Friday, 16 August 2013

When was the last time you had to challenge yourself... mentally?

When people talk about health and fitness, the first thing they think about is the physical challenge of exercise.

During our lives we come across numerous mental challenges – some are small and take minimal time to work through, while others require much more thought. I recently came up against a significant mental challenge, different to anything I had experienced before. For those who don’t know I have a 4 month old daughter. My wife and daughter mean everything to me and I haven’t spent an evening away from them since my daughter was born.
Last week the Y conducted a winter sleep out to raise funds for our charity Open Doors. It was a fantastic idea but for me the challenge wasn’t the physical aspect of sleeping outside in the cold wintery weather. It was the mentality of spending the night away from my family for the first time.

Mental challenges also apply to your health and fitness. The biggest mental challenge most people face is getting to the gym. We sit at home umming and arring whether we should go to the gym or not and by the time a decision is made it’s too late. Physically there aren’t any issues, it’s just having that mental challenge of getting up off the couch and going to the gym. 
Does this sound like you?

If you answered yes then read on. If this was you, but not any longer, well done on making the change.
For those reading on there are a few strategies you can put it place to help you get over those mental challenges.

1)    Pencil your workouts in your diary – treat your workouts just like any other appointment, write it down and stick to it

2)    Find a workout buddy – training with a partner or friend has so many benefits. You’ll be able to motivate each other to get to the gym and during your workouts

3)    Try Personal Training – Having a PT will keep you motivated and accountable to your workouts – plus they make it fun!
Now you have some strategies, go about implementing them and let me know how you go, I’d love to hear your feedback.

By the way - I did make it to the sleep out...

Healthy Regards

Tristan Simmons

No comments:

Post a Comment