The road to completing a workout is an emotional journey. Fitting exercise into your busy life can prove stressful to say the least. Motivation is your nemesis. Best laid plans can easily go awry when you slump on the sofa after a long day. Even if you resist the temptation to go into hibernation for the evening, there are several phases you must go through to reach the end of a workout.
Here are the seven stages you need to be prepared for…
Positivity
This is the earliest of stages. You go through this phase shortly after you’ve decided you are going to do a workout which is usually well before any exercise takes place. You’ve made a promise to a friend or an instructor by announcing, “I’m coming tomorrow!” or “I’ll be there tonight!” Most importantly, you’ve made a promise to yourself. You feel good already and you’ve not even broke a sweat! You are filled with motivation after seeing that fitspirational quote on Instagram and can’t wait to get going. I can do this, I got this!
Procrastination
As your workout approaches, your enthusiasm starts to wane. Excuses start to pop into your head involuntarily. You know you shouldn’t skip it but it has been a long day and you deserve a rest. You don’t want to tire yourself out ahead of tomorrow either as you’ve got a busy day. But, you know you’ll feel better afterwards. You did feel a little under the weather a few days ago though, you wouldn’t want to pass anything on to anyone else. Though you have felt fine since then and it would mean letting your friend and/or instructor down. Oh, but Bake Off is on…
Denial
After you’ve finally talked yourself back around, you head out to your workout. As your heart starts to pound during the warm up and you force your limbs into life, you start to wonder, “whose idea was this?” It’s not long before you are out of breath and saying to yourself, “this can’t be happening already, it’s only the warm up!” As you get properly stuck into your workout you ask, “what am I doing here?” and “did I really survive this last time?!”
Disgust
You’re halfway into your workout and you’re now 100% preoccupied with thoughts of how unattractive you must look. You are appalled with how sweaty you have become. If you took your bobble out your ponytail would remain. Your clothes are stuck to you and your underwear is stuck where the sun doesn’t shine to put it politely! You aren’t glowing, sparkling or shining, you are just sweating…like a pig. You’re now pink like one too. This is an uncomfortable state to be in when in private, let alone a public place!
Enjoyment
Somewhere between halfway through and the end of your workout, you realise you are actually quite enjoying it. It feels good to let off some steam. You’ve not thought about any worries or stress for the last half hour and you’ve laughed off your initial workout struggles. You know the exercise is doing you the world of good which in turn makes you feel good. Those endorphins are working their magic and you feel better than you did before you started.
Euphoria
You’ve made it! You’ve reached the end of your workout and you feel an overwhelming sense of achievement. It might have felt like hard work at times, but you have no regrets. It’s nice to be reminded that you are more capable than you think. It’s equally nice to know you can now go home and relax! You leave feeling fitter, stronger and happier.
Preach
You take to social media to let everyone know you smashed your workout and that your workout is the best. In the coming days you try to sell it to others and pester family and friends into joining you next time. If you see anyone asking for gym or fitness class recommendations on Facebook you are the first to comment in an attempt to convert others. Even strangers aren’t safe. You’re not working on commission, but you should be!
