16 minute read
Beat the Burnout
FITNESS
AUTHOR
Meagan Germaine
BEAT THE BURNOUT
n Local trainer Meagan Germaine shares the realities of long-term fitness and how to stay on track.
You’re always motivated. You work out nearly every day. You eat only healthy food. You count your macros. You weigh your portions. You measure your body fat. You lean out and bulk up. And always with 100% discipline and a progress-only mindset.
Finally, it’s not always progress that we find. It’s forward, backward, up, down, circles and in between. We, too, will occasionally lose sight of our goals and have to take a few steps back — we are all human.
The difference is, no matter how many steps we take back, fall down or experience instances where we lose sight of the goal — we keep going. You get back on that horse and keep riding all the way back to the barn. Have I wanted to ever give up? Yes. The good thing is there are so many ways to deal with the burnout and a pocket full of keys to unlock that motivation and consistency:
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1. Take a break. Rest days are
crucial to long-term fitness and health. Your body needs days off from training to repair the damage you’ve done during your workouts. Working out creates tears in your muscles and breaks them down. Rest/recovery days are when the magic happens. Your body repairs these tiny tears and your muscles are built up bigger and stronger than before. I would suggest taking at least two rest days a week.
2. Be flexible! Unless you’re prepping for a fitness show or some other athletic event, allow yourself some flexibility in your nutrition. Restricting yourself 100% of the time from the foods you love can result in developing a bad relationship with food. Furthermore, it can potentially lead to binge eating and/or other eating disorders. Most people fall off track from their “diet” because it is too restrictive. Start out simple. Stick with fresh, whole foods and lean meats. For example: fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, chicken, turkey, rice, oats and eggs. Allow yourself to enjoy a meal or two out of that realm. Indulge in some pizza, a cheeseburger, a scoop of ice cream, etc. Trust me, it will not ruin your progress.
3. Set goals you can
actually achieve. If you have
never worked out, don’t start with setting the goal of going to the gym six days a week. Start with three days a week. Become consistent with this for a few weeks and then increase the goal. Having a sense of accomplishment is key to sticking with it. If you set a goal of going six days and consistently only show up for three, you’re unlikely to feel good about that. If you set a goal of three days and consistently hit that goal, you are much more likely to stick with it long term.
4. Stay away from six- or eight-week challenges,
waist trainers, detox teas and fat burners. All of these things are short-term, quick-fix marketing ploys to take your money. I’m going to let you in on an industry secret: Six- or eight-week challenges are the most efficient path for fitness influencers to generate maximum cash. Will they get you rapid results? Possibly. Will those results be sustainable? Probably not. It allows the coach to churn out “transformation” photos to promote the next challenge. Ninety-nine percent of participants will either burn out during the challenge or rebound after. Waist trainers do not help you lose fat. One more time, waist
trainers DO NOT help you lose weight. They make you sweat. You lose water weight and guess what? You will instantly gain all that water weight back within a few hours or less. Detox teas and fat burners also DO NOT help you lose weight either. They make you go to the bathroom excessively and minimally suppress your appetite. Neither of these things are healthy in long-term fitness.
5. Get comfortable knowing it’s okay to miss your workout or eat that
cake. We are all human. Life happens, things come up and we can’t always be perfect 100% of the time. It’s okay. It will not derail you. Move on. Tomorrow is another beautiful day.
Long-term fitness and nutrition success does not equate to perfection and only progress. It’s not a single-goal achievement. Long-term fitness and nutrition success means you keep going. You reach one milestone and move toward the next. You may backtrack, you may have bad days, lazy days, productive days, fun/ happy days and days you struggle. We are all human. We are not perfect. It’s all a part of the journey. Keep going. afm
Meagan Germaine is a competitive bikini athlete in the WBFF and NPC. Germaine is passionate about empowering women to be mentally tough, learn how food is life and how to be their own body goals. Germaine currently works as a women’s fitness coach and is a certified elite trainer at her company, Meg’s Body Shop.
FITNESS
AUTHOR
Jacqueline Knox
YOU’RE NEVER TOO OLD TO TAKE A FITNESS CLASS
n Director of the Butler Center for Dance & Fitness and Pilates Center, Vicki Parsons, is on a mission to keep health an ageless priority.
When Vicki Parsons was in her early 20s, she noticed that she was not leading a very healthy lifestyle and started looking for a change. She thought to herself, “I need to do something. I think I am getting older.” So, she started to be more active throughout her day to put off this ever encroaching “oldness” she felt.
After college, in the mid 1970s, she began working as a recreation therapist — a type of therapist that engages patients in therapeutic, recreation-based activities. In that job, she worked specifically with the elderly population and fell so in love with working with the elderly that she’s been doing it ever since.
While working that first job as a recreation therapist, she noticed that a lot of her patients were really not well, and she wanted to change that.
