we pride ourselves on an amazing community that fully embraces and lives these values.

With that in mind, we will share a few good tips and tricks from our learnings to help get you back on track and back to your exercise routine:

1. ALWAYS PACK IN ADVANCE

It is a lot easier to make excuses and not go to the gym if you aren’t ready.

2. PRACTISE SELF-AWARENESS

If something challenging comes up, acknowledge it and talk to someone you trust. It may help you release some emotional tension.

3. BE ACCOUNTABLE TO SOMEONE

BFT is a community. Make friends with other gym members and make them “workout buddies”. Check up on one another.

4. PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD

Monitor your improvements. Keep testing your strength and cardio capacity. Opt
for pushing yourself and monitoring your progress. Set your goals and achieve them!

5. PRACTISE MINDFULNESS

We create a lot of stress for ourselves by refusing to see things as they really are. We persist in wishing that things were how we want them to be. Bringing mindfulness to a stressful situation immediately changes it. Awareness gives you a space in which to see the situation as it really is, and allows you to see your own response to it. This space reduces the strength of your reaction, which in turn, lowers your stress response. Mindfulness practise can allow you to build up your own resources, so that you are better able to cope when change occurs.

Make 2022 YOUR YEAR by choosing to take good care of yourself, physically and emotionally!