fitness is about more than just the PHYSICAL
At Westside Personal Training, we try to emphasize that fitness is more than just the physical aspect. It’s about more than just how you look and how many calories you burned (in fact I really don’t love that saying at all). It’s about how you feel in your day to day life. It’s about how you lifted your suitcase in the overhead bin without any help from the person next to you. It’s being able to walk down the street and not being out of breath. It’s about reducing stress, living longer, and feeling more confident and empowered. I could go on and on!
Exercise has the potential to transform every aspect of your life. Here are just a few :)
Mental Health
Exercise and physical activity has been shown to reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. I like to joke around and call this the circle of life, but really! When you exercise, it helps you sleep better and mange your stress. Sleeping better and managing your stress helps you exercise and gravitate towards better for you foods and when you do this you naturally keep exercising because you feel good and the cycle keeps on going! But really, exercising regularly can reduce cortisol (the stress hormone) and release endorphins (feel good hormone) which can all aid in helping with depression, anxiety and stress. I have seen many clients come in to the workout feeling down and leaving feeling amazing. It’s getting there that is the hard part!
2. Connection and community
Connection and community helps bring people a sense of belonging, community and support. I get so much joy when my clients cheer each other on and celebrate the small and the big wins with one another! Even sharing each others struggles helps people feel closer and feel like they have someone they can relate to. You don’t have to go at this journey alone, and that’s an amazing feeling! If you’ve read this far, I even like when my clients complain about a certain exercise together because it’s a shared interest (don’t tell them I said that)! They still have to do it :) Which brings me to my next point!
3. Discipline, resilience and overcoming obstacles
I could argue this is probably the most important part. Showing up when you don’t want to, pushing through the last rep of a rear foot elevated split squat (aka Bulgarian split squats) and showing up even when you’re stressed, not feeling like it, or even a little run down is not easy. This teaches you to keep going, keep pushing yourself even when it's getting hard (I never push through actual pain though and this is a rule for my clients as well). You don’t just give up when things get tough in a relationship, so why are people so easy to give up when they aren’t seeing progress or when stress is getting in the way and they decide not to do anything at all? Something is better than nothing. If you come to me and say I only have 30 minutes to workout today, I am so happy to do that and so happy that you decided to show up instead of not coming at all. Developing a mindset that says “I can handle anything” is very underrated and discipline and consistency is the best quality anyone can have, in my opinion.