Self care is a common phrase these days and it applies to many areas of life. Taking time to care for yourself can get tricky when you are juggling it all like most people are, but in doing so, you achieve more on the back end.

We often think of self care to include long baths (that are near impossible to enjoy anyway especially if you have kids!), massages, long walks on the beach and reading books.

These are all wonderful and should be prioritised if they take your fancy and you schedule them in (you must schedule everything in your calendar or it will never get done!)

However, there is one part of self care that does not really get looked at, and that’s how you take care of yourself in terms of your fitness and health regime, specifically talking about exercise.

I see so many people with great intentions to start exercise sessions, but sometimes choose perhaps the wrong style, intensity or regime for where they are at.

Take for example having a baby. Your body has gone through an enormous amount of physical change, lack of sleep, adjusting in many ways, and so the idea of jumping back into intensive soon after is often unrealistic.

At this time, self care regarding exercise is imperative so you you can still gain benefits rather than feeling depleted, injured or like you are a failure because you can’t keep up with what is given right away.

Many other examples of ‘life changes’ can influence your ability to perform in exercise and fitness, like high stress, emotional trauma, injury, having years off exercise, adrenal fatigue, health conditions, the list goes on.

In order to still achieve your fitness goals, weight loss goals, strength and whatever else you are wanting improvement on, adopting a ‘self care’ plan for your fitness can help.

Here’s my 4 non-negotiable self care fitness practices I use for myself and clients to help fitness begin and remain a sustainable part of your life, placing the breaks on that stop-start spiral that can happen if you push too hard without a balanced approach:

• MONITOR YOUR HORMONAL CYCLE + WEEKLY ENERGY  : On any given day, your energy will fluctuate due to hormonal cycles, stress, emotions, thoughts, food intake, daily life, pretty much everything affects your energy. So if it has been low for some time and you are not quite feeling yourself, it’s time to pull back a notch. Instead of doing fitness activities that quickly raise your heart rate, choose more ‘moderate’ intensity activities like Pilates, Yoga, and modified fitness like circuits, bodyweight exercise and cardio sessions. Be willing to give up the plyometrics, high intensity activities till you feel you have energy to spare each day, otherwise you are wearing yourself down more.

• LISTEN TO YOUR BODY AND BE OK WITH DIFFERENT MODALITIES: To achieve a specific goal you do need a consistent training program, but if you are riding that fine line of burnout or feeling depleted after exercise, tune in to what you need each day instead. What does your body need today? Do you need a good stretch? Some deep breathing and slow, purposeful movements that leave you feeling fulfilled? Do you need to sweat it out a little? In being fluent with your modalities and in tuning into your daily vibe, your body will thank you for pushing it when it’s ready and nurturing it when needed. Be kind to yourself instead of beating yourself up about what you did not do today, or what you used to do 10 years ago. 

• INTEGRATE MINDFULNESS INTO YOUR FITNESS SESSIONS: Instead of doing cardio, yoga, stretching, meditation as separate practices, integrate them together more often for a well-rounded approach. When I created the online holistic fitness program Invigorate on Youtube recently (FREE ACCESS HERE), people loved the weekend meditation and stretch, and started doing it right after every other strength and cardio session. You are then giving your body a chance to activate the parasympathetic nervous system for restoration. This in turn aids in your recovery, stress management and overall wellness and adds a level of completeness to any routine. Think about how you can also incorporate deep breathing to flow with your movements throughout sessions. Think flow, not rigidity. And stop skipping out on the stretching! There is benefit to your nervous system, brain, and results long term if you can calm the body.

• DO A WEEKLY WRAP UP OF YOUR SESSIONS : We often with self care to journal, or reflect on the week that was. But have you ever done it for your fitness sessions? Taking a few notes about how you went with each session during and after, how your body was feeling generally and what you want to focus on next week is a great way to do it. Take five minutes on a Sunday to do this and you will feel more in control of things and it will create a healthier mindset towards what you di, instead of focusing on what you did not do. You will soon see progress towards your goals if you can implement this small habit. It really does help to stop and think for a few minutes, like you would other areas in life you are reflecting on.

Fitness can be achievable but it’s got to be realistic for where you are at. Start to use these self care ideas focusing them in on your fitness, and you will soon see patterns, know when to push and pull back and become a whole lot more intuitive around your exercise strategy. 

#exercisemarternotharder

Power to your core,

Vanessa Bartlett xo

aka Pilates Police

Join me on socials!