In the world of social media it is hard to imagine that anything is private these days. However, one thing that I do think is still personal for the most part is fitness.

When I say that fitness is personal, I don’t mean that we should not share our stories or find a friend to go along on the journey with us. Instead, I mean that fitness is individualized. I strongly believe that there are no two fitness stories that are completely identical. Although there are similarities as far as what people may struggle with, the way that people deal with their struggles and overall set their goals and execute them varies.

One of the main things that I hear from the instructors at the workout classes I go to is,”do what is best for your body.” Throughout my fitness journey, I have come to appreciate this more and more. It is very true that only you know what is best for your body.

One exception to the rule is that sometimes when you break away from your subconscious, you can push yourself a lot further. For example, I think that when you work out in groups you are extremely more motivated and step outside your boundaries a lot more than you would if you were just working out with yourself. I find this to be very relevant in workout classes. While the instructors still tell you to follow your body and provide different modifications, they also push you and tell you that you can do what you probably thought was impossible.

As I briefly touched on in my last post, a lot of times we trap ourselves in the bubble of what we think that we can do and we think that it might not be possible to reach new limits. However, other people often times see more potential in us than we do ourselves. A prime example of this is some of the things that I have done in the HIIT classes that I go to. Before these classes, I was not proficient with weights or really any other exercise besides running, biking, and ab workouts. The first ever HIIT class that I went to had box jumps in the circuit. Never having even attempted anything like a box jump I was immediately frightened and wanted to instantly run out of class. However, the group around me seemed just as nervous as I was and the instructor was also giving us some encouraging words. I was able to do a box jump on my first try.

That day marked a big milestone for me. Not only was I able to reach a new fitness goal of mine, I was able to see that a lot of what I thought that I couldn’t do was just me telling myself that before I even gave myself the chance.

While I think that it’s crucial to be able to listen to our bodies, I also think that sometimes it’s necessary to let go of the voices in our head that tell us that we aren’t capable of doing something.

See you on the next stop 🙂