Excuses. I don’t know about you but when it comes to training or not training, I’m great at making them. Take yesterday for example, I figured, hey I’ve trained for five days in a row, I deserved a rest. Well, maybe but that’s still an excuse. Excuses aren’t going to help me cross the finish line, they aren’t going to help me or you achieve the goals we set for ourselves.
I was supposed to train this morning (no car to drive to the pool). I didn’t train at lunch either (too hot). After work (too tired). I got home and made scrambled eggs, showered and went to bed with a glass of wine. It was one of those days. It seems I wasn’t disciplined enough today to train. I promise to get better.
We use excuses for not doing stuff everyday but when it comes to training you don’t want to be jeopardising your success with a silly excuse. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Christmas, your birthday or any other day of the year, unless you’re unwell or have an emergency there’s always a way to find time to train. The great with training is that usually within the first ten minutes you’ll be glad you found the time and energy for it.
Here are some common excuses I often hear:
I only have twenty minutes, there’s no point in putting on the running gear.
Wrong! Twenty minutes is plenty of time, warm up for 8 minutes at an easy pace, then do 1 min hard, 1 min easy and repeat four times. Cool down for four minutes. A quick and effective circuit can be completed in 20 minutes and give you an all over body workout – push ups, squats, skipping, lunges, pull ups, running on the spot, repeat three times. Twenty minutes is always better than zero minutes.
My legs are hurting.
Tough. That means you gave them a good workout. Do your upper body and or core today to even things out. Stretch out the areas that are hurting.
I’ve got my period.
Um, yeah, so do a million other women. Go for a power walk if you don’t want to train hard. A period is not an excuse. Besides studies show that exercise can reduce PMS symptoms.
It’s raining outside.
Hit the gym instead. You can get a great workout on the treadmill, on a spin bike or in a body pump class. Seriously, don’t let the weather dictate your workouts. Don’t have a membership. No worries, grab a skipping rope and do 5 x 2min rounds with a few push ups and squats in between each at home. It’ll get your heart rate up, burn calories and build strength.
I’ve used them all at some point or another and kicked myself afterwards (not literally but you know what I mean). The only thing in the way of your workout is you and your mental attitude. So stop whinging you don’t have the time or energy and get out there and as Nike puts it, just do it.
What are some of the excuses you commonly use to avoid training?
