Well, we knew this was coming. It’s the beginning of the year and it only made sense to share my work out routine, right?
I’d like to preface this post by saying I’m not a gym rat, working out is not my favorite thing in the world. 70% of the time, I’m pushing, who am I kidding, forcing myself to work out. I’m not sure if I’ll ever love the gym/working out but I also don’t hate it.
What works for me
Since college, I’ve had memberships to LA fitness, 24 hr fitness, Classpass, and Equinox. Out of those, the only gym that stuck was Equinox. It’s is pricier but worth it for me because I actually like going. And their classes are the best. I’ve learned over the last 10 years, I do best when I’m in a class setting. I wasn’t ever motivated enough or skilled enough to work out on my own. And although I’ve had a gym membership for over 10 years to several clubs it was only about two years ago that I finally found my routine.
I started yoga in 2016 because I couldn’t get myself to do anything else. I was lazy, weak, and tired especially after work so yoga was the only class that sounded do-able for me. I did yoga at Equinox 1x a week, then after a few weeks, I started doing yoga 2x a week. For six months all I did was yoga and it was the only class I could actually make it to.
30% body fat!? WTF
In June of 2016, at a Dr. appt and I learned that I had high levels of cholesterol and to top it off my body fat % was at 34%. Normal body fat % for someone of my age should be around 19-23%. Now, a lot of this has to do with my genetics as my whole family has high cholesterol and even diabetes. So I wasn’t too shocked but shocked enough that I knew I had to change my ways.
I eat relatively healthy which you can read here, but I decided to go on Whole 30 and cut out pork from my diet until my body fat % lowered. I also incorporated a little bit of cardio each week after yoga to help reduce my body fat %.
Flash forward to 2019
It’s been about 2 years since I joined Equinox and had my assessment, and I can say my routine has changed so much! I went from only doing yoga classes to HIIT classes.
My routine below:
Monday- HIIT Class or I’ll skip my work out
Tuesday- Weights Class 45 mins
Wednesday- Break
Thursday- HIIT Class 45 min
Friday- Yoga class 1 hr
My goal is to go 3x a week. Sometimes I go 2x, sometimes I go 4x but I know if I average 3x a week that’s I’m feeling my best.
Important to start somewhere
One of the reasons I started with yoga was because I don’t love working out. I don’t hate it but I don’t love going to the gym. I was weak, I could barely lift a 10 lb dumbbell, no lie, so whenever I took an intense
After doing yoga for eight months my body surprisingly got stronger and once yoga became too easy, I started venturing out to HIIT classes and incorporating weights into my routine. Before yoga I couldn’t do a push-up or even lift 10 lb dumbbell, now I can lift 10 lb dumbbells on each hand and not break a sweat. I’ve seriously come a long way and I feel so proud.
The most important thing I learned is just to start somewhere. Even if it’s stretching or yoga once a week, just doing something will create a routine and with routine comes a habit. A good habit that will benefit you for the rest of your life.
Hope you guys are encouraged or find my journey relateable to