Last year my then impending wedding was more than enough motivation hit the gym and workout.  I did find myself getting stuck in a bit of a workout rut, but I think I can just put that down to having a million one things to think about.  There was something comforting knowing exactly what I was doing, not thought required, in at least one aspect of my life. Normally,  I like to continually re-assess my exercise routine and set goals for myself for the sake of progression in my fitness levels.

Now that I haven’t got an obvious fitness goal to work towards like my wedding I like to think about what I want to achieve from my workouts.  At the moment I am very interested in cardio intervals with a huge focus on strength training and lots of yoga thrown in too.  I’m really enjoying my hot yoga classes at the moment!

Over my healthy living journey I have always been mindful to change my workout routine depending on my bodies needs at that point in time.  I have completely transformed my workout routine and now have a very relaxed attitude towards fitness.  It has been a progressive thing but I have cut down on the amount of heavy cardio and opted for shorter leisurely runs and gentle cardio on the machines at the gym.  I also did my research and formulated a strength routine (like the one below, which I love and also started to do more yoga and found some great resources online, podcasts, DVDs and started to attend actual yoga classes.  This new routine is completely opposite to my old routine which was predominantly cardio based.  It was time for me to change things up now that my lifestyle has become insanely busy.  I needed to rein things in a little bit and this new routine really works well with my current lifestyle and I am really enjoying it.

I think it is important to be flexible where your workouts are concerned and knowing when enough is enough.  Trying to fit in the same old routine into a much busier lifestyle sometimes doesn’t work and you end up hating working out.  At this point it is definitely time to re-evaluate your workout goals so you don’t end up becoming exhausted and burning out.  Now it doesn’t bother me if I miss a workout as I know that my body obviously needed the rest, sometimes a rest is just as good as a workout.

Now that I have found my perfect workout routine for the moment the next thing that I am working on is how to keep myself challenged.  Something that always works for me is keeping track of my progress each time I workout.  There are some great websites that allow you to track each workout and even the good ol’ pen and paper will do.  With my strength training for example I like to track how many reps and the weights that I lift each week to make sure that I am making progress.

Overall, I think goal setting is a great way to stay motivated as they give you something to work towards and make sure that you are continuously challenging yourself. I think the important thing to remember concerning workouts is just to have fun and everything else will fall into place.

Do you tailor your workouts to what your body needs? Are you good at listening to your body in relation to your fitness routine?

How do you ensure that you a continuing challenging your body?

Disclaimer: I am not a trained personal trainer.  Before trying the workout routine in this post please seek professional or medical advice.