“I remember thinking that if I could be able to stimulate some sort of joy in everybody’s life every day, [then] that joy might get them up out of their chair, get them moving more, get them more active and get them more social,” Parsons recalls.
Parsons, who calls herself a lifelong mentor at heart, made encouraging people, especially older people, her lifelong passion.
After taking a break from her work to start a family, Parsons began a career with Ballet Austin. At that time, Ballet Austin did not have a lot of programs for adults and instead focused more on children’s ballet.
“When we moved downtown in 2007 and built our new facility,” Parsons explains, “we said, ‘What if we could become a center where all people could be active and be well?’”
So, Parsons decided to bring back some of the things that she used to teach and incorporate them into the new Ballet Austin’s Active Aging Programs. Eleven years ago, Ballet Austin’s first program aimed at an older population began — the Better Balance & Movement Workshop.
“People ask why Ballet Austin is involved in programming for the aging, and I think it goes back to
our mission,” Parsons explains. “Our mission statement includes encouraging health and wellbeing. We want to be a catalyst in our community for people of all ages, and we don’t want that to stop when people become a certain age.”
Since the first workshop began, the program has been underwritten by AgingWell, a St. David’s Foundation Community Fund program, and the classes are offered to people aged 50+ at no cost.
“It’s wonderful that St. David’s Foundation is committed to this and sees the value of preventative health maintenance and as part of their mission to make it affordable for everybody,” says Katrina Meredith (80), who has been taking Active Aging classes at Ballet Austin for around a year and a half. “The fact that it’s free — I think that is just incredible.”
Now, Ballet Austin offers five different classes as part of their Active Aging Program. They offer an osteo-strong workout that incorporates weight-bearing exercises that are better for bone health; a weights and bands workout for strengthening, toning and cardio; a Feldenkrais methodbased movement class; a body and brain boost workshop; and, of course, the balance workshop.
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“We may not run five-mile marathons, but there’s a bunch of us out there trying to keep moving,” Meredith says with a laugh.
Meredith, who is an avid walker, joined the program to gain upperbody strength and has definitely noticed an improvement.
“I do the Monday and Thursday classes religiously,” Robyn Jamison (69) says. “I love it because it fulfills a physical health need and because it’s really challenging.”
Jamison first got involved in the Active Aging Program over a year ago through a neighbor of hers and now takes both the osteo-strong class and the weights and bands class. Since starting the classes, she has noticed that her arms have gotten a lot stronger and her posture has greatly improved.
Similar to Jamison, Marsha Hoffer (74) takes both the osteostrong class and weights and bands class and loves that it keeps her active. Since beginning the classes, she has noticed that her joints, legs, arms and back are not as tight as they previously were.
When talking about the energy of her classes, Parsons recalls an old Garfield cartoon that says, “Well, I am in a bood mood, so I might as well go exercise anyway.” Contrary to Garfield, Parsons wants to make movement fun, easier and something that people will stick with for a little bit longer, and she incorporates all of that into her classes. Because of the way all of her clients rave about her, it’s obvious her techniques work and create an incredible workout environment.
“The time and effort that Vicki has put in to develop the quality of the exercises are really targeting the aging body, so that we don’t do damage and we don’t hurt ourselves,” Meredith says.
In addition to the other classes, Vicki has recently started offering a caregivers workshop that is aimed at empowering caregivers to help prevent falls through information, tips and activities.
“The fear of falling actually creates so many issues — inactivity, social isolation, emotional and mental health issues and so on,” Parsons explains. “I started thinking about the fact that there are family members, friends and actual official caregivers that have a huge opportunity to understand what’s happening with their friend, family member or those they’re caring for, and how they can help them have a better wellness experience.”
Offering the classes virtually has been a great way to create an inclusive and accessible environment, because people from all over the states have been able to tune in and exercise together. Jamison mentions that most of her friends from the class live in different places, like Philadelphia, Washington and Florida.
One idea Parsons lives by and wants to convey to people is that the “aging process” doesn’t begin at a particular age.
“When you’re 22, it’s really hard to imagine what it might be like when you’re 65 or 75,” Parsons says. “Healthy aging doesn’t start when you reach a particular age, and it really starts at birth, and [I wanted to] be able to offer people ways to move and be active throughout life.”
Parsons’ passion for an active lifestyle throughout one’s entire life has carried over greatly into her work through the Active Aging Programs. She loves that she gets to wake up and encourage others to be more active every single day.
