Working Out After Work
If you are like most folks in El Paso, there is a good possibility that you like to get in your workout at the gym after leaving from work, and why not? You are done with the day, it is a healthy stress relief and some studies have even shown that working in the late afternoon-early evening hours may produce greater weight loss results than working out in the morning or the middle of the day. But, how does someone maintain his/her motivation to train regularly, after work? One of the most crippling factors is fatigue, which is often the result of one of many possibilities, such as limited sleep, stress from work, poor nutrition, etc.
Proper sleep is one of the most important things in living a healthy lifestyle because it gives our bodies an opportunity to recharge and recover from all the craziness encountered in our lives. As a fitness trainer, I encounter quite a few folks that choose to bypass sleep to workout. If you are guilty of this, STOP! Think of sleep as getting your car’s oil changed; sure, you can get away with not having it changed every three months or 3,000 miles, but repeating the habit over an extended period of time could lead you to having your car breakdown on the highway. In fact, recent studies have demonstrated a very real uptick in injury rates when sleep deprivation is increased. Get your rest and embrace your off-days, then you can return to the gym with a renewed vigor.
Another factor—loss of motivation. I will openly admit that there have been more than a handful of instances where I had planned a workout after work, but when the time came, opted to skip it, instead. This loss of motivation can come from a large variety of reasons, whether it is fatigue, stress, what have you; so, how do we fix this? One possible solution is to add it to your calendar. By marking down your post-work workout on your calendar, you have created a written record of your intention to exercise that day, thus creating greater accountability. Also, be patient with your fitness goals-- they will come. Do you ever wonder why the statistics of successful New Years’ resolutions are always so dismal? Besides the fact that many are coming while in a “spirited” frame of mind, they are almost always made without a record to make the resolutioner accountable.
While fatigue and motivation are only two out of a plethora of reasons why individuals may have trouble with committing to their workout plans, they are some of the most prominent reasons, in general. Keeping oneself accountable to following through is a step in the right direction!
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sdd/why
