Week 7 - Back after illness - advice on toning?

[gudetama123]

Hello everyone, I have got over my illness from last week and feel so relieved. Went on a run yesterday and could really tell that the week off has affected my stamina. I have started doing a new morning routine of squats, press ups, planks and sit ups... Not feeling too confident that I'll be able to keep it up though as they are my least favourite exercises! How do you folk stay motivated when doing exercises you don't enjoy that much?

[moreless Administrator 7 stone]

Oh my gudetama!! I just loathe strength exercises and only do them out of necessity!

I'm glad that you're feeling much better and are getting back into your exercise routine.

I've found that doing squats, lunges, counter presses, etc, in short sharp bursts, when waiting for the kettle to boil, advert breaks, etc, make them less onerous and you're just using time that would otherwise be wasted

[Hidden in reply to moreless]

That is a great idea - thanks moreless

[Hidden]

Welcome back, glad you are feeling better

Now that is a good question "How do you folk stay motivated when doing exercises you don't enjoy that much?"

I personally have been rather run down all summer and since being diagnosed with under active thyroid and put on meds I am just starting to feel better

I so need to get my rear into gear and get moving again - so i am looking to seeing replies to your question

Wishing you all the best with the exercises and your weight loss journey

[Active_43]

Hi gudetama123 , why don't you just stick to exercises that you enjoy for now and build from there?

Do you belong to a gym? I do body weight exercise classes at my gym (metafit/HIIT), there is no way I would keep motivated to complete a routine without going to a class! 30 minutes later dripping with sweat and polishing my halo

Join in with one of the exercise challenges on here to keep track of your minutes of exercise:

healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh...

Good luck

[Ceals]

I am still trying to motivate myself to do some strength exercises- I always think about it at the wrong time so I am not much use to you I am afraid.

[Joggyjade 3lbs]

My favourite core strengthening exercises are the Pilates series where I start off on my back arms above my head streched out and I sit up Stretch to my toes for the first exercise and back down again slowly and the second exercise I do is flat on my back again to bring my knees up to my chest and straighten my legs up in the air and kick down with one leg while holding my ankle with the out side hand and knee with the other hand and pull in twice in with the other leg and then swapping so it's like a sizor kick swapping and then the third one I like to do is with me Hands behind my head and still on my back with my feet straight up in the air and just dropping my feet comfortably low and then with a buttock squeeze picking them back up to a 45 degree angle into the air again and I'll do these about 10 of those most of these exercises I do 10 off and the last exercise on my back I like to do still with my hands behind my head is one leg straight and the other leg bent in on my chest while my elbow twist and then I swap legs and twist the other way so that my elbows touching the other knee a great side stretch really very effective. And I try and do 10 of each of these exercises. then after that I'll roll over onto my side with one hand holding may head up and the other hand on the floor in front of me to support myself so that I'm not moving around and keeping my back straight and hi do the palaties sidekick series which is first two kicks to infront of me and two kids behind me not letting my torso wriggle around and then kick straight in front of me then bend my leg up to my chest coming and bringing my leg around my back and and straightening and kicking it out behind me and again swing it back in front of me again and then the third one is having my foot going straight up into the air sideways and then back down again so that's three different exercises for the palaties side searies then I roll over onto the other side and do the other side of palaties to the other leg and it takes me about 20 minutes to do these exercises maybe you could go online and see how these core strengthening exercise work but I find them extremely beneficial very quick and extremely efficient. The best thing about this series is that you're on the floor and so your back is well supported you hold your stomach and buttocks in as you're doing these exercises they're not very strenuous but they're extremely effective. Well I don't know if this made any sense to you but I really hope you found it helpful and if not I hope you can Google it someone on YouTube or something and maybe that can help you better. The main thing I love about these exercises is that it only takes 20 minutes and they are such Rock Solid coreburners you'll have a six-pack in no time!