I know that this post is not going to be to everyone's taste but like I have kept on saying for a while now, I really am looking to mix up my content. This post is a little more health and fitness themed but fitness, in particular, is something that I enjoy doing and I am constantly learning more and more about it. 2018 has actually been a huge turning point for me in terms of my fitness journey and so I wanted to share my progress with some of you in case it helps you gain motivation or inspiration for your own fitness journey.
Just a bit of a recap firstly, so at the start of the year my fitness was definitely not a priority for me, exam season was right around the corner and so I was mainly focusing my time on revision and not the gym. I was also going to the gym with someone who really didn't give me any motivation, they didn't share the same passion for fitness as me and so when I was going the gym, it wasn't really productive or benefitting me as much as what it could have done.
Generally, before GCSEs started, I was going the gym about once a week, two at max as I was mainly doing revision and for me, travelling to the gym and back again, it does take out about two hours of my day so most of the time, it wasn't really practical. Saying that, when exams did start and I was on study leave, I found myself going the gym much more as I was only going in for exams so I would go the gym straight after an exam and then go home to do more revision for another exam that was in the next few days. That routine was very consistent across the two months that GCSEs took place and I was being very productive also as I started to say goodbye to old high school friends and started doing my own things a little more. Roughly I probably went to the gym two/three times on a weekday and occasionally on a Saturday too. The gym, for me, was a great way to cope with exams, it was a way for me to take my mind off exams for a few hours and just focusing on something completely different.
In terms of my actual workouts and progress, I was still getting educated on my gym at the start of the year and I was nowhere near as confident then as I am now so I was sort of sticking to what I knew and doing the same workout most times. It was mainly leg focused and was based on machines and not necessarily weighted with dumbells or anything like that. I was also doing a lot of steady-state cardio which was mainly walking on a treadmill on an incline and also using the rowing machine. In terms of the machines I would use to target my legs, they would be the leg press and hip abductors. I found that for a while, I was feeling sore afterwards and I was able to start building weight but I was never fully seeing progress. I wasn't that focused on it at the time and so I wasn't getting super disappointed but it actually helped motivate me into trying something new.
Something else I thought I'd mention was the fact that when I was on study leave, the gym was not as busy as what it would be like straight after school. For me personally, the gym hasn't always been a safe space for me, during high school, the gym would be a place people would 'hang out' not necessarily me but it did affect my confidence as I was feeling judged because I was actually there to workout, weird I know. However it did stop me from trying new things and so that is why my workouts and experimentation was very limited but since study leave, I have been able to try new thing without feeling as pressured so that is where I started seeing progress. I started using more of the free weights and space on the mats to train legs which helped me to carry on feeling inspired and motivated.
After finishing high school this year, I had a super long summer and it honestly came at the perfect time. My holiday was not until the end of August and so I had loads of spare time until then so I decided to spend a lot of it going to the gym. I had nothing better to do and with the high school drama behind me, I felt as though I could really work hard at the gym without feeling judged. I started going more often as the summer progress, I was probably going on average four times a week.
It was because of the time I started spending in the gym during the summer that I really started gaining confidence in what I was doing and it made me much more comfortable in the gym. Ways in which I gained confidence was by just staying educated on what I was doing, obviously, mistakes were made and I was laughing at myself some of the time but it was fine because I felt comfortable more than anything. I also started going with another friend who really shared the drive and passion I carried in terms of making progress and constantly trying new things which did help me as I didn't feel as judged if I was to try something new.
During summer of this year, I also started to realise that I had made loads of progress in terms of my legs in both strength and physical appearance but I started to realise other parts of my body that I wanted to define, the main one being my arms. Particularly across July and August, I started to train my arms, alternating them with my leg days and I started learning loads of new moves and getting to know new machines. It was definitely a time of experimentation for me but that was probably how I was able to stay so motivated and consistent because I was constantly doing something new and that kept the gym exciting for me. I started finding exercises that worked for me and I built a routine from there, obviously, I do change it each time I go but I do still have my core moves.
Reiterating what I was saying earlier about being able to go really consistently in summer, it was mainly because I was feeling so motivated and inspired. I was also going to the gym a lot with a friend so even when I didn't want to go, she would persuade me to and it did work out in my favour. I found that going to the gym in the morning really set off my day, it helped me to stay productive and it was generally just a good feeling. Since I was also training both legs and arms, I was also able to go more often as, if one part was recovering, I could work out the other which really helped me to make sure that I was looking after my muscles. I also thought that I should mention here that I do also work out my core but I tend to combine it in with most of my workouts at the end, just as a little burnout.
