Welcome to August’s First Friday Fitness! First of all, I can’t believe it’s already August. Like how is that even possible? Wasn’t it just the beginning of May? Today we’re just gonna have a little chat about what’s been going on in my fitness routine, what I’ve changed up, and what I’m planning on the future. I hope you guys enjoyed my last First Friday Fitness post on Healthy Eating and that it has aided you in your own fitness journey. That’s really the point of these posts, honestly. Simply to share my own journey and using what I’ve learned and am doing to encourage all you readers in your own. So with music in my head, let’s get started.
What Happened
So back in April, I shared that my future plans included running. I was really looking forward to it and it was something that I really wanted to do. I asked for advice from friends and even you readers to help me along that path. My plan was to go every Saturday with my family to the park and run while the kids played.
The reality of that plan went way off course. For starters, due to weather and other life circumstances, I only ended up going running two or three times last quarter. All through May I told myself that’s fine, life happens, when we get back from vacation I’ll re-start and the whole plan can be saved. Except I was faced with the same challenges, mainly due to rainy weather, before it got too hot to even attempt to run. I am not a morning person and in order for me to have been able to run, I would’ve had to have gotten up ridiculously early. So I put running on the back burner to be picked up when it cools down again.
The good news is that otherwise I was still working out throughout the week. I’ve been reevaluating what I want to do with my workouts, too, just trying to keep myself engaged. I’m not sure if I’ve made a lot of progress in a telling way. The moves themselves are different than before, but I’m not really doing any more reps, I haven’t upped my dumbbell weight, and I know I’ve missed more workouts than I ever intended to despite my efforts.
I’d almost say that I hit a mid-year plateau in working out. It’s not the worst one I’ve ever experienced simply because it hasn’t caused me to come to a complete stop. Unfortunately when I hit previous plateaus, more often than not they did lead to a lengthy hiatus in working out. I’m determined to not let that happen. I may be extra slow going right now, but I am at least going, right?
Am I where I want to be? Honestly, no I’m not. The goals I had in mind had me further along than I am now. I think, however, that I have a problem pushing myself too hard and expecting a lot more of myself than I should when visualize. Maybe I could push myself more, but the truth is I don’t think that would be a healthy thing for me to do. Part of the workout journey is finding balance with other areas of your life. When things come up, I still have to strive for that balance in some form and if that means that my focus needs to be elsewhere and working out gets less attention for something more important, then that’s okay.
Loopholes
We put our new pool up around the beginning of July. Since then my workouts have been mostly in the pool. I do a few laps, some pull-ups on the edges, I’m working on wall-sits as well (do those count in the pool?), and since my kids love making hurricanes, I do a lot of those, often with at least one child attatched.
I think being in the pool is my biggest loophole of the summer. Swimming has always been my favorite summer activity, though I’m sure my husband would argue that tanning is my favorite, and it was one of the few activities I was always approved for by my cardiologists.
The only downside is that whatever I do in the pool isn’t recorded on my watch. I know they’re supposed to be water resistant, but my watch is so expensive that I don’t want to risk damaging it. To me it’s just not worth the money to tempt it.
Future Plans
With my main workouts being in the pool right now, I’ve decided to supplement them with pull-ups and squats. This plan is different than what I had down originally, but sometimes you just gotta go with the flow and work with what feels right for you.
Pull-Ups
Over the last few days I have been researching where to begin with pull-ups. We have a pull-up bar that my husband uses, whereas I tend to just use it like a gymnast and swing on it. Working on pull-ups in the pool is what got me started thinking that maybe they would be something I could enjoy.
I know that this area will be slow going for me. I have a starting point at least and will continue to research what steps to take next. I believe I’ve stated before that my arm strength is something I’ve always struggled with. Working with dumbbells has helped and I believe this new path will benefit me in the long run. I will definitely need to use patience and I don’t expect everything to fall into place overnight. There will be a learning curve and I’m okay with that. It’s just a new part of the journey.
August Squat Challenge
Squats are not something I’m new to. They are a part of my regular routine that I do at least once a week, often two or three times a week. That is not including the pliês I do as part of my warm up. However, thanks to some sports romance books I read, I decided I wanted to really challenge myself in this area. I had to search through different Squat Challenges on Pinterest until I finally found one that wasn’t meant for beginners.
On a normal day I do 40 weighted squats as part of my workout. So a challenge that started with 10 or 20 didn’t really make sense to me. I mean, I suppose I could do it, but this is supposed to be challenging me. I finally found a 30 day challenge that began with 50 squats on the first day. I realize I could’ve just made my own challenge, but I’m just too lazy.
I was trying to figure out if I would separate this challenge from my regular squats or if I would combine them. Then I realized it’s only for 30 days and those 40 squats are on a hiatus of sorts since I’m working out in the pool, so it doesn’t really matter!
Keep Moving Forward
So that’s what I’m working with right now. Is it perfect? Nope. Definitely not. But it is progress simply because I’m still moving. I’m still doing something to work towards my over all goal.
There’s a few reasons they call it a fitness journey and that’s because things happen, plans change, and you either have to adapt or give up. I had every intention of running every Saturday this summer. I had a plan laid out, alarms set, and I had to completely revise it. I’m not working out for an hour at my regular time four days a week like I was, but I am putting time in the pool to do something.
Life happens. You can either let it derail you completely, or you can revise and adapt. Remember, you’re still making progress even if you’re moving slowly. The point is to keep moving forward. An inch forward is still an inch gained.
It’s okay to scale back when you hit those plateaus. Just keep moving forward. Figure out what works best for you in the season of life that you’re in. Find those loopholes that keep you headed toward your overall goal.
How is your workout journey going?
Have you hit a plateau this year? How did you respond to it?
Or have you had to change up your routine? What did you do instead?
Let me know down in the comments!!
Above My Waves 
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