“For me, it’s important that people know that there’s an opportunity every single day to be active, to move your body and stay well as long as you can,” Parsons says. “That’s kind of my mantra.” afm
Five Movements to Do as You Get Older to Promote Active Aging from Vicki Parsons
1. Ankle and calf muscle strengthener (Relevé in ballet)
Besides strengthening the ankles and calf, this is also a great balance exercise. If you can raise your heels at least two inches off the floor, your ankles are quite flexible. Keeping your ankles and calves strong is an important part of balance training. While holding onto a wall, sturdy chair or the kitchen sink, repeatedly raise yourself up and down on tiptoes.
2. Use a resistance band
Besides the physical benefits of using resistance bands, resistance training improves cognitive function in older adults. There are so many exercises you can do with a band, and they can go wherever you go so you can do them anywhere. They are zero impact, so you can get movement in without putting additional strain on your joints. First, you have to buy one. Then, you can google a ton of great uses for the bands.
3. Upper back squeeze
As we get older, we naturally experience weakening in the muscles of the upper back and that affects posture and balance. This is one of my favorites and can be done sitting or standing. Think about trying to hold a pencil between your shoulder blades without dropping it (not possible, but it helps to do this to the fullest). Squeeze your shoulder blades together as tight as you can, hold it to a count of 15 and release.
Repeat five times. Do this several times during the day.
4. Adopt this mantra: “Sit less, move more.”
We have to fight this sedentary trend in our country in order to age well. Too much sitting saps energy, makes joints stiff and affects posture and your overall health. You can change that!
5. Take care of your feet and exercise them specifically.
Feet change as we get older but are also vitally important to our overall health and wellbeing — standing, balancing, walking, etc.
Each foot is made up of 26 bones, 30 joints, more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments and 7,000 nerve endings — all of which work together to provide support, balance and mobility. There is an exercise
I like to call toe fists. Open and closing the toes like you would making a fist with the hand. Do this in bed first thing in the morning to wake up those feet, while watching TV or any time sitting in a chair. Those toes are important.
FITNESS
AUTHOR
Sarah Leahy, CPT
PROGRESSION: WHY IT IS NOT LINEAR
n We all get thrown off track. Here’s why consistency should be the main goal you strive for.
There are few things that make you feel as accomplished as making progress in the gym. Whether it’s a strength goal, a body composition goal or just looking your best, seeing improvement is such a huge part of why we work so hard. But let’s face it, progression is not linear, and we all hit plateaus and can get off course along the way.
It’s a concept that’s been drilled into our heads, and for good reason: Consistency is key. What do you do when you just don’t have the energy to go all in or your workout isn’t great? Maybe you aren’t hitting the numbers you had planned for that day. Maybe your schedule is packed and you can only fit in a 20-minute session. That consistency of getting it done, even if that means just doing what you can, will help keep you moving forward, even if it’s a slow climb. The key is realizing that fitness is just like life. You are going to have good workouts and average workouts, and even a few bad ones. You aren’t going to be getting big wins every time you step foot in the gym, and that’s okay. Continuing to move forward and give it what you’ve got that day is enough.
What if you fall off track completely on workouts, nutrition or both? Whether it’s a single day or a couple weeks, the most important thing is getting back at it. It’s hard not to feel like we’ve completely ruined any progress made when we aren’t 100% with our fitness regimen, and it’s so easy to compare ourselves to athletes and trainers on social media. Let’s face it, there will always be disruptions, whether self-inflicted or not, that momentarily throw you off. The most effective way to handle those disruptions is to jump back into your fitness routine as soon as you can and not beat yourself up for being human.
There will also be times when you are sticking to your programming, hitting the gym, doing the work and still hitting some plateaus on strength progression, weight loss or weight gain goals. This can be a frustrating place to be, but everyone’s been through it. There’s a reason powerlifters have deload weeks, and bodybuilders have different training phases. When you hit a wall and feel stuck with your fitness goals, take a step back and assess what might be contributing to your stalled progress. Sleep, water intake and properly fueling yourself before and after your workout will make
a huge difference in performance as well as body composition goals. Stress management is also a very important piece of how your body responds and adjusts, and it’s one of the most overlooked parts of a health regimen. If you’re stuck, take a look at what you’re doing outside of the gym and how it may be negatively impacting your sessions. Sometimes the key is paring it back, taking a deload or rest and adjusting your programming.
To stay motivated as you work toward your goals, remember that progression is not linear. You’ll have ups and downs along the way, you’ll hit PRs as well as plateaus, you’ll have good workouts and bad, you’ll have a weekend full of beer and pizza. None of these things make your goals unattainable. Just get back at it, adjust your programming when needed and stay the course as consistently as you can. The resilience you gain from getting back at it and moving forward will make you stronger in and out of the gym. afm
Leahy is a Minneapolis transplant in East Austin and a certified personal trainer, awardwinning interior designer and former gym owner. She offers in-person and online training with an emphasis on strength training and building confidence in and out of the gym. Leahy’s passion for strength extends to your business, with a full offering of gym design and business consulting services.