Moving onto the progress I have made this year so far covering all things from weights to physical appearance, the first one being my cardio. At the start of the year, I was always too scared to commit to running as I never really thought of myself as capable of running for more than two seconds but with my friend's help, she made me realise that I can actually run fairly well. Back in January, I would waste half an hour walking on an incline because I was too afraid to jog for ten minutes, however, now at the start of every workout, I start out with a 1km run which I have really found to start off my workout in the right way. Jogging has been something I am actually quite self-conscious of but it is something I am making progress on and I have found it to be a huge milestone for me this year.
Generally speaking, I have also lost a little weight which does just come with working out. I have started to gain a bit of muscle also. I can't give specific numbers because I don't actually weight myself but I just pay attention to the way I look in the mirror, I have lost fat, particularly in my legs. Losing fat is obviously a benefit of going to the gym but I always try and make sure that it doesn't occupy a lot of my mind as I find that sometimes I can obsess over it. Saying that I do still want to continue to burn fat in other places mainly but it isn't something that I want to be short-term, right now, I am mainly focusing on just having fun in the gym.
Something that sort of ties into losing weight is that with losing fat, it has managed to reveal muscle that was beneath it. Once again, mainly in my legs but I have noticed that my hamstrings, particularly, are much more prominent and it makes me really happy that I can now see the muscles I have worked so hard on training all year finally show themselves. I also think that with pushing my weight with training legs has also caused me to build the muscle which just adds to the definition I have gained. It has been mainly over summer that I have seen a lot of definition revealed and I have also noticed my quads gaining a lot of muscle also. Once again, this comes with weight training and constantly pushing weight.
Finally for progress, is just the fact that I have gotten much stronger. Even after only training arms for a few months, I have already noticed myself increasing the weights to maintain a difficulty within my workouts and it's a great feeling to release that you can go higher in weights, it really helps me stay motivated. Same with my legs, I have found myself looking back at the weights I use to use and now looking at where I am, I have figured out that I have come a long way.
To finish off this post I just thought I'd talk about my plans for the rest of this year in terms of fitness, my main one is to just carry on enjoying it. I do know that as soon as summer is over and I start going to college I will be less consistent in the gym mainly because of how far away my college is to my gym but hopefully I will soon have a routine I can stick to. Having fun in the gym though is a priority as I now consider it to be a hobby and an escape for myself to just work on me.
In terms of physical goals though, I would like to lose more fat, however, that is always a goal so I am not going to change anything specifically, I just want to keep with what I'm doing and I should start seeing more progress soon.
Again, I want to carry on training all parts of my body and really experimenting with new movements just to keep things exciting. It is always something I am researching and constantly learning more about so that shouldn't really be a problem.
I would also like to start seeing some more definition in my arms, it is still a pretty new area for me but maybe nearing to the end of the year, I might be able to start seeing some muscle there.
Generally, before GCSEs started, I was going the gym about once a week, two at max as I was mainly doing revision and for me, travelling to the gym and back again, it does take out about two hours of my day so most of the time, it wasn't really practical. Saying that, when exams did start and I was on study leave, I found myself going the gym much more as I was only going in for exams so I would go the gym straight after an exam and then go home to do more revision for another exam that was in the next few days. That routine was very consistent across the two months that GCSEs took place and I was being very productive also as I started to say goodbye to old high school friends and started doing my own things a little more. Roughly I probably went to the gym two/three times on a weekday and occasionally on a Saturday too. The gym, for me, was a great way to cope with exams, it was a way for me to take my mind off exams for a few hours and just focusing on something completely different.
In terms of my actual workouts and progress, I was still getting educated on my gym at the start of the year and I was nowhere near as confident then as I am now so I was sort of sticking to what I knew and doing the same workout most times. It was mainly leg focused and was based on machines and not necessarily weighted with dumbells or anything like that. I was also doing a lot of steady-state cardio which was mainly walking on a treadmill on an incline and also using the rowing machine. In terms of the machines I would use to target my legs, they would be the leg press and hip abductors. I found that for a while, I was feeling sore afterwards and I was able to start building weight but I was never fully seeing progress. I wasn't that focused on it at the time and so I wasn't getting super disappointed but it actually helped motivate me into trying something new.
Something else I thought I'd mention was the fact that when I was on study leave, the gym was not as busy as what it would be like straight after school. For me personally, the gym hasn't always been a safe space for me, during high school, the gym would be a place people would 'hang out' not necessarily me but it did affect my confidence as I was feeling judged because I was actually there to workout, weird I know. However it did stop me from trying new things and so that is why my workouts and experimentation was very limited but since study leave, I have been able to try new thing without feeling as pressured so that is where I started seeing progress. I started using more of the free weights and space on the mats to train legs which helped me to carry on feeling inspired and motivated.
