Your Workout Routine Should Empower You!

How are you currently feeling about your workout routine? Do you love it? Dread it? Wish you got more out of it? Or, maybe merely exercising in hopes that it'll change your body? 

If we have been connected for a while now, you might notice the new name -  Barre Empowered! So, let's discover what this really looks like by first discussing what an empowered fitness routine is not. 

 What an Empowered Fitness Routine is not:

• One that is focused on changing your body
  • This step here is so critical! You cannot simultaneously feel empowered in your fitness routine while also deciding that your body also needs fixing. This just won't work. Why? See empowered definition by Oxford Dictionary: "make (someone) stronger and more confident, especially in controlling their life and claiming their rights." 
  • While this could be taken in a more negative tone of exercising everyday, counting calories, etc. we'll choose to take the more positive approach of becoming stronger, confident and controlling our lives in engaging in health promoting behaviors that suit our individual needs like setting a workout plan, looking to eat in more color and variety, making sleep a priority, getting more sunlight, drinking more water, and working on how we think about our bodies instead of viewing them as the issue.
  • There will come a day when you are training to be able to stand up off the toilet on your own, walk up the stairs, and have good pelvic floor control for your bladder. Keep that day in mind. While exercising may change how your body looks, that's not the ultimate goal if we are looking to have an empowered fitness routine that inspires us for life. If your body does change, at Barre Empowered, that's viewed as a by-product or side effect of exercise. But not the ultimate goal. 
• A routine that lacks movement you enJOY!
  • If you dislike your exercise routine, the likelihood of you even being able to stick with it goes significantly down. In your pursuit to develop a healthy fitness routine, don't forget to put your needs, wants, and what you genuinely enjoy first. It's a lot easier to exercise when you aren't in pain or dreading the routine. 
• One focused on restriction
  • If your workout routine or healthy lifestyle is focused merely on what you can restrict or take away, then that is not empowering either. The further your new healthy lifestyle looks from your current day to day, the harder it is going to be to maintain. So, instead of focusing on what you can take away, focus on what you can add instead! 
• Overly intense
  • If the very intense workouts are your jam, then this bullet point isn't for you - keep doing you! However, if you're forcing yourself to do intense Bootcamp style classes when what you'd really love is a swim, walk, or to go to Zumba class, then you're doing yourself a disservice and robing yourself of the glorious experience that exercise really can be!
• Negative or lacking long-term value
  • Your workout routine should EMPOWER you for a lifetime. So, as you're engaging in movement, as the question - what am I gaining? What is the value here? If all you're hearing is "shake now, so you don't shake later", or "abs are made in the kitchen!" what's the long-term value there? Are these workouts that enhance your life, or have become it instead?

These should give you a great foundation to analyze your fitness routine to see if it is something that is empowering you, adding value to your life, and serving as a positive experience that exercise is intended to be. Stay tuned for next time for actionable tips on how to develop an empowered fitness routine!

With Love,

Maya <3