Our Comfort Zone, it’s a place where we can chug along all day every day without stress, hardship, challenges and tests. You feel safe, it’s like wearing your favourite snuggly marshmellowy-sink-into sofa cushions continuously around you.
Sure being in your comfort zone means you are never faced with uncomfortable situations, but, when it comes to exercise, if you stay in your comfort zone for too long that is exactly what happens to you. One day you wake up to discover your body has become the size of your sofa and your comfort zone is so big you can’t see your feet and you end up going for walks in small circles making no progress at all, suddenly you are feeling uncomfortable!
“But my comfort zone IS COMFORTABLE” I hear you say (in a slightly annoying whingy voice).
Well that’s great until your doctor tells you that your life expectancy is now 10 years shorter and your heart is struggling to pump. Then you suddenly realise that your knees ache every day whether you are sitting or standing, and walking around doing the grocery shop is now a painful experience and what’s with your favourite stretchy comfort pants? Where has the stretchy comfortable bit gone???
Even people who exercise every day can have this happen. We have lots of people come to us and say “But I walk or cycle everyday” or they swim or dance two or three times a week. Yet they are noticing that their slightly wobbly middle is now becoming their increasing wobbly whole body. Firm bottoms are slowly drooping towards the floor and arms won’t stop waving when you want them to.
This happens when your body is in a comfort zone. Yes you are exercising but the trouble is if you don’t change your exercises around or increase the resistance, distance or time, eventually this becomes a new comfort zone.
When I tell clients that most days some part of my body is a bit achy from working out, they tend to look at me in disbelief. They think that because I train with heavy weights that my body should be used to it, and yes it would be if I didn’t continuously change my workouts, or increase the weights I lift or, as in the case of the 35km walk we did, I suddenly add a whole new element to my training. Then just like someone who has never lifted weights before, my body is out of its comfort zone and so my muscles let me know about it for a couple of days.
Changing your exercising around keeps it interesting and fun. If your only exercise is walking then you can easily add some resistance work into your day with “drink bottle weights” or body weight exercises. And yes you will find that when you do something new your muscles will tell you about it over the next couple of days but you should never be so sore that you can’t move!
One of my all-time pet hates is trainers who think they have to flog you into a sweaty grovelling mess to prove how good they are, which really just proves they aren’t that good at all. I have had clients come to me terrified of Personal Trainers because they once went to a trainer who had them so sore they couldn’t walk for 5 days. Workouts should never be like this, yes you should definitely progress, yes you will be achy, but NO! You should not be hurt!
So when we first looked at having group fitness at our studios we talked through all the options available out there in fitness land and we decided to offer Circuit Classes.
We chose Circuit Classes for many reasons. Firstly because a circuit class is perfect for keeping your exercises fresh and your body and cardio progressing. It also meant that we could have small classes so that our clients are constantly being supervised and corrected if they are not doing the exercise correctly, and of course the classes are resistance based.
We have clients who started when the classes did 5 years ago and still love them, and we have watched them become toned, gain strength, confidence and develop friendships, oh and of course they enjoy the coffee mornings and movie afternoons that they organise.
As you can see our classes have clients of all shapes and sizes, and with ages ranging from 28 to 85 it proves that these classes are really suitable for most bodies at any age.
Lasting friendships have formed and the classes tend to sound more like a party then a workout. These classes work because you can easily nudge your comfort level by just moving a pin in a machine or picking up a slightly heavier dumbbell and if you consistently do this your squishy bits become a thing of the past and your feet appear again.
So get up off your sofa and stretch your comfort zone this year by giving Andrew a call on 0408803036 to book in for a FREE class and discover why so many of our toned, strong, happy and confident clients have been loving these classes for 5 years.
Sure being in your comfort zone means you are never faced with uncomfortable situations, but, when it comes to exercise, if you stay in your comfort zone for too long that is exactly what happens to you. One day you wake up to discover your body has become the size of your sofa and your comfort zone is so big you can’t see your feet and you end up going for walks in small circles making no progress at all, suddenly you are feeling uncomfortable!
“But my comfort zone IS COMFORTABLE” I hear you say (in a slightly annoying whingy voice).
Well that’s great until your doctor tells you that your life expectancy is now 10 years shorter and your heart is struggling to pump. Then you suddenly realise that your knees ache every day whether you are sitting or standing, and walking around doing the grocery shop is now a painful experience and what’s with your favourite stretchy comfort pants? Where has the stretchy comfortable bit gone???
Even people who exercise every day can have this happen. We have lots of people come to us and say “But I walk or cycle everyday” or they swim or dance two or three times a week. Yet they are noticing that their slightly wobbly middle is now becoming their increasing wobbly whole body. Firm bottoms are slowly drooping towards the floor and arms won’t stop waving when you want them to.
This happens when your body is in a comfort zone. Yes you are exercising but the trouble is if you don’t change your exercises around or increase the resistance, distance or time, eventually this becomes a new comfort zone.
When I tell clients that most days some part of my body is a bit achy from working out, they tend to look at me in disbelief. They think that because I train with heavy weights that my body should be used to it, and yes it would be if I didn’t continuously change my workouts, or increase the weights I lift or, as in the case of the 35km walk we did, I suddenly add a whole new element to my training. Then just like someone who has never lifted weights before, my body is out of its comfort zone and so my muscles let me know about it for a couple of days.
Changing your exercising around keeps it interesting and fun. If your only exercise is walking then you can easily add some resistance work into your day with “drink bottle weights” or body weight exercises. And yes you will find that when you do something new your muscles will tell you about it over the next couple of days but you should never be so sore that you can’t move!
One of my all-time pet hates is trainers who think they have to flog you into a sweaty grovelling mess to prove how good they are, which really just proves they aren’t that good at all. I have had clients come to me terrified of Personal Trainers because they once went to a trainer who had them so sore they couldn’t walk for 5 days. Workouts should never be like this, yes you should definitely progress, yes you will be achy, but NO! You should not be hurt!
So when we first looked at having group fitness at our studios we talked through all the options available out there in fitness land and we decided to offer Circuit Classes.
We chose Circuit Classes for many reasons. Firstly because a circuit class is perfect for keeping your exercises fresh and your body and cardio progressing. It also meant that we could have small classes so that our clients are constantly being supervised and corrected if they are not doing the exercise correctly, and of course the classes are resistance based.
We have clients who started when the classes did 5 years ago and still love them, and we have watched them become toned, gain strength, confidence and develop friendships, oh and of course they enjoy the coffee mornings and movie afternoons that they organise.
As you can see our classes have clients of all shapes and sizes, and with ages ranging from 28 to 85 it proves that these classes are really suitable for most bodies at any age.
Lasting friendships have formed and the classes tend to sound more like a party then a workout. These classes work because you can easily nudge your comfort level by just moving a pin in a machine or picking up a slightly heavier dumbbell and if you consistently do this your squishy bits become a thing of the past and your feet appear again.
So get up off your sofa and stretch your comfort zone this year by giving Andrew a call on 0408803036 to book in for a FREE class and discover why so many of our toned, strong, happy and confident clients have been loving these classes for 5 years.
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