After finishing high school this year, I had a super long summer and it honestly came at the perfect time. My holiday was not until the end of August and so I had loads of spare time until then so I decided to spend a lot of it going to the gym. I had nothing better to do and with the high school drama behind me, I felt as though I could really work hard at the gym without feeling judged. I started going more often as the summer progress, I was probably going on average four times a week.
It was because of the time I started spending in the gym during the summer that I really started gaining confidence in what I was doing and it made me much more comfortable in the gym. Ways in which I gained confidence was by just staying educated on what I was doing, obviously, mistakes were made and I was laughing at myself some of the time but it was fine because I felt comfortable more than anything. I also started going with another friend who really shared the drive and passion I carried in terms of making progress and constantly trying new things which did help me as I didn't feel as judged if I was to try something new.
During summer of this year, I also started to realise that I had made loads of progress in terms of my legs in both strength and physical appearance but I started to realise other parts of my body that I wanted to define, the main one being my arms. Particularly across July and August, I started to train my arms, alternating them with my leg days and I started learning loads of new moves and getting to know new machines. It was definitely a time of experimentation for me but that was probably how I was able to stay so motivated and consistent because I was constantly doing something new and that kept the gym exciting for me. I started finding exercises that worked for me and I built a routine from there, obviously, I do change it each time I go but I do still have my core moves.
Reiterating what I was saying earlier about being able to go really consistently in summer, it was mainly because I was feeling so motivated and inspired. I was also going to the gym a lot with a friend so even when I didn't want to go, she would persuade me to and it did work out in my favour. I found that going to the gym in the morning really set off my day, it helped me to stay productive and it was generally just a good feeling. Since I was also training both legs and arms, I was also able to go more often as, if one part was recovering, I could work out the other which really helped me to make sure that I was looking after my muscles. I also thought that I should mention here that I do also work out my core but I tend to combine it in with most of my workouts at the end, just as a little burnout.
Moving onto the progress I have made this year so far covering all things from weights to physical appearance, the first one being my cardio. At the start of the year, I was always too scared to commit to running as I never really thought of myself as capable of running for more than two seconds but with my friend's help, she made me realise that I can actually run fairly well. Back in January, I would waste half an hour walking on an incline because I was too afraid to jog for ten minutes, however, now at the start of every workout, I start out with a 1km run which I have really found to start off my workout in the right way. Jogging has been something I am actually quite self-conscious of but it is something I am making progress on and I have found it to be a huge milestone for me this year.
Generally speaking, I have also lost a little weight which does just come with working out. I have started to gain a bit of muscle also. I can't give specific numbers because I don't actually weight myself but I just pay attention to the way I look in the mirror, I have lost fat, particularly in my legs. Losing fat is obviously a benefit of going to the gym but I always try and make sure that it doesn't occupy a lot of my mind as I find that sometimes I can obsess over it. Saying that I do still want to continue to burn fat in other places mainly but it isn't something that I want to be short-term, right now, I am mainly focusing on just having fun in the gym.
Finally for progress, is just the fact that I have gotten much stronger. Even after only training arms for a few months, I have already noticed myself increasing the weights to maintain a difficulty within my workouts and it's a great feeling to release that you can go higher in weights, it really helps me stay motivated. Same with my legs, I have found myself looking back at the weights I use to use and now looking at where I am, I have figured out that I have come a long way.
To finish off this post I just thought I'd talk about my plans for the rest of this year in terms of fitness, my main one is to just carry on enjoying it. I do know that as soon as summer is over and I start going to college I will be less consistent in the gym mainly because of how far away my college is to my gym but hopefully I will soon have a routine I can stick to. Having fun in the gym though is a priority as I now consider it to be a hobby and an escape for myself to just work on me.
In terms of physical goals though, I would like to lose more fat, however, that is always a goal so I am not going to change anything specifically, I just want to keep with what I'm doing and I should start seeing more progress soon.
Again, I want to carry on training all parts of my body and really experimenting with new movements just to keep things exciting. It is always something I am researching and constantly learning more about so that shouldn't really be a problem.
I would also like to start seeing some more definition in my arms, it is still a pretty new area for me but maybe nearing to the end of the year, I might be able to start seeing some muscle there.
This post was definitely a little different for me but hopefully, you enjoyed, do let me know if fitness is something you want to see more on my blog.
Grace xx
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